Over the weekend, I was flipping through channels on Sunday morning when I came on ESPN and little 7-minute “ESPN Featured” segment, and it was such a funny joy I was hoping I’d be able to track it down here – and happily I found it. Recently, I’ve written here about Bill Veeck and his wild inventiveness being the P.T. Barnum of baseball, eventually getting voted into the Hall of Fame. This story is about Jesse Cole who has sort of morphed a combination between Veeck and P.T. Barnum. It takes him from his dreams of a baseball career ended by injury to being a minor league general manager at the age of 23 for “the worst team in the country” – to buying a non-existent college summer league team and turning it into a wild, wonderful phenomenon, the Savannah Bananas. Jesse Cole’s rule is, “Whatever’s normal, do the exact opposite.” A look at the team’s website shows such promotions as a breakfast series of games, playing games in kilts, a singing postgame interview, and relentlessly more. I'd explain, but the video does a better job, showing many of them. But just to let you now I'm not a-lying... This story is such fun. Even if you don’t like baseball, it will likely not fail to put a smile on your face. Maybe even make you wish you lived in Savannah. As a guy waiting to get into the ballpark says, “I could care less about baseball ‘til this came about. Now, I’m addicted to it.” Okay, and as a bonus because you deserve it, and just so that you know it's actually real, here is the totally-weird singing postgame interview --
1 Comment
Douglass Abramson
8/24/2021 06:30:28 pm
If he wants a real challenge, I have a so-called major league baseball manager that I'd like to sell him...real cheap. Hell, he can have him for free, for all I care.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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