Rebirth of Indianapolis Clowns focuses on storied history: 'We don't want that to be forgotten'
· Yahoo Sports
INDIANAPOLIS — Hammerin’ Hank circled the bases for the Indianapolis Clowns again Friday night at Victory Field.
This was not Hank Aaron himself, of course. This was a 5-year-old named Owen, wearing the No. 5 Aaron wore after signing his first professional contract with the Negro American League franchise. In one of many pregame gimmicks which stoked a crowd of almost 15,000, the visiting Party Animals avoided young Owen’s grounder through the infield, then threw it around as he circled the bases.
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The fresh future of baseball paying homage to its proud legacy – by design, that theme recurred throughout the night.
The Clowns played the first of two games in their namesake hometown. They are one of two new teams added to the Banana Ball World Tour – an offshoot of the perpetually viral and massively popular Savannah Bananas. Most of that sellout crowd stuck around until the final out of the Party Animals’ 6-2 victory.
Why leave your seat when the entertainment never stops? Instead of walk-up songs, music plays throughout the game. Skits and dance breaks and sing-alongs and constant crowd interaction.
Designated runner Malachi “Flash Tha Kid” Mitchell, wearing a race car driver’s suit and helmet, entering the game via a corvette. Peanuts, the “first mascot pitcher in baseball history,” retiring the only batter he faced. Instead of a seventh inning stretch, shutting off the lights, asking everyone in the stadium to turn on their cell phone flashlight and sing “What A Wonderful World.”
The entire night remained on brand for the kid-friendly frivolity Banana Ball has spread across the country. Yet the name and its connection to an important team and period in baseball history remain central to the players and organizers. They hope to entertain, but they also hope to educate.
“If things aren’t talked about, then people will forget, and we don’t want that to be forgotten,” said former Major League All-Star and Gold Glove winner Jackie Bradley Jr., who plays for the Clowns. “This is part of history, and it’s history that should be shared — not to show the bad things, but to show how far we’ve come and where we continue to grow and how we can get better.”
How the Indianapolis Clowns entertain and educate
The Savannah Bananas’ comedy-tinged brand of baseball became a national phenomenon over the past decade. The mix of rehearsed skits and routines, gimmicks like hitters wearing stilts up to the plate and general entertainment-first philosophy draws heavily from the legacy of teams such as the Clowns.
Yet founder and CEO Jesse Cole said as recently as five years ago, he had never heard of the Indianapolis Clowns. His introduction came during a Savannah Bananas trip to Kansas City and a visit to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. The museum’s president Bob Kendrick, also in attendance Friday, told him watching the Bananas took him back to watching the Clowns against the Kansas City Monarchs.
The original Clowns, founded in the 1930s, were a cornerstone Negro League franchise. Considered baseball’s version of the Harlem Globetrotters, the Clowns also won Negro League championships. Aaron signed his first professional contract with the Clowns in 1953. The same year a woman, Toni Stone, batted .243 and played second base.
The club continued barnstorming and playing exhibitions for decades – long after the league folded – before ceasing operations in 1989. Banana Ball brought the brand back as an homage to an essential piece of American baseball history – and the company’s modern role as ambassadors of the game.
“When I heard their story and they’re pioneers and what they went through and the challenges to play all over the country and the joy and the fun and the hijinks and the pranks, I was like, this is unbelievable,” Cole said. “For 60 years, they did this, and some people don’t know their story.
“And that’s what we do with Banana Ball is bring joy and bring fun. I was like, we need to get this story out there.”
Vinny Santarsiero turned his career as a mortgage broker into more of a side hustle when be became a Clown. He was already familiar with the team’s legacy, having read up on Negro League history on long bus rides during his three seasons in the Dodgers minor league system. He knew Aaron and one of his personal favorite pitchers, Satchel Paige, spent stints with the team.
After the night’s first pitch, the focus shifts to the party atmosphere of Banana Ball. Prior to the game, though, the Clowns paid tribute to the players who once starred for the Clowns but were denied an opportunity to play in the Major Leagues. As players took turns recognizing those former players and reciting their accolades, a teammate ran to their position, holding a flag with that original Clown’s playing number.
One of the biggest ovations of the night came when Steve Anderson, a Clowns player in the 1960s and 70s, escorted Bradley to home plate.
“I think everybody on this team wears this jersey with a heightened sense of pride, just because we know the heritage and the people that came before us and what we’re continuing on,” Santarsiero said.
“So there’s a tremendous amount of respect in each one of these players for the name on the front of the jersey.”
Nick Wilson said he was often the only Black kid in his baseball games while growing up in suburban Dallas. Prior to being drafted by the Clowns, his biggest source of Negro League history had been the Jackie Robinson biopic “42.”
He did not learn his grandfather, James Wilson, had played for a Black baseball team in Houston until it was mentioned in the eulogy of his funeral in 2017. Now he spreads the story of the Clowns around the country.
“We have history on our team, and that is such a responsibility to come with every day,” Wilson said. “It’s not just about putting on a great show, but it’s also educating people about this history.”
Indianapolis Clowns tryouts involved more than baseball
Wilson thought his unique baseball ride ended last spring. He was once an unlikely college prospect, beginning his high school career as the junior varsity manager and not making varsity until his senior year. He bounced around to four colleges. When he finished at Angelo State, he literally hung ‘em up – tying the shoelaces of his cleats together and tossing them onto a telephone wire.
He started a desk job at Dell Technologies in Nashville last fall before hearing about a tryout at Vanderbilt University. So he put on his uniform – not a baseball uniform, though.
The ad told candidates to be ready to stand out. Wilson showed up wearing a purple bandana and socks, a turtle shell and carrying a bo staff – everything needed to represent Donatello from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The tryout began with an interview. When Wilson said he liked to “bring the energy and dance,” the interviewers asked for a demonstration on the spot. Anyone too self-conscious or unwilling to let their hair down probably wasn’t going to play his way onto the team.
Santarsiero relocated to his wife’s hometown of Evansville after his playing career. He gave private lessons there and served as an assistant coach for Tecumseh High School. He learned the Banana Ball World Tour was expanding from Mitchell, his high school teammate in Gainesville, Florida.
At the tryout he showed he could still throw in the low to mid 90s. He also had to show he had the right personality. Somewhat surprisingly, one of the team’s most viral social media clips is of Santarsiero busting a move.
“Everyone has to buy in, and you have to lose the ego,” Santarsiero said. “You’re gonna look goofy at times, and you just have to kind of be comfortable with that. I wouldn’t say any of these baseball players were dance majors, you know what I mean?”
That goofiness is an essential piece of the team’s tribute to the Clowns. Friday night was the team’s first headlining experience. Players and other cast members spend two days rehearsing routines – many of which were performed for the first time.
Three Clowns spent a good portion of Friday afternoon working on a skit based on the old-time baseball game of pepper. When they felt they had everything synched up, they wanted to show it to Cole for his approval.
The Clowns’ stint in Indy this season ends Saturday, but the team’s connection to the city will continue.
“I feel like this will be a place that we come back to and try to do more in the years to come – whether that’s more events and more teams and really make this special,” Cole said.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis Clowns mix Banana Ball fun, Negro Leagues history and education