Banana Ball – Savannah – Bananas vs Firefighters

A second Bananas series was never on my radar. Until Monday when my friends were talking about going to the games. I thought that a flight would be ridiculous to buy the Monday before, but it was relatively reasonable and I had managed to find us decent tickets (and even a Backstage ticket for myself) pretty easily so the road trip was on.

I got home from David Cook about 11:30 and debated staying up all night or trying to get in some sleep. I ended up sleeping for a few hours and leaving for the airport around 2:30am. The flight to Charlotte was pretty uneventful, and no surprise they were short wheelchair pushers when I landed. My friend wasn’t able to pick me up right away anyway so I told them to leave me and I’d be ok for a bit.

Once I got picked up we were on the road to our hotel in Savannah. We had hoped to be there before 2 so my friend could take a work meeting from the room but she ended up taking it from the car. We got into our room, hung out for a bit and tried to figure out why the room was so COLD. Managed to avoid the passing thunderstorm and then made our way to Grayson Stadium.

There were a LOT more people there than usual so I wasn’t sure we’d get our “spot” but we did! Except some new additions to the dugout made it really hard to see all of the play and I have to say it was probably the least attention I’ve ever paid to a game. (And you can see it for yourself if you watch the game back, I’m hardly ever looking when the camera is on me!)

Bananas went up 1-0 quickly in the first, Eric Jones Jr of the Firefighters fouled out to a fan to lead off the 2nd, Ty Jackson had a walk off in the 3rd, Reese Alexiades in the 4th. Firefighters bats seemed to wake up in the 5th where they scored 4 runs and earned a point and Lamar Sparks had a Home Run in the 6th helping the Firefighters score 3 and earn a 3nd point. After that, there wasn’t anymore scoring and the Bananas were victorious 3-2. After the game we tried to track down as many Bananas as we could for my project and ended up getting 7.

Saturday we decided our room was far too cold to stay in so we told the front desk and made our way outside to come up with something to do. Initially our plan was ice cream, but I found a dessert place that we thought about going to after the game instead so we opted to check out the Pirates & Treasure museum instead. It’s a pretty small museum and they said it would take an hour or two to go through, but that’s probably if you read every single thing there was to read. We only read what caught our attention and were done in about 30 minutes. I kept joking that the pirates were “One Eyed Willy” from the Goonies and was PLEASANTLY surprised when we made it into the last room to see an entire Goonies display – complete with ONE EYED WILLY. The last room was all about pirates in TV and movies – also featuring Jack Sparrow, One Piece and Kermit.

Once we finished with the museum we decided to stop and get pie only to realize that they had DOLE WHIPS and so we got that instead. See, some sort of frozen treat was still on the agenda we just hadn’t preplanned it. After hitting up the gift shop for some pirate and savannah stickers, we made our way back to Grayson.

For this game I had gotten myself a BBB ticket but my friend did not, so we split up and I waited to go inside. The sky kept getting darker and darker and the wind was picking up so we weren’t sure if we were going to end up caught in a storm. I had my BBB all planned out – who to go to first and all that – until they said we’d be on the concourse so we would be undercover. The regular BBB entrance has stairs to access the concourse and the ramp is on the complete other side. I said I needed to use the ramp and was sent off on my own since I knew where it was. But it also meant I was going against all the other people who were able to get up the stairs. Most of the firefighters were first and since their portion of my project is done, I got some selfies and chatted with a few. My mission however was to find KJ and Jackson since their lines at the post-plaza-party are ridiculous. I ended up with 8 more bananas by the end of my time with them – but Jackson was nowhere to be found. Eventually the field re-opened and they said we could go down to sign the wall and get in the group photo but after crisscrossing the stadium all I wanted to do was grab my seat! The usher ended up coming by shortly after saying 2 of the firefighters had left their roses and gave them to my friend and I!

This game got off to a hot start for the firefighters with back to back home runs from Eric Jones Jr and Darrien McDowell giving the Firefighters a 5 run inning and the first point of the game. Ben Dum was amazing and kept the Bananas scoreless through the first 4 innings. In the 5th and 6th the Bananas had back to back home run walk offs from Dan Oberst and Reese Alexiades, giving them the 2-1 lead. Firefighters tied it back up in the 8th, no one scored in the 9th sending us to SHOW DOWNS. Hosley pitched to Lamar Sparks, striking him out. Oberst up for the 3rd time in 5 at bats ended up hitting a home run – game over. Bananas won 4-2. [A home run in show downs not only wins it, but you get a bonus point]

After the game we were on a mission to get as many more players as we could – and I think we got 7 more – leaving me with only ONE player left who was in attendance – Jackson. I also will need to track down DR and Kelsie at some point to complete the team. We were all over the place trying to find the last handful of players, but still finished with enough time to make our 10:15 reservation at the dessert restaurant – Better than Sex. The whole set up of the place was great, you sit at tables behind curtains and all their talk about the menu is full of innuendos. Our waiter, Jay, was fantastic. We both ended up getting a ‘Dont Be Chai’ to drink and I got the Peanut Butter Perversion while my friend got Double Stuffed. Everything was absolutely delicious, though we weren’t able to finish.

When we got back to our room it was no longer a meat locker but instead 85 degrees. We still couldn’t get it working to cool down and slept with the complete extreme from the night before. (In the morning when I wasn’t so sleepy I figured out how to get it to a normal temperature) Before heading back to Charlotte we stopped for brunch and then hit up a pet supply store before hitting the road. We stopped for dinner and found that my flight had been quite delayed and then I realized there was an earlier one I might be able to get on so we raced to the airport.

The agent at the counter put me on standby for the 7:48 flight since I had been upgraded to first class on the 9:01 flight and said there were 6 seats and I was #3 on the list so I should be in decent shape to get on it. The flight was already delayed until 8:26 at this point and ended up delayed to about 9pm before all was said and done. 3 people trying to board had gotten bumped because they thought they weren’t going to make the connection and no one from the standby list was cleared before we boarded. #1 and #2 had gone up to the counter and left fist pumping, only to later get in a fight with the gate agent which somehow ended up with me in spot #1 and then in #3 and #4. After the whole flight boarded, my name got called and I had a seat! Supposedly there was 1 other seat after me but 2 couples who wanted to go. One couple opted to split up but once I got into my seat they couldn’t find a seat for him and he left the flight. I was in an aisle which was probably best case scenario for being the last to board and everyone around me helped me out a ton when it was time to get off the plane. The 9pm flight I was originally on didn’t end up taking off until after midnight, which would have gotten me home at around 4am instead of 1:30am. First class isn’t worth that much to me! Maybe some other time I’ll get surprised with an upgrade.