Savannah Bananas exhibit opening at Baseball Hall of Fame - ESPN

The Baseball Hall of Fame is going Bananas.

An exhibit dedicated to the sport's wackiest team, the Savannah Bananas, will open Friday at the hallowed shrine in Cooperstown, New York.

«I'm blown away,» Bananas owner Jesse Cole told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. «As a kid, you look up to all your heroes in the Hall of Fame. To even be considered for a display that shares what we're doing is really special.»

What started as an idea to exhibit a few Bananas-related items at the Hall of Fame was expanded into a full display and a weekend of activities, capped by a game Saturday at Doubleday Field against their perennial rivals, the Party Animals.

Some 6,500 tickets sold out in minutes, which has become the norm for the barnstorming, Harlem Globetrotters-style team that spawned its own reality series and claims to have a waiting list of more than a million fans.

Josh Rawitch, who is president of the Hall, called the team a «phenomenon» that is helping attract younger, less-traditional crowds with shenanigans such as a player on stilts and outs being counted when a fan catches a foul ball in the stands.

He said the Bananas deserved to be recognized at a museum that also is striving to create a whole new generation of fans for the national pastime.

«I think the game, as it is, is incredibly entertaining,» Rawitch said. «But they've added an additional element.»

The Bananas were founded in 2016 as a member of Coastal Plains League, a summer circuit for college players. But Cole always had grander ambitions, eventually starting a professional team alongside the amateur squad so he could fully try out a version of the game he calls «Banana Ball.»

Among the rules: a two-hour time limit on games, no bunting, batters