Mary Miske, Diana Tabor and Priscilla Jones all “hate baseball.”
Yet, the three women stood outside Wrigley Field near Clark and Addison Saturday afternoon decked out in gear supporting the Savannah Bananas’ opposing team, the Firefighters. They wore red flame sunglasses, cowboy hats and gave out Fireball cinnamon whiskey shots out of a fake fire hose (only to adults).
Why did they come if they hate baseball so much?
Because they love Banana Ball — the high-energy, entertainment-focused and fan-first version of baseball made famous by the Savannah Bananas.
“It’s what everybody loves about baseball and then they take what everybody hates about baseball out. … It’s just the fun, the dancing, the crowd engagement. It’s incredible what he’s done,” said Tabor, 46, referring to Savannah Bananas owner Jesse Cole.
Tabor, who is Miske’s sister and is visiting from Texas, said all the fun is “not just the game, but the camaraderie before.”
So, why dress up in the opposing team’s colors?
“Because we look better in red than we do in yellow,” said Miske, 61, from Lake Zurich.
Over in right field, near Addison Street and Sheffield Avenue, David Weinberg was handing out bananas from a yellow-painted trash can with googly eyes and a home-plate-shaped face.
The 43-year-old Oak Forest artist bought about 60 pounds worth of bananas from Costco, loaded them into his yellow garbage can and handed them out to fans streaming into the sold-out Bananas game.
“Every time, I try to repurpose something because the whole concept of my trash art is to say that even though it’s trash, it still has life in it because it can be repurposed,” said Weinberg, dressed in a yellow T-shirt, yellow overalls and a baseball helmet he painted with various designs, including a Cubs “W” flag, ivy, and, of course, a banana on front.
Weinberg also set up a scavenger hunt with his art, scattering mini trash cans with sketches around Wrigleyville.
Bill Veeck, the innovative baseball owner famous for bringing entertainment to the ballpark, is one of Weinberg’s idols. Among many quirky stunts, Veeck is famous for planting the ivy at Wrigley Field and bringing the “exploding scoreboard” to Comiskey Park.
“He did a lot of crazy, crazy promo stuff, and the Savannah Bananas are like the grandchild of that concept. So, that’s part of why I wanted to be here too because it’s like we’re related in a way artistically,” Weinberg said.
For Anthony Olund, 35, Saturday’s Bananas game was a bit of a full-circle moment.
He used to play for the Savannah Bees, a former intercollegiate baseball team from Savannah, Georgia, that played at the current home of the Bananas, the historic Grayson Stadium.
Olund attended the game with his wife, Alyssa, their two sons and his mother. Olund’s two sons, Andrew, 7, and Austin, 4, have been “so excited” for the Bananas game ever since they won the lottery for tickets months ago.
“[Andrew’s] response was, ‘Let’s go!’” Alyssa Olund said when they found out they’d be going to the game.
“I hope I catch a ball!” Andrew said, of what he most looked forward to Saturday.
The family, from Crown Point, Indiana, tries to watch as many Bananas games as they can between other baseball, particularly the White Sox.
Anthony Olund said he wants his kids to simply have fun “more so than everything.”
“For these guys to have fun and see that there’s another side of [baseball] — grown men just having a good time, you know, and actually translates down the road and brings the best athleticism out of everybody,” he said. “Playing loose and that’s kind of what I’d like these kids to see today.”