60 Minutes - 07/06/2025: Surfmen, Smith Island, Banana Ball

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

Correspondent Bill Whitaker ventures out to one of the most dangerous inlets in America, nicknamed the Graveyard of the Pacific, at the mouth of the Columbia River. The mission? Document the training of elite members of the U.S. Coast Guard determined to graduate from the National Motor Lifeboat School and earn the coveted title of certified Surfmen. Whitaker speaks with some of the best water rescue professionals in the country as they push their limits, tackling the roughest waters and toughest test, to hear firsthand what it takes to operate in huge breaking surf in order to save lives. Located in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay and only accessible by boat, Smith Island, Md., is a place where time stands still, and its residents speak a unique dialect. Rising sea levels and erosion are changing the landscape and placing residents at risk of becoming some of the country’s first climate refugees. Correspondent Jon Wertheim meets these locals to hear how climate change threatens their way of life – and the island itself – and how their perseverance and pride are inspiring a new generation of islanders. Something unusual is going on in Major League Baseball stadiums across the country this season, and it isn’t traditional baseball. Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports from Savannah, Ga., on the dancing, back-flipping, lip-syncing almost-baseball team, the Savannah Bananas. They’ve created a new twist on the sport, which they call Banana Ball. Among its rules: a two-hour time limit; no bunting, walks or mound visits; and if a fan catches a foul ball, it’s an out. Stahl meets Banana Ball’s unorthodox, yellow-clad founder, Jesse Cole, and discovers the electric, circus-meets-sporting-event atmosphere that is selling out ballparks. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bob Menendez is the first U.S. Senator to go to prison in more than 40 years. It is to me an inexplicable and tragic way for him to go. I'm Nancy Solomon. Join me as I take a look at the Senator's bribery scheme involving Egyptian spies. That's pretty unusual. And the woman that dazzled him. Hi, it's me calling my very handsome Senator. Listen to Dead End, the rise and fall of Goldbar Bob Menendez from WNYC, wherever you get your podcasts.

Now streaming. Everyone who comes into this clinic is a mystery. We don't know what we're looking for. Their bodies are the scene of the crime, their symptoms in history are clues. We saved her life. We're doctors and we're detectives. I kind of love it if I'm being honest.

Solve the puzzle, save the patient. Watson. All episodes now streaming on Paramount+. On the bow. Here comes a big one. Touch your head. Come to sky bridge. Being a surfman is sometimes compared to being a Navy SEAL or in the Army Special Forces. But in truth, this is a more exclusive club, isn't it?

Reaching! Nice reach, Josh! Get him on board! It is. There's a small number of us. Clear it up! Got a saddle, a starboard bow. We're training for the opportunity to save human life.

It's all the motivation you need. Smith Island is a tapestry of marshland, winding creeks, and mudflats. Waterfowl outnumber people here. Then again, the population, having dwindled by more than half since the 1990s, hovers around 200. With no airport or bridge, everything- groceries, utility workers, doctors, even the pastor- comes by boat. Life on the island must abide by Mother Nature's

fickle nature. If the weather is bad, you're stuck. It looks like baseball and feels like baseball, but then there's this, an umpire feeling the music, a batter on no stilts gymnastics in the outfield, and on the way home. Longtime baseball writer Tim Kirchen came to a game and he said, this is the stupidest thing I have ever seen.

I loved it. I'm Leslie Stahl. I'm Bill Whitaker. I'm Anderson Cooper. I'm Sharon Alfonsi. I'm John Wertheim. I'm Cecilia Vega. I'm Scott Pelley. Those stories tonight on 60 Minutes.

Bob Menendez is the first U.S. Senator to go to prison in more than 40 years. It is, to me, an inexplicable and tragic way for him to go. I'm Nancy Solomon. Join me as I take a look at the Senator's bribery scheme involving Egyptian spies... That's pretty unusual. ...and the woman that dazzled him. Hi, it's me calling my very handsome senator. Listen to Dead End, the rise and fall

of Goldbar Bob Menendez from WNYC, wherever you get your podcasts. Now streaming. Everyone who comes into this clinic is a mystery. We don't know what we're looking for. Their bodies are the scene of the crime. Those symptoms in history are clues. We saved her life. We're doctors and we're detectives.

I kind of love it if I'm being honest. Solve the puzzle, save the patient. Watson all episodes now streaming on Paramount+. The spot where the Columbia River spills into the Pacific Ocean at the border between Oregon and Washington State is where Lewis and Clark ended their journey of discovery in 1805, with Clark writing in his journal, Ocean in View, Oh Joy. But it's not all joy. In fact, it's one of the most dangerous inlets in view. Oh joy. But it's not all joy. In fact, it's one of the most dangerous inlets in America. Up to a million cubic feet of water can pour out of the river's mouth every second and run right into waves that have been moving across the Pacific for thousands

of miles. As we first reported last fall, it's precisely because of this powerful aquatic collision that elite members of the United States Coast Guard come to this place once each year, determined to earn the coveted certification as surfmen. On the bow. Here comes a big one. Touch your head. On the starboard. Touch your head on the side.

On a wet February afternoon, we're on board a 47-foot US Coast Guard motor lifeboat with Chief Eric Kelly at the helm, driving through breaking surf barely a hundred yards off the beach. I have another swat right up here. And another one right behind there. Exactly. I have another swell right up here. I had another one right behind there. Exactly. At the time, Kelly was chief instructor at the Coast Guard's National Motor Lifeboat School.

This was the first day of class, and the three students on his boat were studying his every turn of the wheel and calling out approaching swells. Got a saddle, a starboard bow. Tenets, touch your head. Go, go, go! Six more trainees were on two other boats with other instructors.

Kelly says everyone is here because this place at the mouth of the Columbia River consistently has some of the worst weather and highest seas in America. We exposed them to a tremendous amount of surf conditions over four weeks, more so than they'd get over years at their own unit. Morning shipmates, how are we? Good, sir. First thing that morning, Tim Crochet, commanding officer of the lifeboat school, had welcomed this class of nine students.

And I promise you the instructors behind me are going to give you world-class instruction and they're going to help you become a better motor lifeboat operator and we're going to get you closer and closer to certifying as a surfman. Certifying as surfman, that's the goal of each of these students and the dream of thousands of other members of the Coast Guard. Being a surfman is sometimes compared to being a Navy SEAL or in the Army Special Forces. But in truth, this is a more exclusive club, isn't it?

Currently, we have about 130 active duty surfmen right now. How many members of the Coast Guard? I think the Coast Guard's right around 40,000 people. 40,000 people and 100 surfmen. So that is a pretty exclusive club. It is. There's a small number of us. Certifying as a surfman means the Coast Guard trusts you to drive a lifeboat on the most challenging rescue missions in 20-foot breaking waves and 50-knot winds,

at the entrance to the school is a display of every surfman medallion called a check ever earned. So how far back does this go? It goes back to 1872. That's when the U.S. Life-Saving Service began saving mariners in distress. It became the Coast Guard in 1915 and now operates 20 surf stations

where rescues may have to be made in breaking waves. On average, the Coast Guard makes more than 5,000 rescues a year. Where is yours? Mine is right back here. It's check number 407. Chief instructor Eric Kelly, whose boat we were on, wears his surfman number.

I understand you have a tattoo. I do, I do. I have my surfman number. I'm surfman 545. This is something that is very, very important to me. At the opening session of the Motor Life Boat School, Chief Kelly read the Coast Guard's surfman's creed aloud. I will never unnecessarily jeopardize myself, my boat,

or my crew, but will do so freely to rescue those in peril. And he told the students they'd each need to have the creed memorized before the four-week course was over. It takes a lot to get there. And it takes a person, a special type person, willing to put themselves into those situations where you're looking up at a 20 foot break in sea and you're like, I wanna do this.

I wanna keep training in this. This class was all male, but there are nearly a dozen female surfmen. Most candidates come here first for a basic course, then heavy weather, and finally this surf class. Derek Samuelson, Trenton Campbell, and Joshua Slaughter are the three trainees on Eric Kelly's boat. Most of us are going to be pushing pretty close to four years when we get certified.

That's almost a college degree worth of training in driving these boats. It's something not a lot of people get to do. It's not that they get to do it, but that they achieve it. That they achieve it, yes. When we come here, our only job is to learn and drive and surf, so it's a great opportunity. This is a representation of the mouth of the Columbia. Jeff Smith is the curator

of the Columbia River Maritime Museum, which has a giant map illustrating how the mouth of the Columbia River Maritime Museum, which has a giant map illustrating how the mouth of the Columbia River has earned the title Graveyard of the Pacific. All these little boats that you see are representative of the shipwrecks that have occurred. All of these? Yeah. We have 50 of them numbered, but there's many, many more. Thousands more, over several centuries, with at least 700 lives lost,

the skeletons of wrecked ships still litter some area beaches. So despite how treacherous this waterway is, it's a vital economic waterway as well. It certainly is. Of all the grain exported from the United States, just over 40 percent goes out the Columbia River. Every commercial ship coming into the river must have a local pilot come on board to guide it. This video shows how perilous it can be just to get that pilot onto one of those ships.

Imagine the dangers faced by Coast Guardsmen trying to rescue a ship or sailboat or fishing boat that's in trouble. I'm always a little bit, I don't know, starstruck is the word or awestruck when I'm in the presence of the men and women of our Coast Guard because the job they do is just amazing. It's incredible. An incredible group of people. It's such a cool mission that we get to do.

We get to go drive these awesome boats out and have the opportunity to save people on their darkest day. As he drove into ever stormier seas on that first day of school, it was clear Eric Kelly would rather be at the helm of his lifeboat than just about anywhere else. So you love this, huh?

I absolutely love this. But Kelly was also deadly serious about teaching his students how to read every swell. Watch that. Run from that. Running, running, running. Center of that helm. I'm going. You got that beat.

Got a window right here. Nice little near side shoulder. Ease and off. Watch, running, running. Center of that helm. I'm going. You got that beat. You got a window right here. Nice little near side shoulder. Ease and off. Watch that coming to me. I'm going to get right on the back. Pull. Follow that peak point.

This is going to get super dynamic down here. These are shooting in every direction. When he couldn't outrun a wave, Kelly executed what may be the most important maneuver a lifeboat driver must master. Squaring up is pointing the bow of the boat directly into and through a braking wave, sometimes a really big braking wave. We hit a couple of those yesterday when we got the spray went up and you know the bow is up and you saw a blue sky and then all of a sudden you're

down in a hole. What's the worst thing you could do in a situation like that? The worst thing you could do is not be square to that breaking wave. You could have a knockdown which is when the boat goes underneath water but rewrites in the same direction, or even worse, a 360-degree rollover. Have you ever experienced that yourself? I haven't experienced a full 360-degree rollover. I have experienced a knockdown or two, and that's what they designed this boat for.

That design is seen in this demonstration video, but out in the surf, Eric Kelly was showing his students how to avoid ever having to test it on a real mission. How long before you let the students take control of the boat? So starting tomorrow, we'll do another demonstration of wherever we're going to train, and then students are on it for the remainder of the course. Hold on. Whoa! Every day for the next four weeks,

the students took the helm with Eric Kelly signaling approval when they did something right and correcting them when they didn't. We probably should have squared up to that one, but on the Students drove in every kind of condition and ran simulated missions like pulling someone, in this case a dummy, out of the water. Nice reach Josh! Get him on board! Alright, stand by to clear the recess. Sometimes a real rescue mission can supplant the simulations, as when the boats were making one last training run on graduation day 2023.

Sure enough, we heard a Mayday for distress go out over channel 16, the radio frequency. I think it might be taking on water. Hurry up. By the time the three training boats spotted a white boat called the Sandpiper with one man on board, conditions had gone from mild to mad. At this point we're facing 25, 30 foot, 35 foot breaking seas, 50 knots of winds. It's raining, hailing, and very, very dynamic. Far too dynamic to have any chance of towing the vessel to safety.

It was also graduation day for the Coast Guard's Advanced Rescue Helicopter School, and they dropped a rescue swimmer named John Walton into the water. You can see him paddling furiously. It was his first rescue and they deployed him and he was able to retrieve that individual off the sandpiper right as that 30 plus foot break

rolled that boat multiple times. It's hard to imagine how either the rescued or the rescuer survived that, but they both did. But really seeing how the Coast Guard worked together and have one of the coolest rescues I've had in my entire career on graduation day for these future surfmen. Graduation day for the class of 2024 was far more placid. All nine students completed the course and all nine had memorized the surfman's creed. I will to the best of my ability pursue each mission with the commitment, compassion, and courage inherent in the title

surfman. They didn't all certify as surfman that day. Most had to wait to return to their home units for their commanding officers to give them the nod. But two of the nine got a surprise. BM2 Casey, BM2 Campbell front and center please. Dorian Casey and Trenton Campbell had their commanding officers in attendance ready to bestow the honor then and there. It seemed every certified surfman on the west Coast had come and they handed the coveted medallions those checks to one another. Surfing 4-9-4, St. Chetco River.

4-8-5, Station Morro Bay. 4-8-4, Station Humboldt Bay. 4-5-0, Station Chetco River. 4-0-7, Station Quilliam River. 4-0-7, Station Chetco River. And then to the two newest surfmen. Trenton Campbell accepted hugs from his trainers and fellow classmates and then headed back to his base, Station Quilliute River on the coast of Washington, ready to do what he joined the Coast Guard to do.

The reason why we all want to be here is that dream to save a life. I think there's no better feeling than that for training for the opportunity to save a human life. It's all the motivation you need. Hey, I'm Ben Stiller. And I'm Adam Scott. And we host a podcast called The Severance Podcast, where we used to break down every episode of the TV show Severance.

Severance isn't back just yet, but the podcast is. Each week we'll discuss the movies, TV shows, and ideas that influence the making of Severance. We're going to talk to the incredible artists who inspire us to do what we do. The Severance Podcast returns Thursday, June 26. Follow and listen everywhere you get your podcasts. Smith Island doesn't sit in the middle of Chesapeake Bay so much as it bobs there. Time marches on while the land recedes, turning to marsh as sea levels rise, storms come fierce, and erosion unleashes

its ground game. We talk often about what climate change does to faraway continents, countries, and cities. But its impact in the U.S. might be felt most sharply in a small coastal community we visited last summer. A Maryland island struggling to survive, where crabs are plentiful, crime is nonexistent, and the residents, who trace their lineage and dialect back to the 1600s, might be among this country's first climate refugees.

Not even 100 miles from D.C. and Baltimore, Smith Island is a tapestry of marshland, winding creeks, and mudflats. Waterfowl outnumber people here. Then again, the population, having dwindled by more than half since the 1990s, hovers around 200. With no airport or bridge, everything, groceries, utility workers, doctors, even the pastor, comes by boat 40 minutes from the mainland.

Life on the island must abide by Mother Nature's fickle nature, tides, winds. If the weather is bad, you're stuck. Love people, love doing what I do, make cakes, crab cakes. So it is that native Smith Islanders like Mary Ada Marshall persist on a combination of spine, heart and guts.

How do you characterize this place to people who have never been here? Well, I've been here my entire life. I don't feel isolated, but people that come here sometimes they feel like I can't get off, I can't get to my car. We learned we're survivors. We learned how to adapt with the weather. It's like a big family. But let me tell you something, if you do wrong, everybody knows it too. Here, the school bus floats. The ambulance flies.

Incomes are modest. This is part of the poorest county in Maryland. The citizens live by an unwritten code based on personal morality. I'm wondering what role faith plays on Smith Island. Big part. That's the government of our island. It really is. I'm wondering what role faith plays on Smith Island? Big part. That's the government of our island.

It really is. We don't really have government much. I mean, we don't have any law. We don't need it. We don't have any crime. No crime. A speed limit's a golf cart. I mean, how fast can you go in a golf cart? And here, I feel so safe.

I do. I mean, I just feel like if I need anything that I can pick up my phone, and I don't care what anybody's doing, they'll come say, what's the matter? What do you need? That's golden. And you got to have a lot of faith

to live right here in the middle of this bay. The island was first chartered by Captain John Smith in 1608. Today, most residents can draw a direct line to the first Smith Islanders to brave a life here. Tyler, Evans, Marshall, the same last names adorning the weathered gravestones adorn the mailboxes now. Among those born and raised here, Eddie Summers and Mark

Kitching. How far do your families go back? My grandmother, grandmother Kitching was originally in Evans, and she goes back to the Tyler and Evans way back. 1785, the Tyler and Evans part of me, and Summers came in 1870, around 1870. Here, the past courses through the blood, and also the broke. Linguists come to study the singular accent, part Elizabethan English, part Southern.

Can we talk about the accent? You know what I tell people about our accent, I'll say, we were here first, you all screwed it up. The accent is original, and so is the signature Smith Island backwards talk, saying the opposite of what you mean. It's about timing, tone, and it's best left to the locals. I walk off the boat and I say, Smith Island

isn't anything special. How does that get received? I hope to tell you to get back on the boat. Also learning the lingo, Shannon Abbott, a newcomer from New Jersey. I made our neighbor's casserole a few weeks ago and they said, that ain't fair. And I'm like, okay, that means it's good. How do you explain this place to people from South Jersey? It's like that feeling when you were a kid,

like that first day of summer vacation, and you're like, hmm, what am I gonna do today? I'm gonna go find bugs, make mud pies, whatever it is, stay out till, you know, the fireflies are out at night. That's what this place is to me. Transports you back to being a girl. Exactly.

Time has largely been frozen here for centuries. The economy and everything else on Smith Island was and is based in on and around the water. The skipjack sailors of Chesapeake Bay, who propelled only by sail, hunt the oyster. Walter Cronkite saw romance in Smith Island and its watermen. That was 1965.

Not much about this culture has changed since. Same methods, same rhythms. Crabs in the summer, oysters in the winter. Modern day watermen like Mark Kitching see the job, yes, as a means of income, but also as an inheritance. What do watermen mean to this community? have yes as a means of income, but also as an inheritance. What do watermen mean to this community? Well, going back, you know, you go back seven to five years ago,

that's all it was. There was no other thing but watermen. How many watermen now? We're down to about 20. By the turn of this century, fears surfaced that Smith Island might not last another century. Better job opportunities on the mainland caused an exodus. There are now so few children, the island's only school recently closed.

According to the Army Corps of Engineers, erosion eats away up to 12 feet of shoreline a year, and the bay is trespassing on homes. Rising tides that don't lift boats. In 2013, concerned about the island's bleak and vulnerable future, the state of Maryland earmarked $1 million, encouraging residents to relocate to the mainland. The deal? We'll buy your property and tear down the buildings. John H.E.

Jones, President, Maryland State of Maryland The homes on them had to be demolished and nothing could ever be built on them. And I said, that's the death of Smith Island. Surprisingly, or maybe not, community has always outweighed money here. Not one resident took the easy payout, and the state abandoned the plan. What was your reaction the first time you heard about the buyout offers that were coming from the government? You really want to know? I said, I ain't going nowhere, just like everybody else.

Still, the moment was the equivalent of a foghorn blowing, a warning Smith Island needed saving. Suddenly, watermen and retirees were learning how to apply for grants and lobby state legislators. And they've been strikingly successful, receiving more than $43 million for elevating roads, building jetties, restoring buildings and drawing in tourists. But the environmentalists and climate scientists we consulted worry that even Smith Island grit is no match for a rapidly

changing environment. Here we are getting to see a major thoroughfare on Smith Island. Hillary Harp Falk is the CEO of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. She lives in Annapolis and travels all around the mid-Atlantic fighting to preserve the bay. But her work around Smith Island is personal.

This is where she spent her childhood summers. These pelicans we see, you're saying these weren't here when you were a girl? No, so these nesting pelicans have been moving north. They're summering now in more northern places. As a result of changing climate? Correct. How does the rising sea level here at Chesapeake Bay more northern places. As a result of a changing climate? Correct.

How does the rising sea level here at Chesapeake Bay compare to other bodies of water? Right now we're expecting in Maryland to see an increase in sea level rise by 1 to 2 feet by 2050 and more than 4 feet by 2100. For the record, that means the bay has the highest rate of sea level rise on the East Coast. The water that has sustained places like Smith Island

has now become a threat. Explain why we have this high rate of sea level here. Mostly because it's really low-lying. I mean, we have that. We also are seeing issues of erosion as well as issues of subsidence. So we're actually, some of the land is actually sinking. Some environmental scientists will say that Smith Island, these could be some of the first

climate refugees in the country. And I think we're seeing with the projections, they could be right. What does that tell you about the people who did stay? If you ask them, it would be because this is home. And it would be asking someone to leave their home or their hometown, to leave whole histories. And I think when you spend time here, there's a saying that you get mud between your toes.

And- What does that mean? It means that Smith Island never leaves you. That you will always be connected to this place. And for those of us that have mud between our toes, I think we can understand what it means to not have Smith Island anymore. And it's not just an abstract concern. Holland Island, just 10 miles north, was once bustling. But erosion came, people left, and now names on gravestones are the only indication of what once

was. Nevertheless, the Smith Island locals say grim projections have always been part of life here. Mary Smith, Smith Island Local, Iowa, When I was a little girl they used to say, the islands are sinking. Now this weren't yesterday, this has been a long time ago.

Well, fast forward 60, 70 years, we're still here." Besides, they pride themselves on adapting to meet challenges. Mark Kitching isn't driving an Uber to supplement his income. He's using his boat to host eco tours around the Pelican Rookery. Mary Ada Marshall runs her business out of her

kitchen, making Smith Island cakes. Once baked by the island's women to sustain their Mary Edda, a former farm worker, runs her business out of her kitchen, making Smith Island cakes. Once baked by the island's women to sustain their husbands during the oyster harvest, these eight-layer confections are now celebrated as the Maryland state dessert. Mary Edda takes orders by phone and then ships her creations off-island to just about anywhere.

Mary Edda, former farm worker, Maryland, Maryland, Mary Edda, Maryland, Maryland, just about anywhere. I did one for Okinawa and one for Iran and they got there and I don't take a cent until they get their cake then they may want a check. They don't have to pay in advance? I don't have no credit card machine or nothing. No. And it's not just that the natives won't give up. Despite the specter of sea level rise, there's been a real estate boom here.

20 percent of the homes on the island have changed hands in the past three years. A chance at affordable island life and optimism about the government's infrastructure investment have led folks like Shannon Abbott to defy the warnings for a slice of Smith Island charm. Does the isolation worry you at all? No, it doesn't. Because back home, I'm just the street address. Here, I'm Shannon. Moving here, it made a difference right away, just by moving here.

Because when we were having dinner with our neighbors, she said, it's so great just seeing the lights on. Wow. You know, because for years it would just, you know, they would see people move away and the house go dark. She and her husband paid $80,000 for this waterfront home they are now rebuilding, not just as a place to live out their days, but as a legacy. Did you elevate this? We did. Let's be clear, this is no weekend house. This is no weekend house. This is it. We have four kids, a grandson,

and we're hoping that they will be able to bring their grandchildren and their grandchildren here. How do you reconcile hearing these pretty grim reports with your desire to make this a generational house? Five years ago, we never thought we would have a pandemic and live through COVID. I mean, things can change tomorrow. So why worry about it? We can live in New Jersey where it's safe, or we can say, forget it, let's really live. Let's be passionate about what time we have left.

And who cares if we only have 100 hundred years left or 75 years left. It doesn't matter because something could come tomorrow and it'll all be gone anyway. There's been something unusual going on in a whole lot of Major League Baseball stadiums this season. And it isn't baseball. At least, not exactly. It's banana ball. And if you've never heard of it, get ready for something, well, bananas.

As we first reported this spring, it's a classic against-the-odds story. It started with a scrappy college summer league baseball team in Savannah, Georgia, lovingly named the Savannah Bananas, with an unorthodox owner who dreamed of making America's pastime livelier and more fun, with dancing players, trick plays, and nonstop entertainment for the fans. Think Harlem Globetrotters. Only more so. Take a look. It looks like baseball and feels like baseball, but then and feels like baseball, but then there's this, an umpire feeling the music, a batter on no stilts, gymnastics in the outfield, and on the way home. Banana Ball is the creation of Jesse Cole who dresses in banana yellow daily. He's the owner and ringmaster of this circus. It's not baseball or is it baseball? Obviously it started from the idea

of baseball but now let's just turn it up a little bit. Turning it up a little bit, Savannah banana style, means the show starts hours before the game with fans and players dancing outside before the doors open. Then on the field, gymnasts, the banana splits, a dance team made up of grandmas, the banana manas. And instead of cheerleaders, these guys, the man nanas. It's all intentional, so this is the script. You have a script? There's almost 50 things that happen

before the game starts. The idea is to have something entertaining for everyone, like the six-year-old leading a crowd warmup, to appeal to all ages, baseball fans or not. How long in the car? Ten hours. You drove here for ten hours?

The game itself, between the Bananas and their main banana ball rivals, the Party Animals, also owned by Cole, is a real baseball competition with some rule twists. There's a two hour time limit, no mound visits, no walks or bunts, and if a fan catches a foul ball, it's an out. Trick plays like between the leg throws to make an out and back flip catches are encouraged. And a few times a game players go to bat with lip synched choreographed productions like this one featuring infielder Jackson Olson.

Longtime baseball writer Tim Kerchan came to a game and he said, this is the stupidest thing I have ever seen. I loved it. So grateful he finished with the I love it. Exactly, right. But you know, there are people who would be offended that you're changing baseball. I believe if you're not getting criticized, you're playing a too safe. Safe isn't Jesse Cole's style.

His early dreams of playing for his hometown Red Sox ended with a shoulder injury in college that sent him into coaching and a discovery he wasn't expecting. I'm sitting in the dugout, and I realize something. I'm bored out of my mind. And if I'm bored, there's got to be other people that are probably bored with baseball as well.

He got a job managing a failing college summer league team in Gastonia, North Carolina, called the Grizzlies, where he started shaking things up with dancing and silliness. The first time I saw Jesse, he's the general manager of the team, keep in mind. Emily McDonald was working for a minor league team in Augusta at the time. He is on the field teaching his players how to do the Thriller Dance.

So you gotta get the arms into it, you gotta get the head. You said, oh, that guy's for me. But we nailed that dance, we nailed that dance. Emily joined the Grizzlies, and three years later. Will you marry me, I want you to sign the wall. Will you marry me, Emily three years later joined Jesse permanently. And yes, he was already wearing that yellow tux, inspired by his idols, showmen P.T. Barnum and Walt Disney. It's something I believe in.

It's standing out, it's being different. And if your owner is dressed up in a yellow tuxedo, I mean, I think that gives permission to everyone else to not take themselves too seriously, to have fun. Were you able to turn the Grizzlies around? Yeah, from the team that was probably worst in the country in attendance. We climbed up to be fourth in the country in attendance. But what about playing?

Oh, we won championships. When you have fun, you play better. In 2015, the Newlyweds launched the Bananas as a new college summer league team in Savannah, building fans with all-you-can-eat food and always upping the fun. They won titles, but something kept gnawing at Jesse. Some fans were leaving the stadium

before the game was over. Even with everything going on? It was eating me up inside, but then I realized that means there's a fundamental problem with the actual game. He began videotaping the crowd and studying. When are fans looking at their phones? When are they not paying attention to the game?

Mound visits, batter stepping out, taking forever. All right, if you step out. Oh, I hate that. And they play with their gloves. And so we said, what are all the normal rules of a baseball game? What would be the exact opposite? He started dreaming up ideas for a faster, more exciting game.

Think about this. In a baseball game, there's a play called a walk. It's unathletic. It's called a walk. So we said, what would be the exact opposite? A sprint. And so was born the ball four sprint, where the batter takes off and can't be tagged out until every fielder has touched the ball. He's going to be rewarded with two bases. So now a walk, because one of the most exciting

plays in sports. Bang, bang. And then what about bunting? Now I know this is controversial, but if you bunting banana ball, you're thrown out of the game. What's wrong with bunting? There's no bunting. I like bunting.

Some traditionalists do. When I came up to the plate the first time as a five-year-old, my dad said, Jess, swing hard in case she hit. And I believe in baseball, banana ball. Come up and swing the bat. Try to create something really special instead of the bunt. So that first tryout... Coaches Tyler Gillum and Adam Vierent helped create the new game

and recruit players to try it out. You were looking for really strong baseball players? Exclusively. I was pushing a wheelbarrow full of concrete, and my phone went off, and it was my mama. Dakota Allbritton had played high school baseball in his Georgia hometown, then got a job in construction. She said, hey, we got a baseball tryout this weekend.

I said, why'd you do that? You know, I ain't played ball in two years. She said, well, I got a baseball tryout this weekend. I said, why'd you do that? You know, I ain't played ball in two years. She said, well, I told him you could walk on stilts. And with me not having any knowledge on what the bananas was, I asked her again, well, why'd you do that? I hadn't done that in 10 years. You hadn't walked on stilts in 10 years? I had not walked on stilts in 10 years.

They'd been a Christmas present when he was 10. As a matter of fact, on the way to tryouts, I realized that the straps that held him on my legs were dry rotting. We stopped by a tractor supply and got dog collars. That was... They were held on my leg by dog collars. He had played high school baseball, not the highest level, and he probably wasn't going to make the team.

He said, I brought my stilts. Do you want me to wear them? And I said, nah, unless you can hit in them. I said, heck yeah, I can. I them. I said, Heck yeah I can. I got up there and... You had no idea. I had no idea I could do it, but I wasn't going back down from a challenge. And the entire tryout stops.

I wonder why. It's dead quiet. Did you hit the ball? I did. I surprised myself just as much as I surprised everybody else. Hahaha. The coaches were still going to cut him

till Jesse intervened. Jesse says, guys, you don't see the vision. The vision is things being done on a baseball field nobody has ever seen. Other players like Robert Anthony Cruz, rack for short, joined the Bananas with stronger credentials. He'd been signed by the Washington Nationals, this video of him sharing the news with his dad went viral. But as with so many players... One year later I got released by the Nationals and my wife and I moved back in with my parents.

Bananas players told us they'd all dreamed of playing in the major leagues. Raise your hand. When baseball didn't work, did you all think you were done? Yeah, 100%. They say banana ball is a second life. They're still practicing that old game, plus one-upping each other on cool tricks and smooth moves. That elaborate batter walk-up routine, also part of afternoon practice.

Literally like four hours. Oh my god. So in the middle of the afternoon they are learning a dance for that night for the first time. I mean players the talent level they learn a tremendous amount of steps for about 20 minutes 30 minutes rehearsal and then they're doing in front of a self-dunk crowd. And sometimes practicing in front of the crowd. I remember looking at you and you were doing the dance too you're trying to learn it like we're all trying to learn this stuff during the game. Banana Ball players have full-year contracts and are paid significantly more than most minor leaguers.

Their salaries have risen every year, as has their fan base. This was the home stadium of the Philadelphia Phillies on a Saturday night last September. A completely sold out, standing room only crowd of 45,000. It was one of six major league baseball stadiums the Bananas sold out last season, including Fenway Park. With clips of dances like this going viral, the Bananas now have more TikTok followers than all 12 of last year's MLB playoff teams combined. As in Savannah, crowds gather hours early. Banana Ball is now a multi-million dollar private business. Jesse turns away investors. To build fans, he reinvests.

He keeps ticket prices low, $60 max, and broadcasts all games free on YouTube. Playing in an MLB stadium, players told us, is thrilling. Even for someone already 10 feet tall. Just this section right here is as big as my whole entire hometown. Stiltz told us he'd be pitching this game. Do you really throw strikes? Oh, absolutely.

It coming straight down like that, they've got to hit it just perfect. Are they going to ground out or pop up? Now coming to... And sure enough... The world's tallest pitcher! And sure enough, in the top of the sixth, facing the party animals version of a switch-hitter, there was one of those strikes. on. He got the third out. Then in the bottom of the seventh, with the runner on first and the bananas down by one,

Jackson Olson took off on a ball four sprint. Then with men on the corners, the former national signee, Rack, was up. A three-run homer. As far as we could see, nobody left early. This season, Banana Ball has officially become a league with two more teams, and they'll play not just at 17 MLB stadiums, but at three NFL football stadiums as well. Will you fill those stadiums? They're sold out. Already? It's crazy.

All of it's crazy. All of it's crazy. Hahaha. Let's do some threats! Some might even say... bananas. Ohhhhh! I'm Leslie Stahl. We'll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes. Bob Menendez is the first U.S. Senator to go to prison in more than 40 years. It is to me an inexplicable and tragic way for him to go.

I'm Nancy Solomon. Join me as I take a look at the Senator's bribery scheme involving Egyptian spies. That's pretty unusual. And the woman that dazzled him. Hi, it's me calling my very handsome senator. Listen to Dead End, the rise and fall of Goldbar Bob Menendez from WNYC, wherever you get your podcasts.

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