Banana Ball takes over Sioux Falls

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — It was opening night of the Banana Ball World Tour on Thursday and the league's players are not only embracing their game's uniqueness, they're celebrating it.

If you haven't heard of Banana Ball, where have you been?

This new take on baseball combines America's pastime with the country's love of entertainment featuring dances, trick plays and more on-field antics.

"I dressed up as Ken from Barbie, which was a spectacle," Eli Paton, the Indianapolis Clowns third baseman said.

"For me, I'm a magician. That's my side thing. So, like, I try to incorporate that in ways in the game. The hardest thing for me was, how can I incorporate magic into the game itself? So I wear a top hat in some games, and I'll catch the ball in the top hat. So it's also a trick play., but then I'll disappear the ball," Firefighters outfielder South Trimble said.

Even with all these fun side elements, Paton summed up what this league truly is the best.

"This is so much more than major leagues or minor leagues, like we're impacting so many people on a daily basis, whether that's the youth or grown adults, like there's something for everyone in Banana Ball, whether that's the dancing, the playing, the interactions you have with players," Paton said.

Correlle Prime is the first baseman for the Indianapolis Clowns, and previously played for the league's namesake Savannah Bananas.

He entered the weekend series one trick play away from 100 in his career, and recorded it early in the Thursday night game.

"I like to catch the ball behind my back at first base, you know, if I get the throw to do it. And it's just cool to experiment over there and do things you would never dream of doing on a baseball field," Prime said.

While the players on the field are doing the entertaining, Banana Ball keeps its fans incorporated into the action better than most other professional leagues, with a key wrinkle being that a batter is "out" if a fan catches a foul ball.

"We couldn't do it, obviously, without them being here {the fans} , and we just want to make an impact on them, and hopefully they get impacted being at the games. The great thing is, playing at places like this, it's more intimate. You can talk to more fans, and you can have a good time with them," Trimble said.

With three sellouts expected on this stop of the Banana Ball World Tour, the uniqueness of this experience and league in general, isn't lost on the players, but at the end of the day, they do this for the fans.

"We put a lot of work in before prepping for the show and things like that, but as time goes on and the show builds up, it's just a very rewarding feeling to see people here enjoying what you're doing, enjoying the product that you're coming to put out," Prime said.

The Banana Ball World Tour hosts two more games at the Birdcage on Friday and Saturday.