The Savannah Bananas baseball team has gone viral for its dirty Dancing routine.
When the opening lyrics of “(I've Had) The Time of My Life” by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes came over the public address system during a sold-out game against the Party Animals at Jacksonville's Financial Ballpark, the entire team baseball Savannah Bananas converged. to recreate the famous scene of dirty Dancing.
“It was a massive production that took the entire team,” Bananas catcher Bill LeRoy said. ABC News. “It was fun to pull it all off and have all the kids dancing with me, and the fans seem to love it.”
The dance break came after a strikeout, in which LeRoy and Bananas pitcher Kyle Luigs did the iconic lift made famous by Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Gray in the 1980s.
“As soon as that song came on, people got really excited and I don't think they knew exactly what was going to happen,” Luigs explained to the outlet. “I'm sure there are probably a lot of people thinking that, you know, surely they're not going to do this whole scene from my favorite movie.”
“It was a lot of falls and a lot of disasters and a lot of trial and error to figure out how little me was going to lift up his big self,” LeRoy said, noting that it took a while before they made it down. A lot of preparation goes into the Bananas dance routines, and timing is everything when playing Banana Ball.
Luigs revealed: “It took about a year and a half until we were able to do it live with the entire production in front of a crowd.”
“I think what a lot of people don't realize is that you'll have something set up to do, but if the game doesn't present you with how to do it, you just won't do it,” Luigs added. “You have to keep it in your back pocket. “You know you can’t give up seven runs and then do a dance promo.”
The Bananas are no strangers to going viral, widely known for bringing their trademark swagger and silliness to the national pastime. Like others in the past, this video quickly circulated on social media and, in a matter of days, garnered over 11 million views on TikTok.
“It's one of those things that everyone grew up watching, loves and understands,” explained Kyle Frongillo, entertainment director for Savannah Bananas. “Social media is very unpredictable, but certain things we do, we have a very strong idea that they will turn out well.”
The Bananas will continue to bring joy to the masses, continuing their hot streak after the team recently played in their first Major League Baseball stadium, where they faced the Party Animals at Houston's Minute Maid Park in another sell-out game. exhausted. Playing in Houston marked the fifth game of the Bananas' “world tour,” which will reportedly span 84 games over nine months and hit six other MLB stadiums.
Their next games will reportedly take place at Gwinnett County's Coolray Field on March 22-24.
