Savannah Bananas!

Normally Memorial Stadium in Lincoln is fill of red clad crazies watching the Nebraska Cornhuskers lose a game they should have won, but last night there was a baseball field there and the barnstorming Savannah Bananas came into town and sold the place out. 85,000 people showed up to watch the crazy brand of baseball played by these talented athletes. No bunting, no walks without a throw around, if a fan catches a foul ball the batter is out (it happened twice) and the fans get to challenge a play once during the game. Theres a guy on stilts who batted and whiffed. They have catches behind the back, back flips amid the fielding of grounders and fly balls, lots and lots of current music I had no idea what it was, an attention deficit reaction that results in an overwhelming sense of overload, and a left field fence 197 feet (Polo Grounds like) from home. Lots of home runs were hit into the leftfield stands including the walk off homer by the Washington Generals of Banana Ball, the Firefighters to win the game.

Look, being a fanatical baseball fan like me can trigger emotions when somebody plays this kind of baseball. But it's fun. For about an hour. After that initial hour, it became tedious. The trick plays became routine, the whole walk thing with all 9 players having to touch the ball leaving the runner able to go as far as he wants. That rule is not exciting because nobody ever gets past first base. The special guests were Eric Crouch, Heisman winner, and Tom Osborne, the HOF coach, who got a huge reaction and Go Big Red chants. It's based on baseball, but it is definitely not baseball. It's a state fair midway of child pleasing activity that quite frankly probably bores adults. Now if you have a kid and you take them, enjoy watching them have fun. They sing along to the music us olds have no clue to. They screech, they holler, they eat horrible stuff and they seem more aware than adults. It's fun for them thus it's fun for their parents. We went with our kid, who is in his 20's, so he's an adult and thus, he became bored also. 

I'm not saying I didn't have fun, I did. That it's a baseball Harlem Globetrotters is not a bad thing. But it's for children and introducing them to the sport is a good thing. I had a similar experience as a kid watching a clown show called the 1964 Chicago Cubs. It hooked me on the sport, the stadiums, the green grass, the strategy and the home runs at Wrigley. Kidding of course. The Bananas do what they do and it's entertaining. Would I go again? Not a chance. 

I will leave the hard-to-get tickets to somebody with young children.

The Firefighters won 3-2. If that matters.

A real game is much more entertaining. To me anyway.