NEW YORK — The Savannah Bananas are bringing Banana Ball to Yankee Stadium this weekend, with Game 1 set for 7 p.m. on Friday after Saturday’s matchup was moved up because rain is in the forecast. Game 2 is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Sunday, giving New York fans two chances to see the Party Animals in one of baseball’s most famous parks.
The matchup comes as the Bananas remain one of the sport’s hottest draws. Tickets sold through the team’s lottery system were priced between $40 and $100, but by Tuesday afternoon seats on the secondary market were going for more than double face value. A handful of premium seat and suite tickets were still available through the Yankees’ website.
That demand fits the way the Bananas have built their brand since starting in 2016. The team celebrated its 500th straight sell-out two weeks before this stop at Yankee Stadium, and it has already played sold-out crowds last month at Caesar’s Superdome in New Orleans, Petco Park in San Diego and Anaheim Stadium. After New York, the Bananas are scheduled to play at Truist Park in Atlanta on May 8-10.
One of the players now getting another stage is Frankie Moscatiello, a former Long Island standout whose path to the Bananas ran through years of hard work in baseball before he landed in the game’s most unconventional lineup. Moscatiello was an All-Long Island selection in 2014 at Rocky Point, then played at St. Thomas Aquinas, where he earned Pitcher of the Year honors in 2017 and 2018 and was a Division II All-American in 2017. He wore No. 99 and pitched on his 30th birthday on March 27 in Anaheim Stadium.
Moscatiello said the experience has been everything he hoped it would be, adding that it has been a blast and that the fan experience has been incredibly rewarding. He called it the coolest place to play and said it feels like pick-up wiffle ball. He also said the Bananas sign autographs and interact with fans everywhere they go, because the team wants people to meet players the way they would hope to meet stars like Aaron Judge at Yankee Stadium. Bananas co-owner Jesse Cole has made the philosophy plain: they are not in the baseball business, he said. They are in the entertainment business.
The Bananas entered the weekend 10-1 in the six-team league that also includes the Indianapolis Clowns, Texas Tailgaters, Loco Beach Coconuts, Firefighters and Party Animals, and their latest New York stop adds another big city stage to a run that has already filled stadiums across the country. For Moscatiello, the setting is part of the appeal. For the team, it is the point.
