CHARLESTON, W.Va. — GoMart Ballpark, home of the Charleston Dirty Birds, is expected to be packed when the team takes on the Savannah Bananas this weekend.
The Bananas, much like the Harlem Globetrotters, are an entertainment baseball team that Dirty Birds Owner and CEO Andy Shea said will draw a lot of laughs in single games Friday and Saturday.
“It will be non-stop smiling, laughing and just sheer entertainment with some legit, very cool, great baseball of course,” Shae said. “The entertainment piece of what they do is just second to none.”
Shea said the Bananas also know how to get serious when it comes down to being competitive.
“These guys are real, legit athletes who are really good at baseball too,” he said on Wednesday’s MetroNews “Hotline” with Dave Weekley.
Games start at 7 p.m. both Friday and Saturday.
Shea said the team has a new turf field at GoMart Ball Park that has benefited the players and the city of Charleston already.
“It is absolutely amazing. It is a true complete and utter game-changer for us literally and figuratively. The amount of programming that we’re able to do is amazing. We’ve already done it. We’ve had so many college and high school games out here already,” he said.
Earlier this month, more than 5,000 fans attended a WVU-Marshall game at GoMart Ball Park, which was a few hundred shy of the largest crowd ever at the stadium.
Ticket purchases at that game had gone cashless for the first time. Shea said it worked out well, but he thinks the Bananas game this weekend will run even smoother because more fans made advanced plans to attend the event.
“The difficulty with that game (WVU-Marshall) was that 60 percent of a 5,000 person crowd bought their ticket the day of the game. The beauty about the Bananas is that it’s been sold out for months,” he said.
After this weekend’s games, the Dirty Birds will officially begin their season on the road against the Staten Island Ferryhawks on April 28. The first home game is scheduled for May 9.