Latest / Foul Territory / Savannah Bananas founder/owner Jesse Cole joins Karl Ravech’s show

Transcript

Savannah Bananas founder/owner Jesse Cole joins Karl Ravech’s show · Foul Territory

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, and welcome to the latest edition of Dirt
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: from the Dugout. Alongside my good buddy, Justin Musil, I'm
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Carl Ravitch. We couldn't be more fired up for this edition.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: And before we get to Jesse Cole, our guest from
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the Savannah Bananas, let's remind everybody, the Parent Dugout is
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: the single most important platform you can go to as
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: a parent of a player. It has everything. It is
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the number one resource. We are committed to it. We
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: think we... We'll have you commit to it and benefit
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: in every possible way. There are just a number of
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: things that you have to get on there, explore, find out.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: It is your resource as a parent, as a coach,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: and as a young player who are in love with
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: this great sport of baseball as much as Justin and
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I are. And with that, Justin, let's just get a
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: little bit of the background here of what the Savannah
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Bananas are, your own experience with the Bananas being a
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: kid that grew up and played and had aspirations of
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: playing Major League Baseball. When you first heard about the
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Savannah Bananas and then you got a chance to watch them,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: what was your takeaway as a baseball guy?
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: You know, honestly, this is a great conversation. I'm glad
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: we're going to talk to Jesse here in a couple
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: of minutes. But I mean, it's just so different, right?
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: And I was actually texting Ravi recently with, a couple
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: of my buddies I played ball with, and we were
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: laughing about a couple of plays that were made defensively,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: and we were just joking about how we would be
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: doing that stuff all the time at practice if that
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: was our time. And so just all the things that
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: it does from a creativity standpoint, man, it's so unique.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: It's so interesting. But, yeah, man, it's its.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Own world, right?
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: Banana ball is its own world. So I'm excited to
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: talk to Jesse about it.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Just a little background because Jesse has told the story
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: a million times. It's all over the internet if you
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: want to understand, but he went to Wofford college. He
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: was a player. He also got into theater there. Thus
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the combination of the two things he and his now
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: wife decided to buy a minor league team. It was
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: a team of the Gastonia Grizzlies, a collegiate summer league
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: team in Gastonia, North Carolina. They ended up getting married
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: on the baseball field and in a, In a second
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: or two, you'll see the entire yellow uniform with the
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: top hat, and you'll get the background on Jesse. Our
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: goal here for you parents and young players at home,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: I know you love the Nana Ball. We want to
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: dive into some of the things that he can teach
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: you about building something from nothing, building something that people
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: are interested in. Getting a team to rally behind and
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: be on the same page, really difficult to do. So
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: let's bring him in. And what makes me really happy
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: is I got a chance to reach out to my guy, Jesse,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: with a 7-8-1 area code. I came from a 7-8-1
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: area code. So we are brothers from another when it
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: comes to a Massachusetts route. Jesse, delighted to have you
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: on board. Thanks for making the time to join us
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: here on Dirt from the Dugout.
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: Truly excited to be with you guys.
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: So much respect and admiration for you and what you
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: guys are doing, spreading joy and sharing what matters most
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: in sports. And so fired up to be with you
• 3:19
  Speaker 5: on our world tour. I'm in a hotel here in
• 3:21
  Speaker 5: Detroit getting ready for some games over at Comerica Park,
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: but excited to have some fun with you guys.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: That is awesome. Yeah, it's amazing from it's amazing from
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: the Gastonia Grizzlies and the ballpark that you got married
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: into stadiums and Comerica Park, Major League Fields in your
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: wildest dreams, in your wildest dreams. And you seem like
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: a dreamer. Was this really something that you saw coming?
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: No, you couldn't. You couldn't because it didn't exist.
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: You know, I was a kid that grew up outside
• 3:51
  Speaker 5: of Boston and just had the dream to play at
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: Fenway Park.
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: And that was it. And, you know, I got to
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: pitch at Fenway in an all-star game.
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: And then to actually bring this game that didn't exist,
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: banana ball, to play sold-out crowds at Fenway Park, that
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: was beyond anything. And then to be in the Hall
• 4:05
  Speaker 5: of Fame and have an exhibit there and now play
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: at NFL stadiums and 100,000-seat football stadiums and have a league,
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: you know, you can't– You know, when you first started,
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: you never dreamed like that. But now, you know, I
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: have probably bigger dreams than anyone. I've been inspired by
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: Walt Disney. And if I told people what's on my
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: dreams the next five, 10 years, they would think I'm crazy. But,
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: you know, I think crazy is a good thing. And
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: that's what we try to create, things that are a
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: little crazy every single day at the ballpark.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, Jesse and Justin, you know how this works.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, we do have background in reporting. So you
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: just opened up Pandora's box. ideas for the next five
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: or 10 years? We have to ask. I mean, you
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: got to tell us, you got to share what some
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: of those are.
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: Well, it always starts with a question and everything. The
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: question is what if, and you know, we look at
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: what are all the friction points and the frustration points
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: for fans, for players, for the youth. And we look
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: at all those and reverse engineer them.
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: And that's how a banana ball was built.
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: You know, we looked at all the parts of a
• 5:07
  Speaker 5: baseball game that many people would say is too long,
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: too slow, too boring. You know, I don't know about
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: you guys, but I don't know the last time someone
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: came out to a baseball game and said, you know what?
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: I hope they have a lot of mound visits tonight.
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: I'm hoping for at least three to four mound visits. And,
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: you know, they look for, you know, or, you know,
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: I hope the hitter, I hope he steps out of
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: the box a bunch. I hope like every few, you know,
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: he steps out for 10, 20, 30 seconds. And, you know,
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: I want more walks. I need more walks in the
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: game today. And so when you look at all the
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: parts of a baseball game that maybe are slow and
• 5:39
  Speaker 5: take away from the game, That's the start of building it.
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: And I think the same thing you look in the
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: next five, 10 years from banana ball youth for what
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: we're going to do from the youth game to where
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: we're going to play to how we're going to play.
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: I don't think the game has to be played the
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: exact same way. We're going to have more rules, more experimentation.
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: We're playing a football stadium now. Where else could we play?
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: And so you ask all those what if questions and
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: you start doing things people never imagined before.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Can we just get a few more throws over to
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: first base? Just a couple more throws to first base. Exactly, exactly.
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: But people are afraid to challenge those rules because of tradition.
• 6:17
  Speaker 5: But again, I think you've got to evolve and look at,
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: if people are leaving baseball games early, there's a fundamental problem.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: You think about this.
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: How many times do you go to a great movie
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: and you're like, oh, the movie was amazing.
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: I left in the middle. Like you don't do that.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: And that happened.
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: And so that's what we try to look at. And
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: I love baseball. I played my whole life. I'm just
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: trying to look at as, as the world evolves with entertainment,
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: how do you continue to evolve with it?
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And Jesse, I want to get to this because if
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: we just take everything else out of this, one of
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: the things that I admire about what you've done is
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: you created something that didn't exist and you had an idea.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: And clearly when you have an idea, I'm an entrepreneur
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: as well, have bought and sold businesses, have started businesses
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: and sold them, my wife and I both. And so
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: I kind of understand a little bit of that world.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: And so sometimes you can have ideas that are really
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: good and they don't work. Sometimes you can have ideas
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: that are great and they do work. You had to
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: hear no a lot. This is a terrible idea, man.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: This isn't going to work. And I know you've shared
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: this before, so I want to get past that initial
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: part of it. My question is, how did you sustain
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: the will to make it happen when you heard it
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: probably over and over and over that it wasn't going
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: to work and you were kind of at a desperation
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: point and it started to get going a little bit?
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: I think everyone says you got to see it to
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: believe it. But I believe you got to believe it
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: to see it. And the reason is we believed in
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: something because I think the greatest creators create something that
• 7:59
  Speaker 5: they would love. I don't know what it is with me,
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: but I was a two-way guy when I played baseball.
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: And so you think about this. As a two-way guy,
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: I was able to literally pitch and hit. And so
• 8:10
  Speaker 5: even in college, I would pitch Friday night. I'd be
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: hitting on Saturday and Sunday. During practices, I would have
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: the opportunity to do all the fun parts of throwing
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: a bullpen and taking BP. I got to miss PFP
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: and all the boring parts. So I was always involved
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: in the excitement.
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: Of the game.
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: And then when I coached in the Cape Cod League
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: and after I tore my shoulder, my career was over.
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: That was it.
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: I was coaching in the Cape Cod League in the dugout.
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: And I was like, wow, I'm not involved in the
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: game anymore. I'm a spectator. And for me, I just
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: start watching and seeing. And I really felt that there
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: was a huge opportunity to innovate and to create something
• 8:48
  Speaker 5: that I would love. And so I think anybody, if
• 8:52
  Speaker 5: you can continue to believe in something, if you're creating
• 8:54
  Speaker 5: something that you know can get a little bit better
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: and a little bit better and a little bit better.
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: And I watch every one of our games, and I
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: have a notes, LCP, what can we learn, change, and plus.
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: And we meet after every single game on how do
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: we make it better because I see these little moments,
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: these little details. Hey, there was dead air here for this.
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: There was this. Our first baseman could have done this.
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: And it's all about how do you make the game
• 9:16
  Speaker 5: more exciting. My goal is to watch one of our games,
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: and if you blink, you may miss something.
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: Every pitch.
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: All right, what's he going to do now? Oh, it's
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: a fly ball to the left fielder. Is he going
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: to do a backflip? How's he going to catch it?
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: All right, what's the hitter going to do? Is the
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: pitcher going to do a trick pitch? What's the umpire
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: doing over here? Did he just do a flip to
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: call him out? What is happening? And that excitement is
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: crazy for a baseball game.
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: But for me, it.
• 9:36
  Speaker 5: Keeps it fresh and new. I've seen hundreds of these
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: banana ball games now. And I want to make sure
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: every night that I feel like a fan, that I
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: can see something I've never seen before. So that's how
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: I get through it because I continue to even push
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: it to the next level.
• 9:48
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Follow the show on Spotify. Please get your questions in.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: There's a bunch of questions already in our queue, which
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: we'll get to in a moment. You know, you said, interestingly,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: you want to make the game more exciting. the game
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: of baseball. It strikes me as a kid growing up, sure,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: just like you, we would go to the Ringling Brothers
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: in Barnum and Bailey Circus, and they had three rings.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: And the challenge in that was, where do I look?
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Do I look to the left? Do I look to
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: the middle? Do I look to the right? In the
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: case of what you guys are doing, I've seen them
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: on TV and I haven't been to one yet, but
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: I do understand, like, this is almost overload for the mind. Like,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: where should I look? Like, what's going to happen next?
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: How sensitive are you to that? Because if you're going to,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: you want to keep being creative, you want to keep
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: doing it. Is there a way that you can watch
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: a banana ball game and make sure you get everything?
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Or is that part of the fun? Like, I understand
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: the ball's in the air, but there's singers behind the plate.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: I mean, umpires are dancing.
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: You will always miss something at a banana ball game,
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: but you also always see something, but you will always see,
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: you will always see something you've never seen before at
• 10:57
  Speaker 5: a baseball game. And I think that's part of the
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: magic of it. You know, I learned, I learned so
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: much from, you know, Circus Soleil and WWE and, you know,
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: PT Barnum, but also Grateful Dead. Grateful Dead, every single
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: night they were doing a brand new show, a brand
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: new set list. And now Dave Matthews Band, who's a
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: band that I love, you, They still, you know, they
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: sold more tickets, Dave Matthews Band, in the 2000, 2000, 2010,
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: than any other act. Dave Matthews Band. And they didn't
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: have a number one hit. But they had new shows
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: every single night, and they had a loyal fan base
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: that would travel all over the country. We now have
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: fans that travel all around the country. They come to
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: multiple games, every one of our, you know, different ones
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: of our shows, and they see something brand new. And
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: I think that's really, really important to continue to innovate.
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: Every night we're doing 10 to 15 things we've never
• 11:43
  Speaker 5: done in front of a live crowd, every single show,
• 11:45
  Speaker 5: every single script. And so this isn't the Globetrotters. When
• 11:48
  Speaker 5: we get compared to the Globetrotters, like you never know
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: who's going to win. We have a huge championship coming
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: up soon and every team is fighting for that championship
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: amidst all the entertainment. And I think that's what makes
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: it special.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: It's a great combination.
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: It's really unique, man.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: It is a great combination. Yeah.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: How do you keep the competitiveness obviously within it all?
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Because you, all the guys playing are competitive players, right?
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: I mean, these are talented players. So how do you
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: keep the competitiveness at the forefront while you have all
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: the rules and sort of the system within the game?
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Because obviously they're incentivized to do different tricks and do
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: really cool things. How do you keep the both of
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: those things going, Jesse?
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: I don't need to teach competitiveness. These guys have been
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: playing the game the whole time. You know, when you
• 12:35
  Speaker 5: put Jackie Bradley Jr. playing full time center field for
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: the Indianapolis Clowns, who's won a World Series, believe me,
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: he wants to win. When you have first rounders and
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: second rounders and guys who have played at the highest
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: level of minor league baseball for many years, they want
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: to win. You don't need to teach that. What we
• 12:49
  Speaker 5: need to continue to instill is that our number one
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: goal is to create fans. Our number one goal is
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: to put on a show. At the end of the
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: Banana Bowl, our championship, which we're bringing all six teams there,
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: all six of our cast, 150 players, 150 cast members.
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: We're doing big performances. There's going to be a champion
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: that wins. But the end of the night is we're
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: doing a big dance. And we're going to say we're
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: going to look around and say, look at what we made.
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: Look at what we made together. And at the end
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: of that night, people are going to leave and say
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: they had a great time, regardless of who won and lost.
• 13:18
  Speaker 5: And I think that's the biggest challenge that I have.
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: You know, if you go and your team loses. You
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: have people devastated. They're cussing when they're leaving the stadium.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: And I get it. It's that juice. You feel alive.
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: But why can't you have both? Why can't you feel
• 13:31
  Speaker 5: alive and your team lost? But boy, it was the
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: greatest show I've ever seen. I can't wait to the
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: next one. And that's what I'm trying to create.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you can do that.
• 13:40
  Speaker 5: I do.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: I mean, I have children. I used to say, just
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: get into the tournament. The winning and losing part. I
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: understand you want to win, but just get in because
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: that is what you leave with. That's what you'll remember.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: You competed at that level. People came to watch. That
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: is absolutely doable. All right, let's get to it. This
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: is as many questions as we've ever had here, which
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: is a reflection of the popularity of banana ball. I'm
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: going to start with Danny's question. And this is kind
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: of behind the curtain here when it comes to banana ball.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: You can appreciate it. Jackson Olsen basically made TikToks trying
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: to get your attention until you finally noticed him. If
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: a kid tried that exact strategy today, would you respect
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: the hustle? Because now people want to be on one
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: of your five teams competing against the bananas.
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: One thousand percent.
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: You know, one of the biggest, the hardest questions for
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: anyone to answer, and that's a player, that's a person,
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: that's a business. What makes you different? Not what makes
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: you a little bit faster, a little bit better, a
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: little bit er. What can you be the only one doing?
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: I ask that all the time. And so for a player, again,
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: what can you do that no one else is doing?
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: You know, we had the bad trickster, Alex Ziegler, that
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: I saw him doing these bad tricks and I was
• 14:53
  Speaker 5: blown away by it. And I was like, can you
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: do that in the game?
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: He goes, yeah.
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: And then I saw him practicing and this was just
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: putting out videos and he was catching balls like this.
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: And I said, could you do that at first base?
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: He goes, yeah. And so I talked to our coach.
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: I said, can we give him a shot at first base?
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: And he starts catching.
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: Balls on double plays, throwing 90 miles an hour across
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: the diamond, catching them behind his back like this and
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: all that.
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: Now, every one of.
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: Our first basemen are catching balls like this, even bare
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: hand at 90 miles an hour.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: It is crazy.
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: So my point is. Show something. Don't be afraid to fail. Try.
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: Send things.
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: Put yourself out there. You will only learn by doing.
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: And I think more people, instead of talking, sending your resume,
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: sharing all these stats and data, start doing, put yourself
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: out there. That's how you get noticed.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: That's so good, man. I want to go to another
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: question here really quick while we're into some of these questions.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: So Chan asks, love the reignite excitement in our national pastime.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: What's your take on banana ball? inspiring young athletes back
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: to baseball. And then I want to take that another
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: step further because Chan's.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: Question is great.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: But what do you want your influence to be for
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: Major League Baseball in all the way down?
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: I think there's two mindsets in life. There's the abundance
• 16:14
  Speaker 5: mindset and there's the scarcity mindset. And I think any
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: way that there are more kids playing the game and
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: having fun. I watch my eight-year-old son go outside off
• 16:23
  Speaker 5: the pitch back and he's doing trick plays every time.
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: I know a regular baseball coach would be like, no,
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: just learn how to catch it normal.
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: But he's out there having fun, and I don't know
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: if he'd be out there if he wasn't seeing his
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: favorite players in banana ball doing all these plays and
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: him wanting to emulate them. It's like me being Phil
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: Plantier back in the day and getting in a low stance,
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: or me being Hideo Nomo and doing that wind-up, or
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: me putting Griffey and putting my hat behind. It's the
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: same thing. But now, somewhere along the lines... They said, hey,
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: act like you've done it before. And you get called
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: up throughout the minors, and then you're told to kind
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: of act like everyone else. And the individualization of baseball
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: players is a lot more rare now than it was
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: back in the 80s and 90s. And I think it's important.
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: I say to our players, celebrate everything. Not celebrate against
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: the other team. Celebrate for yourself. Celebrate and have fun.
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: Why has the NFL gone so– everyone's celebrating. They're having fun.
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: And I think that's important. My dad told me, Jesse,
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: act like you've done it before. And that's how I
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: played when I was a kid. And I wish I
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: was celebrating more. So I think, again, the abundance mindset.
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: If more kids are having fun and more kids are
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: watching this and more kids want to play ball, that's
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: a win. And I think we can all help each other.
• 17:34
  Speaker 7: Agreed.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: And they can coexist? I mean, is there a competitive
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: league that competes with college baseball, Major League Baseball? Or
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: are you currently doing that? And can they coexist while
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: they compete with each other?
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think, again, the word competition is tough for me.
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: The only thing that we compete for every single day
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: is compete to create fans. That's the only thing. We
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: compete against ourselves. And so I think anyone that is
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: trying to make the game better And that can actually
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: put themselves in the fan's shoes. We didn't talk about
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: business because it's not here or there, but I don't
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: think about what's best for the business. I think about
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: what's best for the fans. If I thought about what's
• 18:12
  Speaker 5: best for the business, we would have TV rights like crazy.
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: We would have ticket fees, convenient fees, service fees. We
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: would sell sponsorship. We would do all of that. We
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: do none of that because we keep every game free
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: on YouTube. We do all of that because it's about
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: the fans. And I think of Major League Baseball and
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: every league that they do is say, not how can
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: we maximize dollars, how can we maximize fans?
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: That is what's best for the game. Right.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Good answer. Yeah. A question here from Royce, Justin, let's
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: do this. If there was one night where you walked
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: away from the field, Jesse, and said, you know what?
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: We absolutely nailed that. Now you may have kind of
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: sold the river here by saying, nope, I take notes
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: and I got 10 after each one, but let's say
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: you absolutely nailed it when you walked off and you
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: were delighted. Where was that? And what made that night
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: so special? Like in a sense, what's the closest to
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: perfection that you've come where you said, God, if we
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: could just I know we don't want to replicate it
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: or emulate it, but that's what we want to do
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: every night, maybe with some different twists and turns.
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah. What makes a great show is great banana ball.
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: A ton of trick plays, a lot of actions, a
• 19:13
  Speaker 5: lot of walk-offs, going to showdowns, a lot of fan-caught
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: foul balls, and then a great show. Big performances, big
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: new things we're doing, new promotions, everything, and then they
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: get nailed. I think the biggest example, the closest one
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: we had last year was was we were playing at
• 19:29
  Speaker 5: Clemson football stadium, 81,000 Davos Sweeney. We played an hour
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: and 43 minute nine inning game with 19 trick plays,
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: 11 home runs. We put on a halftime show in
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: the middle of the game with people singing in the
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: upper deck, the entire Clemson band, a full new performance.
• 19:47
  Speaker 5: It was, I was jumping up and down. because I
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: was like, that is banana ball. And then, you know,
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: just a few weeks ago in Minnesota, 10 fan caught
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: foul balls, showdowns, huge performances, banana ball at its best.
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: So we get close, but it's very, very hard. You
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: got to be fast. You got to have a lot
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: of trick plays. You can have things that have wild
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: and big performances and, and uh you know just you need.
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: Some magic at the end and that's that's what banana
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: ball is all about.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: That's so great man how do you what what is
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: your creativity what do your creativity meetings look like yeah
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: i mean you guys come up with just some crazy
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: things man and obviously the performances are all a part
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: of that what does it look like like take us
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: through me oh.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: The bible i think we got the bible.
• 20:30
  Speaker 6: There we go don't lose that thing jesse look it's
• 20:34
  Speaker 6: just it's constant ideas constant ideas and it's every day
• 20:37
  Speaker 6: we're thinking of new ideas.
• 20:39
  Speaker 5: And every Tuesday we go through idea sessions and OTT meetings.
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: And so, um, Every team has them. So we'll get
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: our creative team, our marketing team, our video team, our
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: broadcast team, our players, our cast. Everybody submits ideas all
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: day Tuesday. We are working on ideas. Then we pick
• 20:54
  Speaker 5: the best of the best. Then we have a brain
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: trust meeting where to go through what's going to make
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: it to the show. Then we have our table read
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: and then we go through, read this out. Then we
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: do rehearsals. We get the props and we go through
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: it all. It is every single week, like Saturday night live. Um,
• 21:06
  Speaker 5: and yeah, It's amazing because it keeps it fun for us.
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: It's never a repetitive show. It's not the same type of, hey,
• 21:12
  Speaker 5: here comes the confetti. Here's the slow motion move. And
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: if it's not fresh for you and our staff and
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: our creative, it won't be fresh for the fans. And
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: so that's like right now we've got huge shows. I mean,
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: the Party Animals sold out Comerica Park without the Savannah Bananas,
• 21:26
  Speaker 5: 80,000 fans in the next few days. And we're doing
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: some wild things we've never done before.
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: And I can't wait. It's going to be fun.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Are we recording those sessions? I mean, is that going
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: to be a special? Are we recording these creativity sessions
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: and then making TV, making YouTube? Are we doing that?
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: We should be.
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: Let me just say, we've been filming over the last
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: five years and there'll be some big announcements soon.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: There you go. Sorry, I didn't mean to scratch the
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: treasure chest there.
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: If we could have learned from Walt Disney, I mean,
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: the first animation with sound, first animation with color, first
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: full-length animation, Disneyland, all of the innovations he was doing.
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: If we were to be at his studio, and just
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: go through and see how he was doing it. Oh,
• 22:14
  Speaker 5: I would do anything for that. And I'm not saying,
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: I'm not comparing ourselves at all, but we're trying to
• 22:18
  Speaker 5: create something that didn't exist. And so we're trying to
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: capture that and share that because I think there's some
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: magic in that. And I just want to be able
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: to maybe help other people say, hey, how can you
• 22:26
  Speaker 5: create something? Well, this is how we did it.
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: It's messy.
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: We fail a lot. We experiment a lot. Every day
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: is hard. It's very hard, but we love that. And
• 22:33
  Speaker 5: I think we'll be sharing a lot more of that
• 22:35
  Speaker 5: journey in the years to come.
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: More questions. More of your questions. More conversation with Jesse.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: But first, this message from our sponsor, SeatGeek.
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• 23:46
  Speaker 1: And back with Jesse Kolb, Justin Musil, Carl Ravitch. He
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: is the creator, of course, of Banana Ball. Let's get
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: into the outfit because we understand that the name Savannah
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Bananas came from a Sort of a mail-in, you at home,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: you come up with the name they did, and did
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: then the suit and the top hat follow? Was the
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: suit and top hat first? How did this all come about?
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: The suit was before the bananas. That's the crazy thing.
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: People don't realize this. So we had a team in
• 24:17
  Speaker 5: Gastonia for 10 years, 200 fans coming to the games,
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: $ 268 in the bank account. That was my first laboratory.
• 24:24
  Speaker 5: Grandma beauty pageants. We had donut burgers, donut dogs, heart-stoppingly delicious,
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: and lots.
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: Of promotions that we tried. Big, big time nights. midnight
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: madness nights. We did it all.
• 24:36
  Speaker 5: And so I started learning about PT Barnum. So what
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: I realized was I didn't know anything about what I
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: was doing. You know, I just played baseball. So I
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: studied the greatest entertainers, the greatest promoters, the greatest marketers.
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: And I read every book about PT Barnum. And I
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: just kept thinking, you know, if I'm putting on a
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: show on the field, I can't be dressed like everyone else.
• 24:54
  Speaker 5: You know, I got to be different. And, you know,
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: I just started thinking about that, but being a showman,
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: but more than anything, you know, I thought, Well, also
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: it gives permission to our team to have fun. If
• 25:04
  Speaker 5: the owner, the general manager back then is dressed up
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: like this, throwing Dolce and banana underwear into the crowd
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: and t-shirts and having fun, like, then why can't we
• 25:14
  Speaker 5: have fun? And, you know, I actually got in the
• 25:15
  Speaker 5: dunk tank every single game in Gastonia for years, dunk
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: the GM inning. And again, I just want to put
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: myself in the fan shoes. Hey, I'm like everyone else.
• 25:24
  Speaker 5: I'm not going to be up in a box. I'm
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: not going to be in an office. I'm Yeah, I
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: believe everyone has something that makes them stand out. It's
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: their best version of themselves. For me, this is me.
• 25:33
  Speaker 5: This is my energy. This is who I am. And
• 25:36
  Speaker 5: it's a nod to P.T.
• 25:37
  Speaker 8: Barnum.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Superman's cape is what it is.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: So, Jesse, obviously, though, man, I mean, you stand out, right?
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: So you're going places. How do you go anywhere? How
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: do you go have lunch?
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's not like you're never incognito, man. You
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: just don't even try anymore?
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: Not anymore, no.
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: No, things have changed a lot over the last few years.
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: Things have certainly changed a lot. So I only wear
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: this when I'm working. Like I literally just got back
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: from the stadium right before this, after a full day
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: of rehearsals. And so I'm in this now. I will
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: go in and when I'm with my kids and my
• 26:13
  Speaker 5: wife at home, but it's changed a lot. Even going
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: incognito casual through the airports now, things are a lot
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: different than they used to be. And it just so much,
• 26:21
  Speaker 5: you know, to know that we have 40 million plus
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: followers on social and 5 million on our wait list
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: and you know, it's, it's changed a lot, but people
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: are so kind and nice. So I do not wear
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: this just being normal.
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: This is, this is me when I'm in full show mode.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: You haven't, you haven't yet.
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Or you haven't yet got into bed wearing the outfit.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: Have you? I mean, Emily's like, what do you do?
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: No, I think probably some nights after 2 AM, a
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: long night, you know, I'll barely.
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: Barely getting it off, but it's, I'll tell you, we
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: don't talk about that much. It is very, very hard.
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: And I'm not like, I'll be at the ballpark at 7,
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: 8 a.m., and then our gates open up at 2 o'clock.
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: We do rehearsals all morning, entertainment meetings. At 2 o'clock,
• 27:04
  Speaker 5: we open up. We do autographs the first hour, and
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: then we have a stage show in front of the
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: stadium for an hour and a half. Then we do
• 27:09
  Speaker 5: our march. Then we sign for another hour. Then we
• 27:11
  Speaker 5: do our show before the show, which is another 70-plus promotions.
• 27:14
  Speaker 5: Then we have a two-hour show. Then we have an
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: hour post-game plaza party. And then I sign until the
• 27:18
  Speaker 5: last fan leaves, which is another hour and a half,
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: two hours. Sometimes it goes until midnight until the last
• 27:22
  Speaker 5: fan leaves. And then we meet with our staff. And
• 27:25
  Speaker 5: then we get home and we go over. I'm still
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: going over all the notes. I see what fans are saying.
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: And then you repeat that the next day. People see
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: all the fun social media. And they're like, oh, you
• 27:34
  Speaker 5: guys are just– you really hit on something. It's a fad.
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: It's a moment.
• 27:38
  Speaker 5: No one will put the hours and the effort. And
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: you guys know this to where you are. The time
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: and the effort, what people see, what they don't see.
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: You know, that's what really matters. And we put so
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: many hours. The players work on their trick plays for
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: hours every day. Every ground ball, they're working on trick plays.
• 27:55
  Speaker 5: Every fly ball, they're working on that. They are doing
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: all this when no one sees. That's why they can
• 27:59
  Speaker 5: do plays that people have never seen before because they
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: put hour and hour and hours and hours working on it.
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: And I think that's what goes into it. So, yes,
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: I am very tired at the end of the days
• 28:08
  Speaker 5: and I wake up, but it's worth it. It's worth
• 28:10
  Speaker 5: it for the fans and worth it for what we're doing.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Well, your energy is contagious and the enthusiasm is wonderful.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: And yet you're talking about all this practice and all
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: these hours. And from our perspective, we're trying to encourage
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: kids to play the game. We want it to be fun.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: We've had managers on. We've had some of your favorite
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: players on here. They emphasize just let it be fun
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: for these kids. Don't overbear them with the.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, and welcome to the latest edition of Dirt
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: from the Dugout. Alongside my good buddy, Justin Musil, I'm
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Carl Ravitch. We couldn't be more fired up for this edition.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: And before we get to Jesse Cole, our guest from
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: the Savannah Bananas, let's remind everybody, the Parent Dugout is
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: the single most important platform you can go to as
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: a parent of a player. It has everything. It is
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: the number one resource. We are committed to it. We
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: think we... We'll have you commit to it and benefit
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: in every possible way. There are just a number of
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: things that you have to get on there, explore, find out.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: It is your resource as a parent, as a coach,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: and as a young player who are in love with
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: this great sport of baseball as much as Justin and
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: I are. And with that, Justin, let's just get a
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: little bit of the background here of what the Savannah
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Bananas are, your own experience with the Bananas being a
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: kid that grew up and played and had aspirations of
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: playing Major League Baseball. When you first heard about the
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: Savannah Bananas and then you got a chance to watch them,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: what was your takeaway as a baseball guy?
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: You know, honestly, this is a great conversation. I'm glad
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: we're going to talk to Jesse here in a couple
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: of minutes, but I mean, it's just so different, right?
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: And I was actually texting Ravi recently with a couple
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: of my buddies I played ball with, and we were
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: laughing about a couple of plays that were made defensively,
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: and we were just joking about how we would be
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: doing that stuff all the time at practice if that
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: was our time. And so just all the things that
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: it does from a creativity standpoint, man, it's so unique.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: It's so interesting. But, yeah, man, it's its own world, right?
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: Banana ball is its own world. So I'm excited to
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: talk to Jesse about it.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: Just a little background because Jesse has told the story
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: a million times. It's all over the internet if you
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: want to understand, but he went to Wofford college. He
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: was a player. He also got into theater there. Thus
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: the combination of the two things he and his now
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: wife decided to buy a minor league team. It was
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: a team, the Gastonia Grizzlies, a collegiate summer league team
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: in Gastonia, North Carolina. They ended up getting married on
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: the baseball field and in a, In a second or two,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: you'll see the entire yellow uniform with the top hat
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: and you'll get the background on Jesse. Our goal here
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: for you parents and young players at home, I know
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: you love banana ball. We want to dive into some
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: of the things that he can teach you about building
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: something from nothing, building something that people are interested in.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Getting a team to rally behind and be on the
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: same page, really difficult to do. So let's bring him in.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: And what makes me really happy is I got a
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: chance to reach out to my guy, Jesse, with a
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: 7-8-1 area code. I came from a 7-8-1 area code.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: So we are brothers from another when it comes to
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: a Massachusetts route. Jesse, delighted to have you on board.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Thanks for making the time to join us here on
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Dirt from the Dugout.
• 31:45
  Speaker 4: Truly excited to be with you guys.
• 31:46
  Speaker 5: So much respect and admiration for you and what you
• 31:49
  Speaker 5: guys are doing, spreading joy and sharing what matters most
• 31:52
  Speaker 5: in sports.
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: And so fired up to be with you on our
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: world tour.
• 31:55
  Speaker 5: I'm in a hotel here in Detroit getting ready for
• 31:57
  Speaker 5: some games over at Comerica Park, but excited to have
• 32:00
  Speaker 5: some fun with you guys.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: That is awesome. Yeah, it's amazing from the Gastonia Grizzlies
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: and the ballpark that you got married into, stadiums and
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Comerica Park, Major League Fields. In your wildest dreams, in
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: your wildest dreams, and you seem like a dreamer, was
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: this really something that you saw coming? Hey, everyone, and
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: welcome to the latest edition of Dirt from the Dugout.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Alongside my good buddy, Justin Musil, I'm Carl Ravitch. We
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: couldn't be more fired up for it. This edition. And
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: before we get to Jesse Cole, our guest from the
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: Savannah Bananas, let's remind everybody the parent dugout is the
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: single most important platform you can go to as a
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: parent of a player. It has everything. It is the
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: number one resource. We are committed to it. We think
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: we will have you commit to it and benefit in
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: every possible way. There are just a number of things
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: that you have to get on there, explore, find out.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: It is your resource. as a parent, as a coach,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: and as a young player who are in love with
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: this great sport of baseball as much as Justin and
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: I are. And with that, Justin, let's just get a
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: little bit of the background here of what the Savannah
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: Bananas are, your own experience with the Bananas, being a
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: kid that grew up and played and had aspirations of
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: playing Major League Baseball. When you first heard about the
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: Savannah Bananas and then you got a chance to watch them,
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: what was your takeaway as a baseball guy?
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: You know, honestly, this is, this is a great conversation.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: I'm glad we're going to talk to Jesse here in
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: a couple of minutes, but I mean, it's just so different.
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: And I was actually texting Ravi recently with a couple
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: of my buddies I played ball with. And, and we,
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: we were laughing about a couple of plays that were
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: made defensively. And we were just joking about how we
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: would be doing that stuff all the time at practice.
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: If we, you know, if that was our time.
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: And so, just all the things that it does from
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: a creativity standpoint, man, it's, it's so unique. It's so interesting. Um,
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: but yeah, man, it's, it's, it's its own world, right?
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: Banana ball is its own world. So I'm excited to
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: talk to Jesse about it.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: All right. Just a little background because Jesse has told
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: the story a million times. It's all over the internet
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: if you want to understand, but he went to Wofford college.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: He was a player. He also got into theater there.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: Thus the combination of the two things, uh, He and
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: his now wife decided to buy a minor league team.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: It was a team, the Gastonia Grizzlies, a collegiate summer
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: league team in Gastonia, North Carolina. They ended up getting
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: married on the baseball field. And in a second or two,
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: you'll see the entire yellow uniform with the top hat.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: And you'll get the background on Jesse. Our goal here
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: for you parents and young players at home, I know
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: you love banana ball. We want to dive into some
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: of the things that he can teach you about building
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: something from nothing, building something that people are interested in,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: getting a team to rally behind and be on the
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: same page. Really difficult to do. So let's bring him in.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: And what makes me really happy is I got a
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: chance to reach out to my guy, Jesse, with a
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: 781 area code. I came from a 7-8-1 area code,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: so we are brothers from another when it comes to
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: a Massachusetts root. Jesse, delighted to have you on board.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: Thanks for making the time to join us here on
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: Dirt from the Dugout.
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: Truly excited to be with you guys.
• 35:31
  Speaker 5: So much respect and admiration for you and what you
• 35:33
  Speaker 5: guys are doing, spreading joy and sharing what matters most
• 35:37
  Speaker 5: in sports and so forth. Fired up to be with
• 35:39
  Speaker 5: you on our world tour. I'm in a hotel here
• 35:40
  Speaker 5: in Detroit getting ready for some games over at Comerica Park,
• 35:43
  Speaker 5: but excited to have some fun with you guys.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: That is awesome. Yeah, it's amazing from the Gastonia Grizzlies
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: and the ballpark that you got married into, stadiums and
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: Comerica Park, Major League Fields. In your wildest dreams, in
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: your wildest dreams, and you seem like a dreamer, was
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: this really something that you saw coming?
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: No, you couldn't. You couldn't because it didn't exist.
• 36:09
  Speaker 5: You know, I was a kid that grew up outside
• 36:11
  Speaker 5: of Boston and just had the dream to play at
• 36:13
  Speaker 5: Fenway Park. And that was it. And, you know, I
• 36:16
  Speaker 5: got to pitch at Fenway in an all-star game. And
• 36:18
  Speaker 5: then to actually bring this game that didn't exist, banana ball,
• 36:21
  Speaker 5: to play sold-out crowds at Fenway Park, that was beyond anything.
• 36:24
  Speaker 5: And then to be in the Hall of Fame and
• 36:26
  Speaker 5: have an exhibit there and now play at NFL stadiums
• 36:29
  Speaker 5: and 100,000-seat football stadiums and have a league, you know,
• 36:33
  Speaker 5: you can't– You know, when you first started, you never
• 36:35
  Speaker 5: dreamed like that. But now, you know, I have probably
• 36:38
  Speaker 5: bigger dreams than anyone. I've been inspired by Walt Disney.
• 36:40
  Speaker 5: And if I told people what's on my dreams the
• 36:43
  Speaker 5: next five, 10 years, they would think I'm crazy. But,
• 36:45
  Speaker 5: you know, I think crazy is a good thing. And
• 36:47
  Speaker 5: that's what we try to create, things that are a
• 36:49
  Speaker 5: little crazy every single day at the ballpark.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, Jesse and Justin, you know how this works.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, we do have background in reporting. So you
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: just opened up Pandora's box. ideas for the next five
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: or 10 years? We have to ask. I mean, you
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: got to tell us, you got to share what some
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: of those are.
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: Well, it always starts with a question and everything.
• 37:12
  Speaker 5: The question is what if, and you know, we look
• 37:15
  Speaker 5: at what are all the friction points and the frustration
• 37:17
  Speaker 5: points for fans, for players, for the youth. And we
• 37:22
  Speaker 5: look at all those and reverse engineer them.
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: And that's how a banana ball was built.
• 37:26
  Speaker 5: You know, we looked at all the parts of a
• 37:27
  Speaker 5: baseball game that many people would say is too long,
• 37:29
  Speaker 5: too slow, too boring.
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: You know, I don't know about you guys, but I.
• 37:32
  Speaker 5: Don't know the last time someone came out to a
• 37:33
  Speaker 5: baseball game and said, you know what? I hope they
• 37:36
  Speaker 5: have a lot of mound visits tonight. I'm hoping for
• 37:38
  Speaker 5: at least three to four mound visits. And, you know,
• 37:42
  Speaker 5: they look for, you know, or, you know, I hope
• 37:44
  Speaker 5: the hitter, I hope he steps out of the box
• 37:46
  Speaker 5: a bunch. I hope like every few, you know, he
• 37:48
  Speaker 5: steps out for 10, 20, 30 seconds. And, you know,
• 37:50
  Speaker 5: I want more walks. I need more walks in the
• 37:52
  Speaker 5: game today. And so when you look at all the
• 37:55
  Speaker 5: parts of a baseball game that maybe are slow and
• 37:59
  Speaker 5: take away from the game, That's where we started building it.
• 38:01
  Speaker 5: And I think the same thing you look in the
• 38:03
  Speaker 5: next five, 10 years from banana ball youth for what
• 38:07
  Speaker 5: we're going to do from the youth game to where we're.
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: Going to play to how we're going to play.
• 38:11
  Speaker 5: I don't think the game has to be played the
• 38:12
  Speaker 5: exact same way.
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: We're going to have more rules, more experimentation. We're playing
• 38:15
  Speaker 4: at football stadiums now. Where else could we play?
• 38:18
  Speaker 5: And so you ask all those what if questions and
• 38:20
  Speaker 5: you start doing things people never imagined before.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: Can we just get a few more throws over to
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: first base? Just a couple more throws to first base. Exactly, exactly.
• 38:32
  Speaker 5: But people are afraid to challenge those rules because of tradition.
• 38:37
  Speaker 5: But again, I think you've got to evolve and look at,
• 38:41
  Speaker 5: if people are leaving baseball games early, there's a fundamental problem.
• 38:45
  Speaker 5: You think about this. How many times do you go
• 38:47
  Speaker 5: to a great movie and you're like, oh, the movie
• 38:49
  Speaker 5: was amazing. I left in the middle.
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: Like you don't do that.
• 38:53
  Speaker 5: And that happened. And so that's what we try to
• 38:57
  Speaker 5: look at. And I love baseball. I played my whole life.
• 38:59
  Speaker 5: I'm just trying to look at as, as the world
• 39:01
  Speaker 5: evolves with entertainment, how do you continue to evolve with it?
• 39:04
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 39:04
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: And Jesse, I want to get to this because if
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: we just take everything else out of this, one of
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: the things that I admire about what you've done is
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: you created something that didn't exist and you had an idea.
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: And clearly when you have an idea, you, I'm an
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: entrepreneur as well, have bought and sold businesses, have started
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: businesses and.
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: Sold them, my wife and I both.
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: And so I kind of understand a little bit of
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: that world. And so sometimes you can have ideas that
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: are really good and they don't work. Sometimes you can
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: have ideas that are great and they do work. You
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: had to hear no a lot. This is a terrible idea, man.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: This isn't going to work. And I know you've shared
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: this before, so I want to get past that initial
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: part of it. My question is, how did you sustain
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: the will to make it happen when you heard it
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: probably over and over and over that it wasn't going
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: to work and you were kind of at a desperation
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: point and it started to get going a little bit?
• 40:08
  Speaker 5: Well, I think everyone says you got to see it
• 40:10
  Speaker 5: to believe it. But I believe you got to believe
• 40:13
  Speaker 5: it to see it. And the reason is we believed
• 40:16
  Speaker 5: in something because I think the greatest creators create something
• 40:19
  Speaker 5: that they would love. I don't know what it is
• 40:21
  Speaker 5: with me, but I was a two-way guy when I
• 40:24
  Speaker 5: played baseball. And so you think about this. As a
• 40:26
  Speaker 5: two-way guy, I was able to literally pitch and hit.
• 40:30
  Speaker 5: And so even in college, I would pitch Friday night.
• 40:33
  Speaker 5: I'd be hitting on Saturday and Sunday. During practices, I
• 40:36
  Speaker 5: would have the opportunity to do all the fun parts
• 40:38
  Speaker 5: of throwing a bullpen and taking BP. I got to
• 40:41
  Speaker 5: miss PFP and all the boring parts. So I was
• 40:44
  Speaker 5: always involved in the excitement.
• 40:47
  Speaker 4: Of the game.
• 40:48
  Speaker 5: And then when I coached in the Cape Cod League
• 40:50
  Speaker 5: and after I tore my shoulder, my career was over.
• 40:52
  Speaker 4: That was it.
• 40:53
  Speaker 5: I was coaching in the Cape Cod League in the dugout.
• 40:55
  Speaker 5: And I was like, wow, I'm not involved in the
• 40:57
  Speaker 5: game anymore.
• 40:58
  Speaker 4: I'm a spectator.
• 41:00
  Speaker 5: And for me, I just start watching and seeing. And
• 41:03
  Speaker 5: I really felt that there was a huge opportunity to
• 41:07
  Speaker 5: innovate and to create something that I would love. And
• 41:09
  Speaker 5: so I think anybody, if you can continue to believe
• 41:13
  Speaker 5: in something, if you're creating something that you know can
• 41:16
  Speaker 5: get a little bit better and a little bit better
• 41:17
  Speaker 5: and a little bit better. And I watch every one
• 41:20
  Speaker 5: of our games. And I have a notes, LCP, what
• 41:23
  Speaker 5: can we learn, change, and plus. And we meet after
• 41:25
  Speaker 5: every single game on how do we make it better
• 41:28
  Speaker 5: because I see these little moments, these little details.
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: Hey, there was dead air here for this. There was this.
• 41:32
  Speaker 5: You know, our first baseman could have done this. And
• 41:34
  Speaker 5: it's all about how do you make the game more exciting.
• 41:37
  Speaker 5: My goal is to watch one of our games, and
• 41:38
  Speaker 5: if you blink, you may miss something.
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: Every pitch.
• 41:41
  Speaker 5: All right, what's he going to do now? Oh, it's
• 41:42
  Speaker 5: a fly ball to the left fielder. Is he going
• 41:44
  Speaker 5: to do a backflip? How's he going to catch it?
• 41:45
  Speaker 5: All right, what's the hitter going to do? Is the
• 41:47
  Speaker 5: pitcher going to do a trick pitch? What's the umpire
• 41:49
  Speaker 5: doing over here? Did he just do a flip to
• 41:50
  Speaker 5: call him out?
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: What is happening?
• 41:52
  Speaker 5: And that excitement is crazy for a baseball game. But
• 41:55
  Speaker 5: for me, it keeps it fresh and new. I've seen
• 41:58
  Speaker 5: hundreds of these banana ball games now. And I want
• 42:00
  Speaker 5: to make sure every night that I feel like a fan,
• 42:02
  Speaker 5: that I can see something I've never seen before. So
• 42:04
  Speaker 5: that's how I get through it because I continue to
• 42:06
  Speaker 5: even push it to the next level.
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: Follow the show on Spotify. Please get your questions in.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: There's a bunch of questions already in our queue, which
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: we'll get to in a moment. You know, you said, interestingly,
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: you want to make the game more exciting, the game
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: of baseball. It strikes me as a kid growing up, sure,
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: just like you, we would go to the Ringling Brothers
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: in Barnum and Bailey Circus, and they had three rings.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: And the challenge in that was, where do I look?
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: Do I look to the left? Do I look to
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: the middle? Do I look to the right? In the
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: case of what you guys are doing, I've seen them
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: on TV before. I haven't been to one yet, but
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: I do understand, like, this is almost overload for the mind. Like,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: where should I look? Like, what's going to happen next?
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: How sensitive are you to that? Because if you're going to,
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: you want to keep being creative, you want to keep
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: doing it. Is there a way that you can watch
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: a banana ball game and make sure you get everything?
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: Or is that part of the fun? Like, I understand
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: the ball is in the air, but there's singers behind
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: the plate. I mean, umpires are dancing.
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: You will always miss something at a banana ball game.
• 43:12
  Speaker 5: You do also always see something, but you will always see,
• 43:15
  Speaker 5: you will always see something you've never seen before at
• 43:17
  Speaker 5: a baseball game. And I think that's part of the
• 43:19
  Speaker 5: magic of it. You know, I learned, I learned so
• 43:21
  Speaker 5: much from, you know, Circus Soleil and WWE and, you know,
• 43:25
  Speaker 5: PT Barnum, but also Grateful Dead. Grateful Dead, every single
• 43:29
  Speaker 5: night they were doing a brand new show, a brand
• 43:31
  Speaker 5: new set list. And now Dave Matthews band, who's a
• 43:34
  Speaker 5: band that I love, you, They still, you know, they
• 43:36
  Speaker 5: sold more tickets, Dave Matthews Band, in the 2000, 2000, 2010,
• 43:39
  Speaker 5: than any other act. Dave Matthews Band. And they didn't
• 43:42
  Speaker 5: have a number one hit. But they had new shows
• 43:45
  Speaker 5: every single night, and they had a loyal fan base
• 43:47
  Speaker 5: that would travel all over the country. We now have
• 43:49
  Speaker 5: fans that travel all around the country. They come to
• 43:52
  Speaker 5: multiple games, every one of our, you know, different ones
• 43:54
  Speaker 5: of our shows, and they see something brand new. And
• 43:57
  Speaker 5: I think that's really, really important to continue to innovate.
• 44:01
  Speaker 5: Every night we're doing 10 to 15 things we've never
• 44:03
  Speaker 5: done in front of a live crowd, every single show,
• 44:05
  Speaker 5: every single script.
• 44:06
  Speaker 4: And so this isn't the Globetrotters. When we get compared
• 44:08
  Speaker 4: to the Globetrotters, like.
• 44:09
  Speaker 5: You never know who's going to win. We have a
• 44:10
  Speaker 5: huge championship coming up soon and every team is fighting
• 44:13
  Speaker 5: for that championship amidst all the entertainment. And I think
• 44:16
  Speaker 5: that's what makes it special.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: It's a great combination.
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: It's really unique, man.
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: It is a great combination. Yeah.
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: How do you keep the competitiveness obviously within it all?
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: Because you, all the guys playing are competitive players, right?
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: I mean, these are talented players. So how do you
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: keep the competitiveness at the forefront while you have all
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: the rules and sort of the system within the game?
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: Because obviously they're incentivized to do different tricks and do
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: really cool things. How do you keep the both of
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: those things going, Jesse?
• 44:50
  Speaker 5: I don't need to teach competitiveness. These guys have been
• 44:53
  Speaker 5: playing the game the whole time. You know, when you
• 44:55
  Speaker 5: put Jackie Bradley Jr. playing full time center field for
• 44:58
  Speaker 5: the Indianapolis Clowns, who's won a World Series, believe me,
• 45:00
  Speaker 5: he wants to win. When you have first rounders and
• 45:02
  Speaker 5: second rounders and guys who have played at the highest
• 45:05
  Speaker 5: level of minor league baseball for many years, they want
• 45:07
  Speaker 5: to win. You don't need to teach that. What we
• 45:09
  Speaker 5: need to continue to instill is that our number one
• 45:12
  Speaker 5: goal is to create fans. Our number one goal is
• 45:14
  Speaker 5: to put on a show. At the end of the
• 45:16
  Speaker 5: Banana Bowl, our championship, which we're bringing all six teams there,
• 45:19
  Speaker 5: all six of our cast, 150 players, 150 cast members.
• 45:23
  Speaker 5: We're doing big performances. There's going to be a champion
• 45:25
  Speaker 5: that wins. But the end of the night is we're
• 45:27
  Speaker 5: doing a big dance, and we're going to look around
• 45:29
  Speaker 5: and say.
• 45:30
  Speaker 4: Look at what we made. Look at what we made together.
• 45:33
  Speaker 5: And at the end of that night, people are going
• 45:35
  Speaker 5: to leave and say they had a great time, regardless
• 45:37
  Speaker 5: of who won and lost. And I think that's the
• 45:38
  Speaker 5: biggest challenge that I have. If you go and your
• 45:41
  Speaker 5: team loses– You have people devastated. They're cussing when they're
• 45:45
  Speaker 5: leaving the stadium.
• 45:46
  Speaker 4: And I get it. It's that juice. You feel alive.
• 45:48
  Speaker 5: But why can't you have both? Why can't you feel
• 45:51
  Speaker 5: alive and your team lost? But boy, it was the
• 45:53
  Speaker 5: greatest show I've ever seen. I can't wait to the
• 45:56
  Speaker 5: next one. And that's what I'm trying to create.
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you can do that. I do. I mean,
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: I have children. I used to say, just get into
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: the tournament. The winning and losing part. I understand you
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: want to win, but just get in because that is
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: what you leave with. That's what you'll remember. You competed
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: at that level. People came to watch. That is absolutely doable.
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: All right, let's get to it. This is as many
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: questions as we've ever had here, which is a reflection
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: of the popularity of banana ball. I'm going to start
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: with Danny's question. And this is kind of behind the
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: curtain here when it comes to banana ball. You can
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: appreciate it. Jackson Olsen basically made TikToks trying to get
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: your attention until you finally noticed him. If a kid
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: tried that exact strategy today, would you respect the hustle?
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: Because now people want to be on one of your
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: five teams competing against the bananas.
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: 1,000%.
• 46:49
  Speaker 5: You know, one of the biggest, the hardest questions for
• 46:52
  Speaker 5: anyone to answer, and that's a player, that's a person,
• 46:54
  Speaker 5: that's a business. What makes you different? Not what makes
• 46:58
  Speaker 5: you a little bit faster, a little bit better, a
• 46:59
  Speaker 5: little bit er. What can you be the.
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: Only one doing? I ask that all the time.
• 47:04
  Speaker 5: And so for a player, again, what can you do
• 47:07
  Speaker 5: that no one else is doing? You know, we had
• 47:10
  Speaker 5: the bad trickster, Alex Ziegler, that I saw him doing
• 47:12
  Speaker 5: these bad tricks and I was blown away by it.
• 47:14
  Speaker 5: And I was like, can you do that in the game?
• 47:16
  Speaker 4: He goes, yeah.
• 47:17
  Speaker 5: And then I saw him practicing and this was just
• 47:19
  Speaker 5: putting out videos and he was catching balls like this.
• 47:22
  Speaker 4: And I said, could you do that at first base?
• 47:25
  Speaker 4: He goes, yeah. And so I talked to our coach.
• 47:27
  Speaker 4: I said, can we give him a shot at first base?
• 47:29
  Speaker 5: And he starts catching balls on double plays, throwing 90
• 47:32
  Speaker 5: miles an hour across the diamond, catching them behind his
• 47:35
  Speaker 5: back like this and all that.
• 47:36
  Speaker 4: Now, every one of.
• 47:37
  Speaker 5: Our first basemen are catching balls like this, even bare
• 47:41
  Speaker 5: hand at 90 miles an hour.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: It is crazy.
• 47:44
  Speaker 5: So my point is, show something. Don't be afraid to fail.
• 47:48
  Speaker 4: Try. Send things.
• 47:49
  Speaker 5: Put yourself out there. You will only learn by doing.
• 47:53
  Speaker 5: And I think more people instead of talking, sending your resume,
• 47:55
  Speaker 5: sharing all these stats and data, start doing, put yourself
• 47:59
  Speaker 5: out there. That's how you get noticed.
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: That's so good, man. I want to go to the,
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: I want to go to another question here really quick
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: while we're, while we're into some of these questions. So
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: Chan asks, love the reignite excitement in our national pastime.
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: What's your take on banana ball, inspiring young athletes back
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: to baseball. And then I want to take that another
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: step further because Chan's question is great, but What do
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: you want your influence to be for Major League Baseball
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: in all the way down?
• 48:32
  Speaker 5: I think there's two mindsets in life. There's the abundance
• 48:34
  Speaker 5: mindset and there's the scarcity mindset. And I think any
• 48:37
  Speaker 5: way that there are more kids playing the game and
• 48:39
  Speaker 5: having fun. I watch my eight-year-old son go outside off
• 48:43
  Speaker 5: the pitch back. And he's doing trick plays every time.
• 48:45
  Speaker 4: All right. I know a regular baseball coach would be like, no,
• 48:49
  Speaker 4: just learn how to catch it normal. But he's out
• 48:51
  Speaker 4: there having fun.
• 48:51
  Speaker 5: And I don't know if he'd be out there if
• 48:53
  Speaker 5: he wasn't seeing his favorite players in banana ball doing
• 48:56
  Speaker 5: all these plays and him wanting to emulate them.
• 48:58
  Speaker 4: It's like me being Phil.
• 49:00
  Speaker 5: Plantier back in the day and getting in a low
• 49:01
  Speaker 5: stance or me being Hideo Nomo and doing that or
• 49:05
  Speaker 5: me putting my hat behind.
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: It's the same thing. But now somewhere along the lines.
• 49:11
  Speaker 5: They said, hey, act like you've done it before and
• 49:14
  Speaker 5: you get called up throughout the minors and then you're
• 49:17
  Speaker 5: told to kind of act like everyone else And the
• 49:19
  Speaker 5: individualization of baseball players is a lot more rare now
• 49:23
  Speaker 5: than it was back in the 80s and 90s. And
• 49:25
  Speaker 5: I think it's important. I say to our players, celebrate everything.
• 49:29
  Speaker 5: Not celebrate against the other team. Celebrate for yourself. Celebrate
• 49:33
  Speaker 5: and have fun. Why has the NFL gone so... Everyone's celebrating.
• 49:36
  Speaker 5: They're having fun. And I think that's important. My dad
• 49:39
  Speaker 5: told me, Jesse, act like you've done it before. And
• 49:41
  Speaker 5: that's how I played when I was a kid. And
• 49:42
  Speaker 5: I wish I was celebrating more. So I think, again,
• 49:45
  Speaker 5: the abundance mindset. If more kids are having fun and
• 49:48
  Speaker 5: more kids are watching this and more kids want to
• 49:50
  Speaker 5: play ball, that's a win. And I think we can
• 49:52
  Speaker 5: all help each other.
• 49:54
  Speaker 4: Agreed.
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: And they can coexist. I mean, it's... Is there a
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: competitive league that competes with college baseball, Major League Baseball?
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: Or are you currently doing that? And can they coexist
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: while they compete with each other?
• 50:09
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think, again, the word competition is tough for me.
• 50:13
  Speaker 5: The only thing that we compete for every single day
• 50:15
  Speaker 5: is compete to create fans. That's the only thing. We
• 50:17
  Speaker 5: compete against ourselves. And so I think anyone that is
• 50:21
  Speaker 5: trying to make the game better And that can actually
• 50:23
  Speaker 5: put themselves in the fan's shoes. You know, we didn't
• 50:25
  Speaker 5: talk about business because it's not here or there, but
• 50:28
  Speaker 5: I don't think about what's best for the business. I
• 50:30
  Speaker 5: think about what's best for the fans. If I thought
• 50:32
  Speaker 5: about what's best for the business, we would have TV
• 50:34
  Speaker 5: rights like crazy. We would have ticket fees, convenient fees,
• 50:36
  Speaker 5: service fees. We would sell sponsorship. We would do all
• 50:39
  Speaker 5: of that. We do none of that because we keep
• 50:41
  Speaker 5: every game free on YouTube. We do all of that
• 50:43
  Speaker 5: because it's about the fans.
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: And I think of.
• 50:45
  Speaker 5: Major League Baseball and every league that they do is say,
• 50:47
  Speaker 5: not how can we maximize dollars? How can we maximize fans?
• 50:50
  Speaker 5: That is what's best for the game.
• 50:52
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: Good answer.
• 50:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: A question here from Royce, Justin, let's do this. If
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: there was one night where you walked away from the field, Jesse,
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: and said, you know what? We absolutely nailed that. Now
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: you may have kind of sold the river here by saying, nope,
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: I take notes and I got 10 after each one,
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: but let's say you absolutely nailed it when you walked
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: off and you were delighted. Where was that? And what
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: made that night so special? Like in a sense, what's
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: the closest to perfection that you've come where you said, God,
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: if we could just I know we don't want to
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: replicate it or emulate it, but that's what we want
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: to do every night, maybe with some different twists and turns.
• 51:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah. What makes a great show is great banana ball.
• 51:30
  Speaker 5: A ton of trick plays, a lot of actions, a
• 51:33
  Speaker 5: lot of walk-offs, going to showdowns, a lot of fan-caught
• 51:36
  Speaker 5: foul balls, and then a great show. Big performances, big
• 51:40
  Speaker 5: new things we're doing, new promotions, everything, and then they
• 51:43
  Speaker 5: get nailed. I think the biggest example, the closest one
• 51:46
  Speaker 5: we had last year was we were playing at Clemson
• 51:49
  Speaker 5: football stadium, 81,000 Davos Sweeney. We played an hour and
• 51:54
  Speaker 5: 43 minute nine inning game with 19 trick plays, 11
• 51:58
  Speaker 5: home runs, We put on a halftime show in the
• 52:01
  Speaker 5: middle of the game with people singing in the upper deck,
• 52:04
  Speaker 5: the entire Clemson band, a full new performance. It was,
• 52:08
  Speaker 5: I was jumping up and down because I was like,
• 52:10
  Speaker 5: that is banana ball. And then, you know, just a
• 52:12
  Speaker 5: few weeks ago in Minnesota, 10 fan caught foul balls, showdowns,
• 52:16
  Speaker 5: huge performances, banana ball at its best. So we get close,
• 52:21
  Speaker 5: but it's very, very hard. You got to be fast.
• 52:23
  Speaker 5: You got to have a lot of trick plays. You
• 52:24
  Speaker 5: can have things that have wild and big performances and,
• 52:27
  Speaker 5: and uh you know just you need.
• 52:28
  Speaker 4: Some magic at the end and that's that's what banana
• 52:30
  Speaker 4: ball is all about.
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: That's so great man how do you what what is
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: your creativity what do your creativity meetings look like yeah
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: i mean you guys come up with just some crazy
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: things man and obviously the performances are all a part
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: of that what does it look like like take us
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: through me oh.
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: The bible i think we got the bible.
• 52:50
  Speaker 6: There we go don't lose that thing jesse look it's
• 52:54
  Speaker 6: just it's constant ideas constant ideas and it's every day
• 52:57
  Speaker 6: we're thinking of new ideas and every Tuesday we go
• 53:00
  Speaker 6: through idea sessions and OTT meetings and so every team
• 53:05
  Speaker 6: has them so we'll get our creative team our marketing
• 53:07
  Speaker 6: team our video team our broadcast team our players our
• 53:09
  Speaker 6: cast everybody submits ideas all day Tuesday we are working
• 53:13
  Speaker 6: on ideas then we pick the best of the best
• 53:15
  Speaker 6: then we have a brain trust meeting where to go
• 53:16
  Speaker 6: through what's going to make it to the show then
• 53:18
  Speaker 6: we have our table read and then we go through
• 53:20
  Speaker 6: read this out then we do rehearsals we get the
• 53:21
  Speaker 6: props and we go through it all it is every single.
• 53:24
  Speaker 5: Week like Saturday Night Live Um, and it's amazing because
• 53:28
  Speaker 5: it keeps it fun for us. It's never a repetitive show.
• 53:31
  Speaker 5: It's not the same type of, Hey, here comes the confetti.
• 53:33
  Speaker 5: Here's the slow motion move. And, and if it's not
• 53:36
  Speaker 5: fresh for you and our staff and our creative, it
• 53:39
  Speaker 5: won't be fresh for the fans. And so that's like
• 53:42
  Speaker 5: right now we've got huge shows. I mean, the party
• 53:43
  Speaker 5: animals sold out Camerica park without the Savannah bananas, 80,000
• 53:47
  Speaker 5: fans on the next few days. And we're doing some
• 53:49
  Speaker 5: wild things we've never done before.
• 53:50
  Speaker 4: And I can't wait. It's going to be fun.
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: Are we recording those sessions? I mean, is that going
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: to be a special? Are we recording these creativity sessions
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: and then making TV, making YouTube? Are we doing that?
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: We should be.
• 54:05
  Speaker 5: Let me just say, we've been filming over the last
• 54:08
  Speaker 5: five years and there'll be some big announcements soon.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: There you go. Sorry, I didn't mean to scratch the
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: treasure chest there.
• 54:17
  Speaker 5: Well, if we could have learned from Walt Disney, I mean,
• 54:21
  Speaker 5: the first animation with sound, first animation with color, first
• 54:24
  Speaker 5: full-length animation, Disneyland, all of the innovations he was doing.
• 54:28
  Speaker 5: If we were to be at his studio and just
• 54:31
  Speaker 5: go through and see how he was doing it, oh,
• 54:34
  Speaker 5: I would do anything for that. And I'm not saying,
• 54:36
  Speaker 5: I'm not comparing ourselves at all, but we're trying to
• 54:38
  Speaker 5: create something that didn't exist. And so we're trying to
• 54:40
  Speaker 5: capture that and share that because I think there's some
• 54:42
  Speaker 5: magic in that. And I just want to be able
• 54:44
  Speaker 5: to maybe help other people say, hey, how can you
• 54:46
  Speaker 5: create something? Well, this is how we did it.
• 54:47
  Speaker 4: It's messy. We fail a lot. We experiment a lot.
• 54:50
  Speaker 4: Every day is hard. It's very hard. But we love that.
• 54:53
  Speaker 5: And I think we'll be sharing a lot more of
• 54:55
  Speaker 5: that journey in the years to come.
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: All right. Now, more questions, more of your questions, more
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: conversation with Jesse. But first, this message from our sponsor, SeatGeek.
• 55:05
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• 55:08
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• 55:36
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• 55:40
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• 55:42
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• 55:43
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• 55:46
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• 55:48
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• 56:07
  Speaker 1: And back with Jesse Cole, Justin Musil, Carl Ravitch. He
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: is the creator, of course, of Banana Ball. Let's get
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: into the outfit, because we understand that the name Savannah
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: Bananas came from sort of a mail-in. You at home,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: you come up with the name they did, and did
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: then the suit and the top hat follow? Was the
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: suit and top hat first? How did this all come about?
• 56:33
  Speaker 5: The suit was before the bananas.
• 56:34
  Speaker 4: That's the crazy thing. People don't realize this. It was.
• 56:37
  Speaker 5: We had a team in Gastonia for 10 years, 200
• 56:40
  Speaker 5: fans coming to the games, $ 268 in the bank account.
• 56:43
  Speaker 5: That was my first laboratory. Grandma beauty pageants. We had
• 56:47
  Speaker 5: donut burgers, donut dogs, heart-stoppingly delicious, and lots of promotions
• 56:52
  Speaker 5: that we tried.
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: Big, big time nights.
• 56:54
  Speaker 4: Midnight Madness nights. We did it all. And so I
• 56:58
  Speaker 4: started learning about P.T. Barnum.
• 57:00
  Speaker 5: So what I realized was I didn't know anything about
• 57:02
  Speaker 5: what I was doing. You know, I just played baseball.
• 57:04
  Speaker 5: So I studied the greatest entertainers, the greatest promoters, the
• 57:07
  Speaker 5: greatest marketers. And I read every book about P.T.
• 57:09
  Speaker 4: Barnum.
• 57:09
  Speaker 5: And I just kept thinking, you know, if I'm putting
• 57:11
  Speaker 5: on a show on the field, I can't be dressed
• 57:13
  Speaker 5: like everyone else. You know, I got to be different. And,
• 57:16
  Speaker 5: you know, I just started thinking about that, being a showman.
• 57:18
  Speaker 5: But more than anything, you know, I thought, well, also
• 57:22
  Speaker 5: it gives permission to our team to have fun. If
• 57:25
  Speaker 5: the owner, the general manager back then is dressed up
• 57:28
  Speaker 5: like this, throwing Dolce and banana underwear into the crowd and,
• 57:32
  Speaker 5: t-shirts and having fun. Like, then why can't we have fun? And,
• 57:35
  Speaker 5: you know, I actually got in the dunk tank every
• 57:37
  Speaker 5: single game in Gastonia for years, dunk the GM inning.
• 57:41
  Speaker 5: And again, I just want to put myself in the
• 57:43
  Speaker 5: fan shoes. Hey, I'm like everyone else. I'm not going
• 57:45
  Speaker 5: to be up in a box. I'm not going to
• 57:46
  Speaker 5: be in an office. I'm going to be out with
• 57:48
  Speaker 5: everyone else. And yeah, I believe everyone has something that
• 57:51
  Speaker 5: makes them stand out. It's their best version of themselves.
• 57:53
  Speaker 5: For me, this is me. This is my energy. This
• 57:56
  Speaker 5: is who I am.
• 57:57
  Speaker 4: And it's a nod to PT Barnum.
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: Superman's cape is what it is.
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: So, Jesse, obviously, though, man, I mean, you stand out, right?
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: So you're going places. How do you go anywhere? How
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: do you go have lunch? I mean, it's not like
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: you're never incognito, man. You just don't even try anymore?
• 58:17
  Speaker 4: Not anymore.
• 58:18
  Speaker 5: No, things have changed a lot over the last few years.
• 58:22
  Speaker 5: Things have certainly changed.
• 58:23
  Speaker 4: Changed a lot.
• 58:24
  Speaker 5: So I only wear this when I'm working. Like I
• 58:26
  Speaker 5: literally just got back from the stadium right before this, uh, rehearsals.
• 58:30
  Speaker 5: And so I'm in this now I'm in this now
• 58:32
  Speaker 5: I will go in and when I'm with my kids
• 58:33
  Speaker 5: and my wife at home, uh, but it's changed a lot,
• 58:36
  Speaker 5: even going incognito casual through the airports. Now things are
• 58:39
  Speaker 5: a lot different than they used to be. And it
• 58:41
  Speaker 5: just does so much, you know, to know that we
• 58:42
  Speaker 5: have 40 million plus followers on social and 5 million
• 58:46
  Speaker 5: on our wait list. And, you know, it's, it's changed
• 58:48
  Speaker 5: a lot, but people are so kind and nice. So
• 58:50
  Speaker 5: I do not wear this just being normal. This is,
• 58:52
  Speaker 5: this is me when I'm in full show mode.
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: You haven't yet... Yeah, or you haven't yet got into
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: bed wearing the outfit, have you? I mean, Emily's like,
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: what do you do? No.
• 59:05
  Speaker 5: I think probably some nights after 2 a.m., a long night,
• 59:08
  Speaker 5: you know, I'm barely, barely getting up. off but uh
• 59:11
  Speaker 5: well it's i'll tell you we don't talk about that
• 59:13
  Speaker 5: much it is very very hard and i'm not like
• 59:16
  Speaker 5: you know i'll be at the ballpark at 7 8
• 59:18
  Speaker 5: a.m And then our gates open up at 2 o'clock.
• 59:22
  Speaker 5: We do rehearsals all morning, entertainment meetings. At 2 o'clock,
• 59:24
  Speaker 5: we open up. We do autographs the first hour. And
• 59:27
  Speaker 5: then we have a stage show in front of the
• 59:28
  Speaker 5: stadium for an hour and a half. Then we do
• 59:29
  Speaker 5: our march. Then we sign for another hour. Then we
• 59:32
  Speaker 5: do our show before the show, which is another 70-plus promotions.
• 59:35
  Speaker 5: Then we have a two-hour show. Then we have an
• 59:37
  Speaker 5: hour post-game plaza party. And then I sign until the
• 59:39
  Speaker 5: last fan leaves, which is another hour and a half,
• 59:41
  Speaker 5: two hours. Sometimes it goes until midnight until the last
• 59:43
  Speaker 5: fan leaves. And then we meet with our staff. And
• 59:45
  Speaker 5: then we get home and we go over, I, you know,
• 59:47
  Speaker 5: I'm still going over all the notes. I see what
• 59:48
  Speaker 5: fans are saying. And then you repeat that the next day,
• 59:51
  Speaker 5: you know, people see all the fun social media and,