bananas in mudville

Just two hours earlier, the
Gastonia Grizzlies were watching
a giant cave-man baby stomping
around atop their dugout as their
starting line-up was announced.
(No, I missed the joke.)

Just one hour after that, the men
known as the Savannah Bananas
had been transformed into boys
playing at slip-and-slide on the
tarp's water puddles.
Quite entertaining!

Entertainment is the name of the game here at Grayson Stadium these days and nights.
When the forecast called for rain -
pardon as I steal this, Robert Cray -
the tall man in the yellow top hat and tails changed the audience's gaze from the tarp being dragged over the soon-to-be-soaked field to up, up, up in the stands!

See him over to the right, yellow garb gleaming against the green backdrop of the trees?
He had the inflatable monkey in one hand and the huge banana pool float in the other!
Time for the crowd to propel the two balloons around the stadium to the other side!
Which would win the race???
The monkey did, thanks to Mister Willie's major assist to its journey!

How about having the Bananas Pep Band play a few favorites for the crowd?
Great idea - so that's what they did, playing three songs and getting folks on their feet!
That was followed by the garbage-can-nachos eating contest!
A little YMCA sing-along!
Dancing 1993's macarena (brought back to life in "Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation)!

Okay, that was fun for twenty minutes... what to do next?
How about having two guys try to catch bananas in oversized - and colorful! - pants?
Sure, let's do that!
The folks always like that... but it needs to go for more than its usual 60 seconds.
How can we do that?
Just throw more bananas?

What would be the fun in that?
Everyone will know we're just artificially prolonging the game...
which they'll figure out anyway...
so we have to make it more
entertaining...
Here's what we do!
Have Jesse move all over the stadium so folks can see him in
their sections!

That's how it came to pass that Jesse Cole, the yellow-tux man, clambered all over the stadium, tossing bananas toward the two young men down in the front row.
And the audience, including yours truly and Mister Willie Smith, enjoyed the spectacle and laughed and clapped!
After all, we had all come to be entertained...
and we most certainly were.
The baseball game was rained out,
but the show went on!