The Savannah Bananas came to Rate Field last night for their first ever Chicago appearance. The barnstorming team, playing a “game” called Banana Ball, sang and danced their way through nine innings of mostly uninspired ball while defeating their foes, the Firefighters. Overall, it was two hours of continuous music and tomfoolery that works better as short Tik Tok clips than as a longer presentation. That said, they did bring some excitement for the baseball fans in the house.
Former White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski entered the game as a pinch hitter to lead off a mid-game inning. He then came out to catch the following half inning and, after handling the Bananas pitcher, who managed to hit and hurt a batter in what appeared to be a real incident, he was joined in the game by former teammate and fellow 2005 World Series champion Mark Buehrle. Buehrle faced two hitters, giving up a soft single to right before inducing a groundout to end the frame.
Seeing these two take the field together on the south side for the first time since 2011 and, one can only assume, for the final time made the whole night and covered over a lot of the warts inherent in the concept. I can’t see myself attending another one of their shows (they never actually call it a game), but this one left me with warm and fuzzy feelings.
