Frankie Moscatiello is coming home to Yankee Stadium this weekend, and he is doing it in one of the sport’s strangest and most popular traveling shows. The Rocky Point native will pitch for the Savannah Bananas when they play two Yankee Game matchups against the Party Animals in Banana Ball Championship League play, with Game 1 set for 7 p.m. Saturday and Game 2 for 3 p.m. Sunday.
For Moscatiello, the Bronx stop fits the run he has been living for months. “It’s been a blast,” he said of the ride with the Bananas. “It’s everything I thought it would be and more,” he added, describing Yankee Stadium as “the coolest place to play.”
The demand tells its own story. Tickets bought through the Bananas’ lottery system sold for between $40 and $100, but by Tuesday afternoon seats on the secondary market were going for more than double face value. A handful of premium seats and suites were still listed through the Yankees’ website, a reminder of how quickly the Bananas have turned a novelty act into one of the hottest draws in baseball.
That is where Moscatiello comes in. The right-hander was a Newsday All-Long Island selection at Rocky Point in 2014 before moving on to St. Thomas Aquinas, where he was Pitcher of the Year in 2017 and 2018 and a Division II All-American in 2017. He pitched on his 30th birthday, March 27, in Anaheim Stadium, another stop on a schedule that has taken the Bananas through sold-out crowds in Caesar’s Superdome in New Orleans, Petco Park in San Diego and Anaheim Stadium last month.
The Bananas have made a habit of selling out everywhere they go, and the Bronx is no exception. Two weeks before this article, the team celebrated its 500th straight sell-out. It has done that while going 10-1 in a six-team league that also includes the Indianapolis Clowns, Texas Tailgaters, Loco Beach Coconuts, Firefighters and Party Animals.
What separates the Bananas from a normal club is the point of the whole exercise. Co-owner Jesse Cole put it plainly: “We’re not in the baseball business,” he said. “We’re in the entertainment business.” Moscatiello said that is exactly what he has found, adding that the fan experience has been incredibly rewarding and that the team feels like one big family. He said the crowds in Anaheim brought huge energy, and the players gave it back with choreographed dances, flips and tricks. “We’re signing autographs and interacting with fans everywhere we play,” he said.
That interaction is part of why the group keeps moving from one packed stadium to the next, and why Yankee Stadium is drawing the kind of attention usually reserved for the Yankees themselves. Moscatiello said the Bananas make sure fans get close to the players, whether that means meeting them, collecting autographs or seeing a version of the sport built around constant contact. After the two games in New York, the Bananas are scheduled to head to Truist Park in Atlanta for May 8-10. For Moscatiello, the weekend is a homecoming; for the Bananas, it is another stop in a year that has already made one thing clear: this show travels, and the crowds keep coming.
