Just two years removed from playing in Jamestown High’s infield, Noah Katz will be on the field in a Major League Baseball park for the second time in a month Saturday and the third time this season.
Katz, 20, will work as an umpire at Nationals Park in Washington, when the Savannah Bananas play the Firefighters — one of two teams that tour with the Bananas — in front of a sellout crowd of more than 41,000. In June, he was the outfield umpire at a Bananas game in front of a sellout at Fenway Park in Boston.
“I got to sign the Green Monster at Fenway,” he said. “That was a big thrill.”
The Bananas and Katz are a perfect fit. The Bananas are selling out more than 80 games a year, many at Major League parks, because of their entertaining baseball high jinks made famous by viral TikTok videos. Savannah is scheduled to make appearances Aug. 16-18 at Harbor Park. All those games have already been listed as sellouts.
Katz has gained a foothold in the umpiring world, and is increasing employment as an umpire, because of the popularity of his online “Umpire Channel.” The Umpire Channel, which Katz founded the week of his graduation from Jamestown in June 2022, bills itself as “the largest source for umpire related content in the world.”
In just two years, it has truly become so.
Katz — a marketing major about to enter his third year on a presidential scholarship at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts — has more than 200,000 followers across five platforms, including 118,000 on TikTok. His videos about all things umpire-related have generated more than 100 million views.
While those numbers are impressive, and attracting increasing sponsorship, they pale in comparison to the Bananas, who boast more than 6 million online followers. That’s more, Katz says, than any MLB team.
The reason is because of the zany brand of baseball the Bananas offer. They play genuinely competitive games against opponents Firefighters and Party Animals, but amid a far wackier atmosphere than when they were in the Coastal Plain League (2016-22), playing college summer ball against the likes of the Peninsula Pilots.
Now a professional team of mostly former minor leaguers, the Bananas offer off-the-charts entertainment along with real baseball. For instance, the players will often pause to do choreographed dance numbers together before and even during innings.
The Bananas specialize in trick plays, such as backflip and behind-the-back or through-the-leg catches and throws. While all the Bananas wear bright yellow uniforms, one player — a base-stealing specialist — supplements his with a purple and yellow cape, while a pitcher nicknamed “Cowboy” sports a cowboy hat.
The games are fast, with two-hour time limits, and it is not uncommon to see a pitcher wind up and throw in virtually the same motion as he gets the ball from the catcher. Among the different rules, a batter can “steal” first base on a passed ball or wild pitch, but is out if he fouls the ball into the stands and it is caught on the fly by a fan.
Players interact often with the fans and so do umpires. A home-plate umpire at a Bananas game will do a dance when a batter strikes out and it is considered part of the show.
“We are encouraged to have fun with the calls, interact with the fans and give autographs,” Katz said.
Katz was offered a tryout as an umpire with the Bananas prior to the 2023 season, when he filmed the team during spring training for the Umpire Channel. An umpire since he was 16, Katz began working college summer league games in Virginia when he was 18, so he was experienced enough to pass the Bananas tryout with flying colors.
In addition to Fenway Park, he also worked a game earlier this season at Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros.
“Roger Clemens was at the game at Minute Maid and he said it was louder than any Major League game he’d ever heard,” Katz said. “The fans are really into it.”
Katz is seemingly handling his chores umpiring in the big time without difficulty. Players in Bananas games are allowed to challenge calls, and Katz said when his “out” call on the bases was challenged at Fenway, it was not overturned by TV replay.
Katz doesn’t know whether or not he’ll call a Bananas game in Norfolk next month because he might be back at college. While he’d love to work a professional game close to Williamsburg, he is excited about being on the field this week at the home of the Washington Nationals
“Growing up in Williamsburg, Nationals Park is one of those places I would go to games and where I fell in love with baseball,” he said. “I never imagined I’d ever be on the field there.”
Marty O’Brien, mjobrien@dailypress.com
