At the 2027 Banana Ball World Tour City Selection Show in Savannah, Jesse Cole talked with Chris from The Chris & Sandy Show & The Coastal Buzz about taking criticism, creating instead of consuming, the sleepless nights behind the success and why the biggest chapters of Banana Ball may still be ahead.
There is no mistaking Jesse Cole in a crowd. The yellow suit, the yellow hat and the larger-than-life energy have become nearly as recognizable as the Savannah Bananas themselves. But during the 2027 Banana Ball World Tour City Selection Show at Grayson Stadium in Savannah, our conversation with Cole went somewhere beyond the spectacle.
The event itself represented another milestone in a story that has grown far beyond Savannah. Fans gathered at the place where so much of the Banana Ball story began as Cole and the organization looked toward another year of expansion and another chapter in what has become a sports-entertainment phenomenon. Yet behind the packed stadiums, ambitious plans and unmistakable showmanship is something Cole knows comes with attempting anything different: criticism.
“The only people that get criticized are the people that actually do things,” Cole told The Chris & Sandy Show.
It’s a lesson Banana Ball learned early. Cole recalled criticism in Savannah before the organization had earned the community’s trust and another wave when the Bananas walked away from traditional baseball to fully embrace Banana Ball. Savannah had a long baseball history, and not everyone immediately understood where Cole and his team wanted to go.
His approach was shaped in part by something his father used to tell him: “Just swing hard in case you hit it.”
Cole acknowledged that criticism can still hurt, but said doing something big, different or unique inevitably brings some resistance. The answer isn’t to stop. For Cole, it’s to keep pushing forward for the fans.
That willingness to be misunderstood has become especially relevant in a world where nearly anyone can become a creator. People launch podcasts, businesses, YouTube channels, brands and ideas every day, often while the people closest to them struggle to understand what they’re trying to build.
Asked what he would tell those creators, Cole didn’t offer a shortcut. He talked about believing in something enough to try it, test it and put it into the world.
“We’ve tried hundreds and hundreds of things,” Cole said, acknowledging that many of them failed.
The key, he said, is continuing to show up and continuing to try. And then he offered an observation that extends far beyond baseball: “We need more people creating and less people consuming.”
What would happen, he wondered, if people woke up thinking about what they could create and contribute instead of simply what they could consume?
For an organization that routinely experiments with new ideas during games, failure isn’t necessarily evidence that something shouldn’t have been attempted. Sometimes it’s simply part of discovering what works. And when an idea sounds a little crazy?
“Crazy is a compliment,” Cole said.
From One City to a Billion Fans
The City Selection Show offered a fitting backdrop for that philosophy because the scale of Banana Ball today would have sounded improbable not very long ago.
Cole recalled the progression himself: the first Banana Ball World Tour announcement featured one city. The next featured seven. Then came 33 cities, followed by Major League Baseball stadiums, football stadiums and eventually the development of a league.
The ambitions have grown along with it.
“We have a goal to create one billion fans,” Cole said. “And you do that one fan at a time.”
It’s a staggering number, but perhaps the more revealing part of that statement is the second half. Even as Banana Ball grows into enormous venues and reaches audiences far beyond Savannah, Cole continues to frame the mission around the individual fan.
The City Selection Show, he said, represents another step in that evolution—another opportunity to try things, test things and dream bigger.
But massive growth comes with something fans rarely see.
The Glory Is Visible. The Grind Isn’t.
There is a question we’ve asked guests on The Chris & Sandy Show for years.
People see the glory in what someone does. They see the success, the recognition and the moments that make everything look as if it worked perfectly.
But what about the grind? What are people not seeing behind the scenes?
For Cole, the answer came quickly.
“The amount of sleep.”
Behind the yellow suit and the seemingly endless energy is a man who sometimes wakes in the middle of the night thinking about problems that need solving and people he feels responsible for.
There are now hundreds of people working within the organization, Cole explained, and he wants to take care of them. He wants to take care of the fans. There are challenges and adversity that come with growth, even when things appear extraordinary from the outside.
And then there is home.
Cole and his wife have three children under eight. Building something this large while trying to remain present for his children creates another balancing act the public rarely sees.
He credited his wife as “the rock” of their family—and of the organization itself.
Those are the moments that don’t necessarily make the highlight reel: the sleepless nights, the responsibility, the uncertainty and the constant effort to figure out what comes next.
“It’s hard,” Cole said. “But you keep showing up. You don’t quit. You believe.”
For all the fun associated with Banana Ball, that may be one of the more revealing windows into what has actually fueled its growth. The organization didn’t become what it is simply because somebody came up with an unusual version of baseball. Behind the entertainment is a willingness to repeatedly try things that might fail, withstand criticism when people don’t understand them and keep working after the crowds have gone home.
“We’re Just Getting Started”
So where does something like Banana Ball go after it has already outgrown the boundaries people once imagined for it?
Cole doesn’t seem particularly interested in finding boundaries.
He pointed to Walt Disney’s philosophy of continuing to move forward and “plusing” the experience—constantly asking how something can become better. He talked about doing things people consider impossible and, importantly, not being afraid to fail while attempting them.
Cole also described a first-principles approach to the future: question everything. Ask why something is done a certain way. Imagine what would happen if you started with a blank slate rather than accepting that something must continue simply because “that’s the way we’ve always done it.”
That mindset has already helped take Banana Ball beyond traditional baseball fields and into football stadiums and even cruise ships. Cole said the focus remains creating remarkable, unforgettable experiences for fans, regardless of where those experiences happen next.
“I feel like we’re just getting started,” he said.
That’s an interesting statement from someone standing at the center of something that, from the outside, already looks enormously successful.
But perhaps that’s the point.
The yellow suit is easy to see. The packed stadiums are easy to see. The viral videos, expanding tour and thousands of cheering fans are easy to see.
The criticism that came before people understood the vision isn’t.
The experiments that failed aren’t.
The middle-of-the-night thoughts aren’t.
The responsibility of hundreds of employees isn’t.
The struggle to build something enormous while still being a husband and father isn’t.
At Grayson Stadium, surrounded by another celebration of how far Banana Ball has traveled, Jesse Cole seemed much more interested in where it could still go.
And maybe the biggest reason Banana Ball keeps growing is that the people building it haven’t decided they’ve arrived yet.
For Jesse Cole, there is still another swing to take.
Latest posts by Chris & Sandy Benton (see all)
- Beyond the Yellow Suit: Jesse Cole on Criticism, the Grind Behind Banana Ball and Why They’re Just Getting Started - October 17, 2026
- Become a Founding Show Partner - July 13, 2026
- The Hidden Cost of Chasing the Dream - June 10, 2026
