Savannah Bananas: Inside The Banana Ball Phenomenon | Jesse Cole

Michael Gervais (0:00)

Finding Mastery is brought to you by Momentus. If you followed us for a while, you know how highly I think of Momentus and what they're trying to do in the supplement industry. They talk about something they call performance for life. I want to say that again, performance for life. I love that because it puts words as something we hear at Finding Mastery care deeply about. We do not believe in high performance for high performance's sake alone. We want to help others unlock their potential that is already within them so that they can experience all the richness, all the fullness of life. That's what I want for you, and that's what Momentus wants for you as well. It's not about living more years. It's about adding more life to those years. To help you do that, they just released a great new product, Momentus Longevity. I am really interested in what they're doing here. They've designed it for cellular health as a foundation for how we age and perform. They took some risks. They put some stuff in here that others are not putting in. And one of those is that it's got a smell and a taste to it that is unique. And I'm not saying that it's something that you're going to be attracted to. This is not a berry smell. This is not a sweetness. There's no additives in here. There is a rigor to what they're doing, and they made some decisions, which I really respect. Momentous has built this product with the same standards that I've come to expect from them. It's formulated by experts, tested for purity, and then it's anchored in legit science. If you're thinking long-term and you're looking for support for your brain, your body, and the energy at the cellular level, then this is one that I'd highly recommend you checking out. Head to livemomentous.com and use the code Finding Mastery for 35% off your first subscription. Again, that's livemomentous, L-I-V-E-M-O-M-E-N-T-O-U-S, livemomentous.com, and then use the code Finding Mastery for those who are in it for the long game.

A whole lot of singing, a whole lot of dancing.

SPEAKER_2 (2:03)

Batting on stilts.

Jesse Cole (2:05)

Taking the world by storm.

SPEAKER_2 (2:06)

Selling out ballparks and football stadiums with 80,000 seats.

Jesse Cole (2:10)

It is a party here.

SPEAKER_2 (2:11)

Massing nearly 11 million followers on TikTok.

Jesse Cole (2:14)

You're going to be entertained like never before.

Michael Gervais (2:18)

If somebody hasn't been paying attention, can you just explain in your own words what Banana Ball is?

Jesse Cole (2:22)

We're combining the game of baseball with brand new rules. What are all the boring parts of stepping out of the box? Walks, mound visits, three to four hour game. Then I said, all right, what would be those perfect scenarios? What would be really cool? A two-hour time limit. If you win the inning, you get a point. No walks, no mound visits, no bunting. What if a kid caught a foul ball to win the game and the players rush out, they bring him on the field, they lift him over their shoulders, and they're celebrating the media's interviewing him after the game? That's the Banana Ball.

Michael Gervais (2:48)

What if instead of chasing a seat at the table, you built an entirely new game and then the world fell in love?

Jesse Cole (2:54)

We started with Savannah Bananas, first playing traditional baseball, and then we created the party animals that now have a huge following, then the firefighters, then the Texas tailgaters, and the key is each team has their own identity, their own point of views. It's the greatest pregame in sports that never ends.

Michael Gervais (3:08)

Welcome back, or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast where we dive into the minds of the world's greatest thinkers and doers. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Gervais. By trade and training a high-performance psychologist. The idea behind these conversations is simple. To sit with the extraordinaries and to learn. To really learn about how they work from the inside out. And today's guest is someone who has completely reimagined what's possible in sport. Jesse Cole grew up dreaming of playing major league baseball. But when his playing career abruptly ended, he didn't walk away from the game. He reinvented it.

Jesse Cole (3:36)

When I was in college, I was a very competitive baseball player. I had this goal of playing at Fenway Park, of being drafted. And it was everything. I was the top scholarship guy, scouts watching. I had to put pressure on myself. And I never performed with my ability. In fact, I ended up tearing my shoulder as I was doing so much. I wished I played with the fun that I played when I was 12 years old, the way my dad taught me, because I put that expectation of this big scholarship and this demand on me that I played different. And that affected everything.