ESPN+ Documentary Series Features Saugerties High alum Biko Skalla

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Skalla (right) gets sprayed with… you guessed it… bananas.

banana land, a five-part ESPN+ documentary series about the Savannah Bananas baseball team, aired its first episode on Friday, August 19. broadcast host. The remaining four episodes of banana land airs on ESPN+ Friday through September 16. The network will also air live Banana Ball games on consecutive Friday and Saturday nights, August 26-27 and September 2-3.

The Savannah Bananas are a wooden collegiate baseball club playing in the Coastal Plain League (CPL), 15 teams in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. What sets the Bananas apart, and what likely caught ESPN’s attention, is their commitment to a fun atmosphere on and off the field, with a first base breakdancing coach, the Banana Nanas – a team fully-grandmother dance artist – and a professional luchador. called Voodoo Jack among fan-friendly initiatives that helped the team achieve an 88-game sold-out streak at Grayson Stadium, a historic 4,000-capacity baseball stadium in Savannah.

banana land follows players, coaches and ball club staff – Skalla included – on a seven-city “World Tour” as they attempt to introduce not only their infectious energy, but also Banana Ball, which is one of its nine rules no walks, batters may steal first, no buntings, no mound visits, and any foul ball caught by a fan counts as an out.

In mid-June 2020, Skalla left behind a steady associate producer job with MLB/NHL Network after seeing a job posting from Mercurial Bananas owner Jesse Cole, also a founder of Fans First Entertainment.

“To say this was unlike any other job description I’ve ever seen would be an understatement,” Skalla said in 2020. Some Sales. This one, right off the bat, no resume, no cover letter required. They wanted three play-by-play innings of literally any game ever. And they also wanted three new ideas for the show. And they had a little connection to the story of Bananas. After watching this 19 minute and 43 second clip on the Bananas website, I thought, “Holy you know what, I have to go down and see what happens. At least as a fan, at some point I need to see a game here. But I would love to be inside the broadcast.

Skalla’s in-game commentary and social media reports quickly became a hit with Bananas backers, so much so that he became an essential piece of the Savannah Bananas puzzle.

“Baseball should be really exciting,” Skalla said. “Bananas is probably the single most unique opportunity in the country…It’s a great place for me to really let go. (College baseball) is just a purer example of the game because everyone’s dreams don’t Everyone’s younger and hopeful and trying to get into the big leagues, and that’s a lot of fun to see.

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