Jesse Cole vividly remembers the early days of owning the Savannah Bananas.

They sold only a handful of tickets in the inaugural season in 2016 as a member of the Coastal Plain League playing as a collegiate summer team. He and his wife sold their house, emptied their savings accounts and slept on an air bed to start the team. When they left traditional baseball in 2022 and started "Banana Ball," Cole expressed that they had a "big vision to create something special."

The doubters expressed an opposite view.

"We were told it would fail. People said they would never come to it because it's not real baseball," Cole told ESPN. "We've been criticized every step of the way. But you know what I remember, what I focus on is the fans that love it."

After playing in front of over 2 million of t

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