The Savannah Bananas brought their unique version of baseball to South Philly. How did it compare to a Phillies game?

Saturday wasn’t Stephen Rocco’s first rodeo with the Savannah Bananas. The Albany, N.Y., native’s introduction to the team came in their home park down in Georgia. He and a friend traveled to see the team in person and stopped by the ballpark a few days before the game to buy a T-shirt while the Bananas were batting.

“We walked into Grayson Stadium, and [owner] Jesse Cole comes around the corner and he goes, ‘Hey, what are you guys doing here?’” Rocco said. “’ We’re going to hit the merch stand. We’re coming Thursday night for the game.’ He goes, ‘Go out and watch the boys practice!’ Every single guy that went into the cage came over to talk to us in the grandstand. ‘Where are you from? How are you guys doing?’ Fans first. It’s a real thing.”

Rocco has since traveled to three more cities to see the Bananas play, including Philadelphia. He was far from the only fan at Saturday’s game at Citizens Bank Park with a story about how the Bananas went out of their way to make the experience extra special.

After years of trying, Rebecca Russell and her friend Ashley Toth managed to secure tickets to Saturday’s game just a few days beforehand. The Houston native purchased VIB (Very Important Banana) tickets and got a call from someone in the Bananas ticket office, who walked her through everything included in the package and when to arrive.

“They always put fans first,” Russell said.

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The crowd arrived early, with the VIB package holders entering the stadium as early as 2 p.m. to get their first look at the Bananas. A few fans wore Phillies jerseys, but most fans came dressed for the occasion — in Savannah Bananas jerseys and T-shirts, Party Animals gear, and even a few banana costumes.

One fan, Cameron Bergin, was at his 16th Bananas game and has traveled from Jefferson, Ga., to see the Bananas all across the country. He wore a blazer and pants covered in bananas, and bright yellow sneakers with a Bananas T-shirt. Rocco wore a purple and black zebra printed blazer he got from Kohl’s on clearance in honor of the Party Animals — the Bananas’ opponent, who had their own small but mighty group of fans.

“[Party Animals’ pitcher] Sean Fluke is probably my favorite player in Banana Ball,” Rocco said. “I gravitated towards the Party Animals, so when I watch everybody else go, ‘Oh, we love the Bananas!’ I felt the need to represent the other side of the house. I just love the whole kind of motif that they put out: Let’s have a good time, let’s party. A little different than the jock-y, healthy Bananas.”

Many of the fans at the game were baseball fans first, like 14-year-old Macie Minton, who said that while she liked the Phillies, she definitely preferred the Bananas. Others, like Russell, weren’t MLB fans at all, and only followed the Bananas. The crowd spanned all ages, from young families to teenagers to adults.

The entertainment started pregame with a show from the Dad Bod Cheerleading Squad and from some of the Savannah Bananas. One balanced a bat and a ladder on his head and another put on a pregame magic show — with fan guests. And the fun didn’t stop once the game started. It was just beginning.

I’ve been to a fair few baseball games, including a number at Citizens Bank Park. Bryce Harper was not hopping on the field with a mic to hype up the crowd before the game the way the Bananas were (honestly, though, it seems like something he’d enjoy doing). In some ways, it was more like professional wrestling, with players from the Party Animals and the Bananas taking shots at each other on the mic pregame. They even did a weigh-in ahead of a dance-off.

If I sat here and detailed everything the Bananas did pregame, it’d be novel-length. But it’s truly a one-of-a-kind experience. Many fans, young and old, took the field for dance-offs and challenges, and each team put together a choreographed intro dance.

The players didn’t really use the dugouts, electing to mostly stand in front of them on the track, making it easier for them to rush onto the field every time something fun happened. Each player had walk-out music, like they do in MLB, except they often performed a little dance. Bryson Stott needs to get in the lab and work on choreography for “A-OK” — which did play during the game, to the delight of the crowd. The umpire also dances. I honestly can’t think of anything I’d want to see less than an umpire hitting a floss after a strikeout in MLB, so let’s not take that one.

After hitting a home run, the lights at Citizens Bank Park went dim as a Banana performed “Dancing On My Own.” You don’t often see players perform a solo number on the field — although that did actually happen in MLB this year, albeit after, not during a game.

Honestly, it was closer to real baseball than I expected. Yes, they do bits in between at-bats and make up their own rules, but it’s not as obviously scripted as, say, the Harlem Globetrotters. Guys get hits and runs like they would in a normal game. The celebrations are over the top, but the at-bats look pretty real! Ryan Howard struck out on three pitches! The Bananas didn’t even win!

So, it’s a real game, but if you were watching Mets-Phillies beforehand like I was, you’d quickly realize the lack of tension in this one. The fun is in the presentation, in dancing along with the Bananas and watching the antics, not in the home runs. And the fans absolutely loved it. The fans were on their feet cheering, singing, and dancing along the entire night, feeding into every bit.

I’ll stick to regular baseball, but Banana Ball was a great night at the ballpark.