Clemson prepares for Banana Ball to invade Death Valley in historic game

History will be made this weekend in Clemson, with the first baseball game played in Memorial Stadium and the largest crowd to see the Savannah Bananas.

David Hood - Senior Writer - Wednesday, April 23 2025

History will be made Saturday in Clemson, with the first baseball game played in Memorial Stadium and the largest crowd to see the Savannah Bananas.

The Savannah Bananas baseball team will be playing at Clemson's Memorial Stadium against a team called the Party Animals. This event is part of the Savannah Bananas' Banana Ball World Tour, which includes stops at 17 MLB stadiums and four football stadiums across the country. The game in Clemson is the first time the Bananas will play in a college football-specific stadium. The Bananas played the Clemson baseball team late last year in Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

Eric Sabin, who currently serves as the Executive Senior Associate AD of Finance & Operations, met with a few members of the media Tuesday to discuss the event and answer some of our questions.

“We've been looking to bring some new or bring back some special events to Memorial Stadium, and we're considering our other venues as well, like Littlejohn or the special event that we did with the Bananas All-Star team versus Clemson baseball team at Doug Kingsmore,” Sabin said. “Erik Bakich was certainly very involved. He knew Jesse Cole (the owner of the Bananas) and had connected to Jesse and had kind of brought Jesse to the table to have some early conversations way back in ‘24.

“And then we spent a lot of time last spring, last summer, kind of working through some of the details of remaking the football stadium. So, I think those conversations we were having with them, they were also having similar conversations with some other venues, some NFL stadiums as we've seen on their schedule and kind of working through just different parameters or different challenges of putting a baseball field in a football stadium.”

Sabin said the netting system extends to almost the 30-yard line on the opposing sideline side of the field and near midfield on the home side. Clemson has also added extra wall padding.

“They're still putting all the wall padding up, we're creating a pseudo 360 wall that goes all the way behind home plate and outfield completely connected,” he said. “That was a lesson learned from the game down in Tampa of more wall padding. And so it's a unique setup, but it looks awesome and we didn't short ourselves on how the setup was going to be done from the field installation to the netting install. It is a playable baseball field inside that stadium.”

Clemson trucked in 200 tons of red clay to create the infield and warning track, and will take it out almost as soon as the game is over. As soon as next Monday, the school will begin the process of adding a new playing surface to Memorial Stadium – a system called Ready Play Grass.

“It is actually Clemson's responsibility to do the field, and we specifically asked for that during the negotiations with the Bananas to have that responsibility,” Sabin said. “It's our venue and we take a lot of pride in that field. And so our third-party vendor, Precision Turf, who helps us with all replacements or major maintenance projects on any of our athletic fields, is who we brought in to work with our athletic grounds crew, the same ones that redid the field at Kingsmore most recently. And so we took on that responsibility because we also made a promise to football that we would make sure that Frank Howard Field is back in pristine condition when this event is over.

“And so we did fully cut out Frank Howard Field for the infield of baseball. We actually recycled all of that turf, all of that natural grass and all of that soil in other areas in the athletic district to help revive some areas that we needed. And then the plan is once the event is over, we will scrape out all of that red clay and we will cut up all of that turf and then we will end up replacing Frank Howard Field from end zone to end zone with new Ready Play Natural Grass.

“It allows us to set it down and start playing games on it just a few days later. And the reason we do that is just because we obviously want Frank Howard Field and Memorial Stadium to look great year-round and we certainly use it for a lot of things. Football will have camps going on. We'll get into preseason ball right after that, so we don't have to worry about the growth season. And really, it's a perfect opportunity because we've been testing out some new hybrid grasses.”

Other notes

*Clemson earns revenue from concessions, parking and premium sales. The general ticket bowl sales belong to the Bananas. Both will be selling merchandise, but the Bananas have the larger portion of that.

*There will be alcohol sales. There will be a special Banana beer that is part of the Savannah Bananas sponsorship.

*There are some VIP guests scheduled, but the Bananas made the final decisions after Clemson recommendations.