BANANA BALL AT THE JERSEY SHORE

The Banana Ball World Tour made a stop at ShoreTown Ballpark in Lakewood, New Jersey — home of the Jersey Shore BlueClaws — July 11-13, as the Party Animals took on the Loco Beach Coconuts.

 

For those that don’t know - Banana Ball, is baseball that combines fast-paced action with choreographed dances, fan involvement, and crazy costumes.  The rules are unlike anything in traditional baseball. Each inning is worth one point, with the team scoring the most runs in an inning earning that point. The final inning is the exception, where every run counts. Batters cannot step out of the batter’s box or bunt, and remarkably, batters can steal first base. Perhaps the most famous rule: if a fan in the stands catches a foul ball, the batter is out. 

 

I was fortunate enough to see the original team, the Savannah Bananas play the Party Animals at Yankee Stadium back in April, which was an awesome experience that involved Broadway performances, appearances by celebrities and former athletes, lots of home runs, lots of music, dancing and shenanigans as well as Split, the Bananas mascot and Pharty the Party Animals mascot dressed as Spider-Man and Doc Oct. 

 

But I was also lucky enough to attend games 1 and 3 of the 3 game series at ShoreTown Ballpark. This was a great opportunity to see the Party Animals in a smaller stadium and to see the new team the Loco Beach Coconuts. While I love watching the Bananas, the Party Animals are my second favorite to watch. It was a whole different experience being at a smaller stadium, with shorter lines to meet the players, a low key fun vibe and a great view of the entire game. 

 

The Party Animals were the first team created to play against the original Savannah Bananas back in 2020.  The Loco Beach Coconuts are one of the newest additions to the league, making their debut in 2026 with tropical and beach-themed uniforms. The Coconuts are coached by Shane Victorino, the Flyin’ Hawaiian, who played for multiple MLB teams including the Philadelphia Phillies. 

 

The Party Animals mascot is a monkey named Pharty while the Coconuts had two mascots: Coco the Coconut and Peter Colada, a blue parrot. The Coconuts also come with lifeguards that do acrobatic stunts between innings, male hula dancers called the Hulagans, and a rock band called Sitting on Saturn. 

 

Prior to each game the Plaza is opened up hours before the start of the game to give fans an interactive experience. The Plaza includes a Dunkin Donuts truck giving away freebies and samples and for this series a Tropical Smoothie Cafe tiki hut with a limbo stick and free samples. The Hulagans taught everyone how to hula, Sitting on Saturn rocked the stage playing songs from all eras including an original song, players from the Party Animals danced on stage, all the mascots came out on stage, and a trivia contest was held with fans participating which ended with two getting a pie to the face. Also in the Plaza area you would find many players from both teams taking photos and signing autographs for everyone. 

 

There’s a countdown to open the gates and everyone rushes into the stadium. Before the game starts the rules are explained and the Coconuts bring a child onto the field dressed in a shark costume and hold the baby in the air Lion King style as the song Baby Shark is played. Players from each team were in the Party Decks throwing water balloons down to the dugouts where fans were trying to catch the balloons in their pants.

 

In between innings there are lots of fan interaction games.  For example, there are couples trying to pop balloons by hugging and rubbing into each other, men of different age groups including a 73 year old showing off their muscles by flexing, grown shirtless men with beer bellies racing to put mayo and mustard on their chests to make Jersey Mikes sandwiches, to the slowest race in the world which is a bunch of babies crawling to cross the finish line which usually ends up with the finish line being shortened and some babies crying, to kids bumping into each other with giant balls to see who can stay standing and so many other types of crazy games. 

 

Now the players themselves participate in the shenanigans, some wearing cowboy hats, hula skirts, short tight shorts, to dressing like a leprechaun and doing an Irish jig when coming to bat or chugging a beer while doing the jig, to performing choreographed dance numbers and unique entrances. One batter for the Party Animals walked down the seats on the third base side holding a guitar singing along to Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer. Another Party Animals player was escorted in a Ford vehicle around the whole warning track with other players in the car singing along to Call Me Maybe. Some of the Coconuts were riding around the field on motorized surfboards. One Coconuts player entered the field kicking around a soccer ball and scored a goal in a net placed on the mound in honor of the World Cup. You will also find many players doing trick plays, with each team trying to do more than the other. The trick plays usually involve a unique way of catching a fly ball by hitting the ball into the air with their glove before caching it or catching a line drive behind their back. There’s so much going on it’s hard to remember it all. But there is never a dull moment or dead time in a Banana Ball game. Music is constantly playing the entire game as well. 

 

The Coconuts games are known for two things - going with the beach party theme, on the hour every hour, Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffet’s song “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere” plays as fans sing along and in the eighth inning Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds” plays while fans are encouraged to sing along. 

 

And in every Banana Ball game there’s the “Hey Baby” dance where fans are encouraged to dance and sing along. Some fans even get to go on the field to dance with the players. 

 

One rule of Banana Ball that fans love is, if a fan catches a foul ball cleanly the batter is out. While I wasn’t at game 2, I did find out that two fans made catches. One woman even caught the foul ball in her hat. 

 

Here’s a recap. 

 

Game 1: Coconuts won 6-3. The Coconuts scored 9 runs and had 7 trick plays. The Party Animals scored 5 runs and had 9 trick plays. The Coconuts won the game in the ninth inning with a walk off home run.  Surprise guest Todd Frazier took one at bat for the Party Animals but lined out to the outfield. 

 

Game 2: The Party Animals won 2-0 as pitcher Brett Helton pitched his second complete game, earning his third Player of the Week award.  

 

Game 3: The Party Animals won 4-3. They scored 7 runs and had 6 trick plays. The Coconuts scored 6 runs and had 2 trick plays. This game had 3 home runs. All 3 by the Coconuts. This game was close, tied multiple times, which lead to both teams invoking the golden batter rule. This rule allows them to bring a new batter into the game, typically someone known for hitting home runs or even a celebrity. The Party Animals pulled out the win scoring 1 run in the ninth inning. 

 

Now we will wait to see if any of the Banana Ball teams head back to the Tri-state area next year. We will find out this fall when they do the big announcement, which fans can usually watch on their YouTube Channel. If you are interested in attending a Banana Ball game, you have to enter their lottery to purchase tickets and be selected. But, new this year, they launched the FansFirst app, where you can buy tickets for face value rather than paying the ridiculous fees people try to get on StubHub and other sites. 

 

If you can get tickets I highly recommend going. It’s a great experience. You will have a lot of fun and be smiling the entire time.