Baseball could be headed back to Hank Aaron Stadium next spring, with the wildly popular Savannah Bananas floating Mobile as a possible stop on their barnstorming tour.
Team owner and president Jesse Cole has been in discussions with Mobile officials about bringing the exhibition squad to the Port City for games on March 26 and 27, according to plans circulated by the organization.
A Different Kind of Baseball
The Savannah, Georgia-based club, which normally competes in the collegiate wood bat Coastal Plain League, would field a roster of independent players who have been scouted, tried out and signed specifically for the spring series. They would face another free-agent team known as the Party Animals.
Games would be played under “BananaBall,” a modified ruleset designed for pace and spectacle: no bunting, no walks, batters allowed to steal first base, fans able to record outs by catching foul balls, and a two-hour time limit on every game.
Fans Get a Vote
Mobile’s inclusion is not guaranteed. The Bananas are asking fans to help decide which city and stadium makes the cut for the team’s “One City World Tour,” with nominations submitted through the team’s website. Organizers plan to narrow the field to five finalists before announcing a single winning city on November 10.
Hank Aaron Stadium, the former longtime home of the Mobile BayBears along the city’s westside, has sat largely without regular baseball since the minor league club’s departure, making it a natural candidate for a showcase event of this kind.