The Savannah Bananas are baseball’s answer to the Harlem Globetrotters. Hugely popular, the Bananas are selling out ballparks across the country. Banana Ball has its own set of rules, and they keep evolving. Our purpose here is to describe and explain the rules as they stand currently
The game has a strict two-hour time limit.
If the game ends in a tie, a dramatic tiebreaker scheme is employed.
If a fan catches a foul ball, the batter is out.
The outcome of the game is based on points, not runs.
A word about points, not runs. Suppose Team A outscores Team B in a given inning; then Team A is awarded one point. If neither team scores a run, or if both teams score the same number of runs, neither team gets a point. In other words, only the team that wins the inning gets the point.
For example, here is the score by inning for a recent Washington/Tampa Bay MLB game.
Washing’n 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 4 winner
TampaBay 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3
However, based on inning-by-inning comparisons per Banana Ball, the game ends in a 2-2 tie (before the tiebreaker) because each team had two innings in which it outscored the other. Had Washington scored, say, 8 runs in the second inning, the outcome of the game would still be a 2-2 tie. Stacking up more runs in a given inning does not help you in Banana Ball.
Any player or fan knows that it is very difficult to bounce back after the other team has had a “big” inning. The difference between MLB and Banana Ball is that BB scoring can help with this. In a recent game played in Atlanta, the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Atlanta Braves 9-4. Here are the results for each inning.
MIL 0 8 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 9 winner
ATL 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 4
Under Banana Ball rules, inning by inning, the home team not only wins the game but does so in dramatic ninth-inning walk-off fashion! No true Braves fan would dream of leaving the game early. Think of all the merchandise and concessions that would still have been sold in the final three innings.
So, Banana Ball scoring can keep both teams (and their fans) in the game even if one team has a big unanswered inning, because only the inning winner gets the point.
We then conducted an analysis using only the change to the BB point-scoring system, not any other BB rules. We examined the 42 MLB games played June 19-21, 2026. Of those, 36 had the same win/loss outcome, four would have resulted in ties requiring a tiebreaker, and two would have resulted in “flips.” One flip was the MIL/ATL game described above; the other was STL/KC, which STL won 12-10. Under Banana Ball scoring, KC – the home team – wins the game 3-2 with another walk-off ninth!
In this small snapshot of games, 85% of outcomes remained unchanged, 10% ended in a tie, and less than 5% flipped, with one game featuring a big inning.
Photo courtesy Visit Wilmington, DE
Should MLB change its scoring rules? It’s tempting, isn’t it? No team is ever really out of it unless the other team has outscored them in multiple innings. That encourages fans to stay for the entire game, and concessions and merchandise sales increase.
Is it feasible? No.
Is it fair? Probably not.
Would it fundamentally affect the strategy of the game? Certainly. But it might still be kind of fun.
If nothing else, Banana Ball scoring could replace the “mercy rule” used in youth and other leagues. In “mercied” games, the game ends when one team has an x number of runs lead. Under Banana Ball scoring, neither team loses badly, players get to play the full game, and fans get to see it.
To borrow a phrase from John Lennon, we say, “Give Banana Ball scoring a chance.”
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For a complete set of rule changes, see Banana Ball Rules.
