RIDGE RUNNER CHRONICLES: The Savannah Bananas and the Legacy of Bill Veeck
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By Bill Hoagland
If you are a baseball fan, by now you probably have heard of the Savannah Bananas. This baseball team, based in Savannah, Georgia, was built around the concept that baseball is a great game but it is much too slow and serious. By all accounts, fans who attend these Savannah Banana games are entertained by unexpected departures from those seemingly sacrosanct rules of the game. For example, if a fan in the stands catches a foul ball, the batter is out. These Banana games have become so popular that the last 200 games, played in various venues around the country, are usually sold out, including a recent game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis where Adam Wainwright and Jason Isringhausen made unannounced “relief” appearances for the Bananas. (You can find more details about the game, the players and so on at “www.savannahbananas.com”.)
This concept–that we need to spice up the game of baseball—is not new. Bill Veeck, who once owned the Cleveland Indians, the St. Louis Browns and the Chicago White Sox, tried years ago to make professional baseball more fun for the fan. His efforts were not appreciated by the stodgy oligarchs of the major leagues—the super rich owners with no sense of humor whatsoever—but the fans loved Veeck and what he was doing. And who wouldn’t love what Veeck represented? Here was a guy brash enough to thumb his nose at the other owners just to get under their skins. Veeck, a former Marine with an amputated leg, was one of those persons who was larger than life; we all know guys like this—great fun to hang with but universally unappreciated by the spouse, right? So let’s briefly review what Veeck did, years ago, to make watching major league baseball more fun.
Veeck loved scoreboards. When he worked for the Chicago Cubs, he was responsible for the ivy on the outfield walls and the unique, hand-operated score board at Wrigley field. Years later, when he owned the Chicago White Sox, he made performances of the scoreboard at Comiskey Park worth the price of admission. When a Sox player hit a home run, the scoreboard would go nuts. He had roman candles mounted on the scoreboard that would erupt. He had edgy messages flashed on a scoreboard screen. He had a device on the scoreboard that would emit smoke shortly after the scoreboard finished “going nuts”, making fans think that the scoreboard was now on fire due to a short circuit. At one point, he even had a box mounted on the scoreboard that contained homing pigeons. These pigeons had been raised and trained in New York City, so when the Sox were playing the New York Yankees and the Sox won, the homing pigeons were released to fly back to NYC with news that the Sox won.
He loved to sponsor special nights for national events and specific ethnic groups. For example, during National Dairy Week, he brought in dairy cows and members of the Sox and opposing teams had a milking contest at home plate; on “Mexican Night” at Comiskey, he had Minnie Minoso in a bull ring at home plate, dressed as a matador, facing off with a man dressed as a bull; and because Joe Early, a fan, complained that he never had a “special night”, Veeck sponsored a “Good Old Joe Early Night”, where Joe was presented with a car that exploded, an outhouse on wheels and blocks of ice before Joe actually received some gifts of value.
Then there was the “funeral” staged at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland, when at the end of the 1949 season, the Indians buried the World Series Flag from the prior year. There was a horse-drawn hearse, with Veeck dressed as an undertaker and and players acting as pallbearers wearing black suits and top hats as they solemnly lowered the flag, placed it in a coffin and buried it in front of thousands of fans. The reaction of the baseball oligarchs to this event pleased Veeck no end; they claimed he was making a travesty of losing. Really? The baseball oligarchs needed to lighten up and who better to do it than Bill Veeck.
I could go on with hundreds of examples of Veeck trying to make a basically boring game more fun for the fan, but you get the idea. Without a doubt, Veeck’s spirit is now hanging out with the Savannah Bananas.
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■ Bill Hoagland has practiced law in Alton for more than 50 years, but he has spent more than 70 years hunting, fishing and generally being in the great outdoors. His wife, Annie, shares his love of the outdoor life. Much of their spare time is spent on their farm in Calhoun County. Bill can be reached at [email protected].
