Jesse Cole ’06 came to Wofford to play baseball. But he left a showman.
Cole grew up on baseball. He played at Wofford and was recruited professionally. Then he injured his shoulder.
“It was the best thing to ever happen to me,” says Cole, who discovered his true passion through Wofford Theatre. “What I realized was that I loved putting on a show just as much as I loved playing baseball.”
After graduation, Cole became general manager of the Gastonia Grizzlies, a collegiate summer league team in Gastonia, N.C. The team became his life, and Cole eventually proposed to his girlfriend, Emily, on the field wearing his signature yellow tux. After the proposal, Emily surprised Cole with a trip to Historic Grayson Stadium, home to a professional team in Savannah, Ga.
“We fell in love with the stadium and the community but were shocked there were only a few hundred fans at the game,” Cole says. “We knew we could do something special here, so when we heard the professional team was leaving because of lack of support, Emily and I bought an expansion franchise in the Coastal Plain League and worked with the city of Savannah to welcome a college summer baseball team.”
The Savannah Bananas, which was named by a fan during the name-theteam contest, is not a normal baseball team; Cole makes sure of it. It’s the only baseball team with a pep band, a break dancing first base coach and a yellowsuited Santa at every game.
“I remember the first time the first base coach started break dancing,” Cole says. “I watched thousands of people in the stands put their cameras up. The next day, we were all over ESPN.”
Cole wants people to leave each game and go tell their friends, “you won’t believe what I saw at the ballpark last night.” With zero marketing budget, the Savannah Bananas went from selling one ticket in the first few months to selling out the past three seasons and having a waitlist that numbers in the thousands.
“People go to our games to feel good,” Cole says “At every game there’s dancing, singing, emotion, laughter, tears. It’s like a movie script.”
And there is a script. Cole and the Savannah Bananas staff choreograph every game. Everything is intentional, even the way they describe each game as a show.
“What we do is theatre,” says Cole. “The signs outside say ‘Welcome to the show.’ It’s not a baseball game; it’s a show with some baseball. I can’t control the game or the scoreboard, but I can control the fan experience. Even if we lose badly, people still have fun.”
Google “yellow tux,” and Cole pops up along with the link to his book, “Find Your Yellow Tux: How to Be Successful by Standing Out.” Cole’s entrepreneurial website and endless pictures and videos are also easy to find.
Cole knows when he puts on his yellow tux, it’s showtime, and he wears it every single day. It’s his calling card.
“I believe in standing out,” says Cole. “What do you own in people’s minds? What sets you apart? For me, it’s this.”
By Kate Thomas