Going bananas? What to know if you plan to head to Banana Ball at PNC Field
The unhinged, fast-paced and wildly viral world of Banana Ball invades Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this weekend as the newly minted Banana Ball Championship League rolls into town. PNC Field in Moosic, home of the RailRiders, hosts a two-game series Friday and Saturday between the Loco Beach Coconuts and the Firefighters. The events are sold out, but for those holding the golden ticket to this spectacle, surviving the madness requires some game-day strategy.
Here’s your official playbook to navigate the chaos. Game-goers should be prepared for a unique experience, with rules that have been tweaked and twisted to ensure the day will not be simply about competition, but adventure. Fans might want to bring along their own baseball mitt and have it at the ready during the game.
In this competition, “fans make the outs,” so if they catch a foul ball in the stands, the batter is out. Even scorekeeping comes with a twist during the game. Instead of compiling runs for nine innings, each inning acts as its own mini-game worth 1 point.
The team that scores the most runs in that inning gets the point. Win the inning? Get the point!
Unlike a traditional baseball game with nine innings, Banana Baseball has a hard two-hour time limit. No new innings can begin after an hour and 50 minutes has elapsed. Other rules also add color and adventure to the game: Batters must stay in the batter’s box, and stepping out results in an automatic strike; bunting is prohibited; no stealing first base on any pitch; no walks and, on ball four, the batter sprints while every single fielder must touch the ball before that runner can be tagged out.
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