Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard about Banana Ball and the Savannah Bananas, the wildly popular baseball league that is sweeping the nation, filling MLB stadiums with standing-room only crowds full of screaming fans eager to experience the Banana Ball phenomenon.
Players performing line-dance routines between plays and pitches.
An owner who wears a bright yellow suit and top hat who is often spotted on dugout rooftops, cheering on the crowd.
Trick plays – like groundballs between the legs, behind-the-back catches, players catching fly balls while doing back flips, and catches after tipping the ball 10 feet into the air, then back into the glove.
“Stilts,” the guy who pitches and bats on stilts.
Dancing umpires, and ones who do backflips while making the call.
Among the most popular on-field entertainers are the Dad-Bods Man-Nanas cheerleading squad, complete with fatties with exposed beer bellies, and the Banana Nanas, a female senior-citizen dance team that performs hip-hop routines.
A two-hour game limit. Fan-caught foul balls count as outs.
The ‘ball-four-sprint’ – instead of walking to first, the batter races around the bases hoping to reach home plate before every fielder touches the ball. If he does, it counts as a run. One point is awarded to the team that scores the most runs in an inning, except for the ninth, when all runs count.
The ‘showdown’ — if a game is tied after nine innings, the field is cleared with the exception of the pitcher and one fielder, who attempt to get the batter out. If the game goes to another inning, the fielder is removed and it’s ‘mano a mano,’ pitcher against batter.
And no, I’m not making any of this up.
Banana Ball has gotten so big that you can even watch it on ESPN.
In the middle of all this zaniness is Lynnfield’s Jonathan Luders. He’s having the time of his life as the starting second baseman for the Texas Tailgaters – one of four teams in the league, along with the original Savannah Bananas, the Party Animals and the Firefighters.
Luders’ special talent? He bats and pitches on a unicycle.
A 2019 graduate of Lynnfield High, where he excelled in baseball and soccer, Luders had a standout baseball career at Seton Hall, graduating in 2023 and obtaining a teaching certificate in 2024 after a year of graduate study.
He returned home and began training in preparation for the MLB Draft league, saying the league was a “last chance to be seen by scouts.” Those plans went up in smoke when Luders hurt his knee.
“I had to put those plans on the shelf and work on just getting healthy,” he said. “I thought I could try to play independent ball, but that all changed last July when I saw the Savannah Bananas and the Party Animals play at Fenway. I was hooked and started trying to figure out how to get involved, so I did my homework and started to put it all together.”
Luders had learned to ride a unicycle in the fourth grade when he joined a unicycle club at school. He decided that was his best chance to make his mark with the Bananas, so he started practicing.
“I figured if I could learn to hit on it, that would be it for me,” he said. “I started with just idling in place, then added a bat and started to hit.”
Luders recorded his sessions on video and posted them on Instagram. Out of the blue, just after he was working on completing an online Bananas’ application, he received an instant message from a Bananas’ recruiter.
“Before I could really do anything to reach out to them, they reached out to me,” Luders said. “He had checked out my Seton Hall stats and said that I was one of the hardest Division 1 batters to strike out, so he invited me to a tryout and thought I’d be a good fit. I had nothing to lose.”
Luders attended a tryout in Philadelphia in September 2024, saying, “I left it all out on the table.” By the end of the year, the Bananas offered him a contract with the Tailgaters, one of two new teams launched ahead of the 2025 season.
He headed south to the Bananas’ home base in Savannah on April 1 for spring training. The regiment involved players learning entertainment pieces, practicing line dance routines, and working on their baseball skills. Luders also picked up a nickname — Sunshine — which, as anyone who meets him knows, is apropos for Luders, who is known for always bringing an unparalleled level of positivity and energy wherever he goes.
Luders has been at it ever since. He made his Tailgaters debut on the Banana Ball World Tour in late May against the Party Animals. While Texas didn’t win the game, Luders made history, turning the team’s first trick play — a between-the-legs ground ball to second. Later in the game, he also made history as the first player in the Banana Ball to bat while balancing on a unicycle. For the record, he grounded to third.
In a rematch, the next day, the Tailgaters picked up their first victory. The game was clinched when one of the wackiest Banana Ball rules came into play. The final out of the game came on a fan-caught foul ball down the left-field line.
“That was so cool. We all stormed the stands and practically carried the boy down to the field. The noise was unlike anything I have ever heard,” Luders said. “It was insane, and the first time a fan had ended a showdown.”
Luders’ first hit came in Reno three games in against the Party Animals. He laced the second pitch of his first at-bat into right field.
“That was so cool, because I had ‘Hoedown Throwdown’ by Hannah Montana as a walk-up dance,” Luders said. “People went crazy. My teammates went crazy.”
In July, Luders made his pitching debut — yes, on the unicycle. The place? The Great American Ball Park, home of the Cincinnati Reds.
“I threw three pitches, and I think they were all strikes, but the guy did get a hit off me,” Luders said. “I was a little disappointed, but DR (Meadows) is a really good hitter. But it was the first time it was done on a unicycle in a big league park.”
Unlike many players in the league whose roles are limited to one or two appearances each game, Luders plays a dual role. In addition to the entertainment component, he is a regular everyday player manning second base.
“I love that I get to play and am lucky that the Bananas didn’t say I was just the unicycle guy,” Luders said. “Stilts and some of the other guys are more entertainers and will only come in for one at-bat or one pitch. Honestly, what they do is awesome.”
Banana Ball came to Fenway Park again this summer. Several former Red Sox greats made special appearances, drawing deafening responses from the sold-out crowd. The group included Johnny Damon, Bill “Spaceman” Lee, Keith Foulke, Brock Holt and John Lackey. Even former football great Doug Flutie got in on the fun. According to Luders, Flutie was supposed to have tossed out one pitch, but he insisted on competing the at-bat.
“Just seeing the video footage of Boston icons like Flutie was so super cool,” Luders said. “You could see he still has a competitive fire. And seeing Brock Holt have a walkup was neat.”
By the time the playoffs roll around in early October, the Tailgaters will have played at four MLB parks — the Great American Ball Park, Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, PNC Park in Pittsburgh, and Daikin Park in Houston. Luders said the atmosphere at these parks can only be described as electric.
“Its unlike any experience I’ve ever had,” Luders said. “The fans are on their feet – they are so into it. The fans bring so much energy. Playing in these parks is just so much fun. I don’t know whether the players or the fans are having more fun.”
Luders is a huge fan of Banana Ball Founder Jesse Cole.
“I think what Mr. Cole has done is incredible,” Luders said. “I’ve read a couple of his books. He’s all about going from zero to hero the hard way. He’s a fans-first guy and basically comes down to, whatever is normal, he does the opposite. I really look up to him and respect him as a person and as an owner. He’s just giving fans a fun experience. The culture he’s created is outstanding.”
For now, Luders is just enjoying the ride. Borrowing a page from Cole, Luders’ favorite thing about Banana Ball is “playing for the fans.
“In the minor league, you are playing for yourself, trying to get to the majors, but with Banana Ball, that’s not the case at all. It’s all about the fans and interacting with them. Honestly, it takes an army to make it all work,” he said. “I just love the culture. I just love the fan interaction. Our team’s mission is always to make tailgating the best tailgating in the world.”
Luders believes fate had a hand in all of this.
“I think God had a plan for me when I hurt my knee, because I am having so much fun being a part of the Banana Ball family,” Luders said. “Honestly, I think it was destiny. It’s been awesome and such a cool journey so far, and I have loved every minute of it.”
