The Internet Has Turned On The Savannah Bananas

I don't remember exactly when the Savannah Bananas rose to internet fame. It feels like it happened overnight. One day they just appeared on our feeds and everybody immediately understood what the Savannah Bananas were. A baseball team that does wacky bits geared toward children and are good for viral internet clips. They're the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball. In my opinion, they're much better than the Globetrotters, because at least the Savannah Bananas are actually competing. The rules of Banana Ball are fluid, but it's still a competition between two teams who are trying to win a game. It's actually possible for the Savannah Bananas to lose. That's far more compelling to me than the Harlem Globetrotters beating the Washington Generals by 100 points every night. 

I don't know if it's fair to say everybody loved the Savannah Bananas at first. But I don't think they invoked any extreme negative reactions out of anyone. I've always thought I'd like to catch a game someday. If the stars aligned and I happened to be in the right city at the right time. Some of their rules actually sound pretty fun. Banana Ball Rule #8, for example - If a fan catches a foul ball, it's an out.

That's pretty fun. I'd be pretty fired up if I were sitting along the 3rd base line and I suddenly had an opportunity to make a big play for the home team. I believe your ticket comes with a free beer as well. From everything I've heard, the Savannah Bananas put on a great show in real life, and the fan experience is well worth the price of admission. I know the tickets are still highly sought after. You have to enter your name in a lottery just for the opportunity to purchase them. Which I also think is nice, because it keeps their prices reasonable. I had only ever seen positive things about the Savannah Bananas. I'm sure they weren't everyone's cup of tea. I'm sure the baseball pursuits out have probably thought all along that the Savannah Banana's are a plague on America's greatest pastime. But overall, the Bananas weren't hurting anybody. They are what they are, they know who their audience is, and by all accounts they do a phenomenal job of catering to them.

But that clip at the top the blog... The lengthy choreographed dance on the pitchers mount that culminated in an 80 mph fastball 3-feet off the plate. That was the tipping point. What happens to every good thing on the internet finally happened to the Savannah Bananas. People finally woke up and realized that they're fed up with the Bananas' bullshit gimmicks, and they couldn't stay silent any longer.

That last tweet made me sad. It made me want to call my mom and tell her I love her immediately. That kid's dear mother probably thought she'd thought of the perfect activity to do with her son. She probably saw a Savannah Banana's clip on Facebook and thought they looked like fun time. "My son likes baseball. He'll probably think I'm a cool parent for suggesting this. This could be a nice, light-hearted mother-son experience for us to enjoy together."

But nope, sorry mom. Your idea sucks shit. I'm gonna roast your ass on the internet for even considering it.

(Note: In reality I'm sure this is probably a perfectly good son who loves his mother and would simply rather do something other than go to a Savannah Bananas' game. He was probably trying to make an innocent "I don't like the Savannah Bananas joke" on the internet. He probably isn't the most ungrateful piece of trash son in the entire world. When he sent that tweet, he was probably not intentionally spitting in the face of your dead mother who you would love nothing more than to receive a text like that from just one more time. Jesus christ people. It's not that serious)

My bad. I got sidetracked trying to rationalize tweets for a second. But back to my point. Unless you are a literal war hero (and I'm not even sure they're impervious), there's nothing in the world that stands the test of time on the internet. No matter how great, or how completely harmless and innocent a thing is, one day the internet will inevitably realize that it's actually bad, and deep down they've known how bad it was along. And anybody who actually enjoys such a thing is representative of everything that is wrong with the world today.

I'm admittedly a day or two late to the Savannah Bananas hate wave. Which is years in internet time. We've now reached the point where if you search "Savannah Bananas hate" on Twitter, you'll have to sift through about 100 tweets saying "I don't get all the Savannah Bananas hate", before you get to any actual people hating on the Savannah Bananas. Which is how these things always go. But all things considered, I think most people aren't waking up in the morning seething at the mouth thinking about the Savannah Bananas' pitcher doing a Bugs Bunny impression with bases loaded and 2 outs in a pivotal moment of a game vs the Lexington County Blowfish. But the Bananas' hate is officially out there. 

If we're being honest, the Savannah Bananas social team did this to themselves. They set themselves up for ridicule with that post by captioning the video, "I bet your friends can't do this". The video is of a pitcher throwing an all-around horrendous pitch. Most people's friend's can probably do that just fine. I hate to victim shame the Bananas, but they were kinda asking for it.

In a way the Savannah Bananas should be honored. You haven't made it in the world unless you have haters. That's what they teach us here at Barstool Sports. The more haters the better. The more people that tell you your content sucks, and that you've never been funny, and that they would rather scoop their eyes out with spoons than read a single sentence of your ironic blog. That actually means you're thriving. That's unequivocally true, and definitely not something we tell ourselves to keep from jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge. Go Bananas.