Savannah Bananas will play ball at Target Field August 2026
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The popular exhibition baseball team Savannah Bananas, with their family-friendly “Banana Ball,” will take to Target Field for three games over the weekend of Aug. 7, 2026.
The Minnesota Twins worked with the Minneapolis Tourism Improvement District and Meet Minneapolis to bring the three-game series to Minnesota.
It’s the first time the Georgia-based team will play in Minnesota, but not the first game of “Banana Ball” in the state. In 2025, two teams affiliated with the Banana Ball World Tour, the Party Animals and the Texas Tailgaters played in St. Paul at CHS Field.
Tickets for the Savannah Bananas are lottery-based, and fans interested in attending should visit bananaball.com/tickets now through Oct. 31 to join the ticket lottery list for a chance to purchase tickets.
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The Savannah Bananas remain the nameplate of the Banana Ball entertainment and baseball league. On Thursday night, Savannah Banana founder Jessie Cole announced more growth for his brand of baseball hijinks.
Cole said the Savannah Bananas will be joined by five teams — The Party Animals, The Firefighters, The Texas Tailgaters, The Loco Beach Coconuts and the Indianapolis Clowns — in a new league in 2026 that has scheduled appearances in 75 stadiums in 45 states. Cole said Banana Ball drew 2.2 million fans this year and he hopes that number grows to 3.3 million in 2026.
The two new teams for 2026 are the Coconuts and the Clowns, which is a tribute to the original barnstorming team that inspired Cole.
Cole said Banana Ball will be played in 14 major league parks and 10 football stadiums, including two NFL sites — the Superdome in New Orleans and Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots. The new Banana Ball Championship League will include visits to such college football venues as Tennessee's Neyland Stadium and Texas A&M's Kyle Field.
“To see the response from fans all across the country, I don’t think anyone could have imagined this,” Cole told The Associated Press on Thursday, adding he only sold “a handful of tickets” when the Savannah Bananas were founded in 2016.
In 2023, the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, opened an exhibit dedicated to the Savannah Bananas. The exhibit was recognition of Cole's success attracting younger fans with shenanigans such as a player on stilts and outs being counted when a fan catches a foul ball in the stands.
The new league is adding new “Primetime Coach” positions which will be manned by two former major league players on the new teams — Shane Victorino on Loco Beach and Ryan Howard on Indianapolis.
