How the Savannah Bananas sparked a nationwide phenomenon

Drake Toll was on track to live out his dreams in traditional sports media.

Years of experience — including internships as a play-by-play broadcaster in the Cape Cod Baseball League and for the Anchorage Bucs in Alaska — led him to become the host of his own ESPN radio show in central Texas named after him, the Drake Toll Show.

For most young sports-crazed broadcasters, this would be considered a dream job. The problem for Toll was that he was bored.

"I thought, 'There's gotta be something different out there, something better, something more,' " Toll said. "Why am I bored?"

Soon thereafter, a play-by-play broadcasting position opened up for the Party Animals, the rival team of the Savannah Bananas. Toll applied for the position and submitted a three-minute video of hims