Playing for the Savannah Bananas allows Florida A&M alum to embrace his fun side

From his choreography on the field to twerk slides to home base, Savannah Bananas player Ty Jackson has quickly become a fan favorite.

The exhibition baseball team is known for mixing sports and entertainment. Its motto is “fans first.” That philosophy allows Jackson, a Florida A&M alum, to simply be himself.

“​​They want you to do over-the-top stuff. They say whatever is normal, do the opposite,” he said. “I remember I was trying to get recruited out of high school and I wore earrings to this tryout, and the coach is like, ‘Hey, we don’t like colored hair. We don’t like earrings.’ And I’m like, ‘But this is who I am.’ … I’m going to be me, and I’m going to be fly.”

Before joining the Savannah Bananas, Jackson was a member of Florida A&M’s baseball team, which won the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) championship in 2023. He earned an invitation to the inaugural HBCU Swingman Classic that year. In his senior year in 2024, he also made the All-SWAC first team.

The confidence Jackson exudes on the field in front of thousands of Savannah Bananas fans is a direct product of infusing the lessons he has learned from Florida A&M and feeding off his teammates’ energy.

“That sort of swag HBCUs [historically Black colleges and universities] have and swag Banana Ball has, and when it comes together, it’s just almost unstoppable,” Jackson said. “Common baseball people are going to be like, ‘Oh, that’s not real baseball.’ But it isn’t. It’s Banana Ball, so I think the swag that HBCU brings and the swag Banana Ball brings, it just meshes together.”

Banana Ball is a fast-paced version of baseball that features unique rules to enhance fan entertainment, such as a two-hour time limit and no bunting. Batters also are able to steal first, and foul balls caught by fans count as outs. The Bananas don’t compete in a traditional minor league baseball system but instead tour the country facing other teams within their Banana Ball league, which includes the Texas Tailgaters, the Party Animals and the Firefighters.

Jackson knows he isn’t the tallest, strongest or fastest baseball player, so he made a conscious decision to lean on his hidden superpower – his energy. His Savannah Bananas teammates said there isn’t a single player on their roster who is louder or more energetic than Jackson.

“You’re talking about a guy [who] you’re going to hear his voice. You could be 200 yards away and you’re not going to see him, but you know he’s there,” teammate Danny Hosley said.

“He’s going to give it his all every day on the field and off the field. He’s the dude you just want to be around him all day.”

In addition to Jackson, several other HBCU alums are on the Savannah Bananas, including Hosley (Norfolk State), Malachi Mitchell (Florida A&M) and Dalton Mauldin (Bethune-Cookman). Jackson also has competed against former Southern University baseball players Christian Davis and Taj Porter, who play for the Texas Tailgaters.

“I think the bond between some of the other HBCU grads and me is, like, we’ve been through it,” Jackson said. “We’re not at the powers [Power 4 schools], and we’re not at the best facilities, but I think at the end of the day we’ve gone through the same stuff together. I didn’t know them when I first met them, but we were like, ‘What’s up, bro? I remember playing against you.’”

Jackson spoke to Andscape about his HBCU roots, Banana Ball and how it is changing America’s pastime, and his personal choreography for Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”