A baseball revolution is coming for Texas, and you won’t find it inside the MLB. Maybe you’ve sensed it in clips on TikTok or Instagram—a backflipping blur of bright yellow headed toward home plate or a 10-foot-tall pitcher on stilts.
This is “Banana Ball,” a fast-paced exhibition-style take on the game that began with Georgia’s Savannah Bananas in 2020. On the surface, it might bear some similarities to “The Great American Game,” but with several major tweaks. In the upside-down world of banana ball, for example, batters can’t bunt, but they can steal first base; there are no mound visits, and any foul ball caught by a fan is an automatic out. And the entire game is on a two-hour time limit.
When it comes to the players, make no mistake: They are athletes. But just as important, they’re showmen. The average banana ball player can make running behind the back catches while also executing a tightly-choreographed dance routine set to George Strait’s “All My Ex’s Live in Texas,” or Jennifer Lopez’s “On the Floor.”
Thanks to their viral-prone antics, Banana Ballers have taken the show across the country, expanding into a “Banana Ball Championship League,” made up of four teams, including their first semi-regional team to launch since the Bananas: The Texas Tailgaters.
The Tailgaters are also the first team to be based out of Texas, and though they don’t have a home stadium or city yet, their “home games” have taken place in Frisco, San Antonio, and Round Rock. Over the course of this season, they’ve traveled to various MLB stadiums across the country, including Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia, before finishing things out at Houston’s Daikin Park at the end of September.
Every member of the team is a character, including the coach. And you can find Tailgaters coach and manager Joseph Mikulik on game day donning Western chaps, a handlebar mustache, and a straw cowboy hat with his bootcut uniform.
A native Texan from Schulenburg, Mikulik’s professional baseball career began in 1984 when he was drafted by the Houston Astros. Over the next several decades, he played for a number of Minor League and Triple-A teams before beginning his coaching career with the Canton–Akron Indians in 1995. When Banana Ball came calling, he was working as the manager of the Rocky Mountain Vibes in Colorado.
So why leave baseball behind and sign on to lead a team as unconventional as the Tailgaters? For Mikulik, it was the excitement of jumping into something new. “Once you come to the ballpark, it’s thrilling,” he says. “It gives you chills, it’s electric. The first game I ever saw live, I was like, ‘Wow!’ And that’s after 40 years of professional baseball.”
Because of the entertainment-heavy nature of Banana Ball, it’s sometimes compared to other exhibition sports franchises like the Harlem Globetrotters, but Mikulik is quick to shut the comparisons down. “We’re no Harlem Globetrotters, we’re trying to create our own sport,” he says. “We’re not competing with anyone, not the MLB or any other sport.”
Marcos Castillo, a Tailgaters outfielder, grew up in Round Rock, and recently got the chance to play at the Dell Diamond—the same field he frequented as a kid. “When I was a lot younger, they’d let me in for free,” he remembers. “It’s kind of like a childhood moment just to come here.”
Like all of the players, Castillo was encouraged to develop an on-field persona. Taking inspiration from a childhood spent playing neighborhood baseball and his love of the classic movie, The Sandlot, Castillo based his persona on the character Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez, complete with custom cleated PF Flyers, a white tank top, and an unbuttoned jersey. For him, Banana Ball is an opportunity to bridge the gap between the sport he’s known his whole life, and a new one he can help put his mark on.
“These games are legit,” he says. “Anybody can win any given night. We’re a group of guys that have played division one baseball, professional baseball, minor leagues, and some former major league players.”
While in Round Rock, Castillo hit his first homerun for the team, which also marked the first time he got to experience a Tailgaters tradition: as he rounded the bases, his teammates pulled out a keg for a celebratory keg stand on home plate. “I remember hitting the ball, but after that, I blacked out,” he says. “It was amazing.”
In 2026, two more Banana Ball teams will be announced, ushering in the official Banana Ball Championship League. Already, the season’s ticket lottery has a waitlist of over 3 million people. But before that, this year’s Banana Ball World Tour will culminate in a four-day championship tournament in Savannah’s historic Grayson Stadium starting Oct. 2.
The Championship will be the Tailgaters’ first chance to establish themselves as the top franchise in the league. With that, Mikulik is laser focused on the mission at hand. “We’re excited about growth, it’s one of the reasons why I’m standing here today,” he says. “It’s going to be competitive, but, here’s the deal: fans are first. Our first principle is to be fanatical about the fans.”
