TAMPA – Instead of going the professional baseball route, two national champion UTampa stars decided to go down a different path.
“It’s definitely an adjustment,” former Spartan pitcher C.J. Williams said.
They are still playing baseball, but it’s not your typical game of baseball.
“There’s little intricacies of the game that you just can’t learn without coming out here and experiencing it yourself,” former Spartan infielder J.D. Urso said.
It’s banana ball. The sport that is taking over the country by the Savannah Bananas. The game even sold out at Raymond James Stadium back in March.
All Americans C.J. Williams and J.D. Urso are now members of the Savannah Visitors, a try-out team under the Savannah Bananas umbrella.
What they’re saying:
“It’s been probably the coolest month of my life, winning a national championship and then coming over here started my banana ball career,” J.D. Urso said.
It’s essentially the Harlem Globetrotters but on a baseball diamond. Players are asked to dance, interact with the fans and perform trick plays. They want as many “wow” moments as possible. It’s taking over the country.
“Do the jumps, do the strikeout celebrations, do everything,” Williams said. “Do the bat flips. Everything you’re almost taught not to do it’s like do that, please. Like bat flips, do the strikeout celebration, stare the guy down, things like that.”
The recruitment started during the UTampa baseball season. Urso’s friend Chase Achuff out of Rollins College, sent him a text to see if anyone on the Spartans would be interested. Urso and Williams were willing to give it a shot.
The backstory:
The two Spartans have now been given six paid weeks to see if they have what it takes to join the popular road show. If the duo impresses, they’ll be selected by a team in the Banana Ball League Draft in October.
“The guys have all explained to me was try to play again, like you’re 11-years-old playing wiffle ball in the backyard with your friends,” Williams said. “That’s the thing, it’s a lot of fun. It’s still competing. The thought to still want to win is still there for sure.”
The former Spartans are enjoying their time. With Williams on the mound, Urso fielded a groundball at third and proceeded to purposely bounce the ball between his legs before firing it to first against the Party Animals.
That’s celebrated in Banana land.
However, doing something like that under Spartans head coach Joe Urso’s watch at Tampa would have resulted in severe punishment.
“If he saw that when I was wearing a Spartan jersey, you know, he’s mad when that top lip starts quivering a little bit, and, he would have not been happy,” J.D. Urso said. “I think there’d have been some choice words from him. I probably would have sat down on the bench for probably the rest of that game, if not the rest of the weekend.
However, Coach Urso speaks highly of banana ball as long as it doesn’t happen in a UTampa baseball game.
“They’re doing things on a baseball field that have never been done,” Joe Urso said. “What the owner has been able to do with his vision and selling out NFL stadiums. How can you not appreciate this? He actually has brought a lot of love to baseball.”
The former Spartans are feeling the love.
“It’s a great opportunity,” Williams said. “You play in sold out crowds every weekend. It’s that it’s a lot of fun.”
OTHER NEWS: Nationals-bound Kieu Simms hopes to grow sport of artistic roller skating
The bottom line is that – finding the fun in baseball.
“You can go 0 for 4 with four strikeouts,” J.D. Urso said. “But if we have 30 fans leave the game with a smile on their face, and you know, directly because of the interaction they had with myself, that’s a huge victory for us. That’s why you hear all the Bananas players talk about fans first. That’s not just a saying. That’s the lifestyle out here. We are out here to inspire, to put smiles on people’s faces.”
That feeling of seeing someone grinning ear to ear is something the two former Spartans never want to let go of.
“I see why they call it the greatest show in sports,” J.D. Urso said. “It is nothing short of incredible. It’d be a dream come true for me. I could definitely see myself doing this for a long time, if I was welcome.”
What’s next:
Urso, Williams and the Visitors take on the Bananas in Savannah starting on Friday night and throughout the weekend.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13’s Mark Skol, Jr.