BILLINGS — Dehler Park has hosted a lot of baseball games over the years, whether it be Billings Mustangs, Montana State University Billings, American Legion or high school contests.
This week, Dehler is adding to its resume.
The Banana Ball World Tour, the home of the world-renowned Savanah Bananas, is coming to Dehler this week when the defending Banana Ball champion Party Animals, the Bananas' main rivals, play the Firefighters from Thursday through Saturday at approximately 7 p.m. each night. It's the first time Dehler, the home of the playoff-bound Mustangs (54-24 entering Wednesday), will be hosting Banana Ball.
Dehler is the smallest venue the league will play at in 2026, with Dehler's seating capacity at 3,071, per the Mustangs' website, a contrast to the big stadiums the tour has been known to have sold out games at. About 5,000 people a night are expected to make up the sold out crowds.
There'll also be a free MET Transit bus service available while the tour is in town, a meet and greet with players from both teams 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Scheels and a Pre-Game Plaza Party that starts at 3:30 p.m. each gameday at Dehler. The games will also be livestreamed on the Firefighters' YouTube page.
"I think I speak for all of us, the smaller venues get a little more intimate," Party Animals outfielder Jake Skole said to The Billings Gazette and 406 MT Sports on Wednesday morning. "I guess we get to have a little more one-on-ones with some fans, and it's not as hectic with the 10,000 to 50,000 stadiums we've played in.
"So everyone is in a good headspace to get to Billings and enjoy these three shows."
Banana Ball World Tour rules
There are 11 rules in Banana Ball that are different from regular baseball. Most of those rules are meant to either speed up the game or bring more entertainment to the contests.
Some of the rules include a two-hour time limit, a no bunting rule that, if a player bunts, they get thrown out of the game and no mound visits. There's also no walks allowed, and a rule that if a fan catches a foul ball, it counts as an out. The fan involvement doesn't stop there, as a fan a game gets one challenge per contest.
"It keeps the fans engaged, with their gloves on," Skole said of the foul ball rule. "It's funny watching the full park with... a lot more ball gloves in guys' hands than you'd see at like a major league game."
One of the biggest rule differences, however, is how the scoring works. In Banana Ball, a team is awarded a point if it scores more runs than the other team in an inning. So for example, if the Party Animals outscored the Firefighters 5-0 in the first inning, the Party Animals would be awarded one point instead of five runs. Only in the final inning does each run count towards the score.
"It makes it a little more fun,” Party Animals infielder Michael Ballard said of the Banana Ball scoring rules. “You got to be a little more focused, especially with everything that's going on in our games. You got to be so honed in on, 'Hey, we can't let up one run right here.'"
"But I think one of my least favorite rules is probably the fan-caught foul ball situation," Ballard added jokingly. "But it's so good for the game, and it's good for the people watching and the fans there."
Why Billings?
Skole said Jesse Cole, the Banana Ball World Tour founder, likes to make sure every person in the United States is within a three- or four-hour radius of a game.
"That's the goal," Skole said. "He's had visions of hitting all 50 states in one season, stuff like that."
Enter Billings, which fits into Cole's vision, per Skole.
"He'll look at our graphs of where the biggest Banana Ball fans are, who's tuning in and that kind of thing, and he's like, 'I got to get to the northwest and help out,' and Billings ended up being one of the spots," Skole said. "He's not just like confined to these big, big stadiums, you know. It's more of a get to as many fans as you can in all different parts of the country."
The player experience
Both teams also are filled with a bevy of former college players, including Ballard.
The St. Petersburg, Florida, native couldn't get pro teams to notice him in the draft or as an undrafted free agent after hitting .297 across 121 games as a second baseman for Louisiana Tech. He then played for the Florence Y'alls of the Frontier League for the remainder of the 2025 season, hitting .276 with five homers in 52 games.
But before his time at LA Tech, Ballard was teammates with Chase Achuff at Division II Eckerd College in St. Petersburg. Achuff, who played for the Party Animals in 2025, told Ballard about tryouts for the league.
Then, in the 2025 Banana Ball World Tour Draft, Ballard was selected in the eighth round by the Party Animals, reuniting with his old teammate.
"This being my first year, I didn't have much expectations for it. Like, I didn't know what I was kind of getting myself (into). Like I kind of knew what Banana Ball was, but I didn't know what it actually meant to be like a part of it," Ballard said. "And I kind of describe it as like a dream you didn't know you had. You play the same game you love your whole career, but now there's like a different emphasis on the game, which is introducing baseball to younger kids and letting them explore having fun with the game and stay having fun with the game and how that makes them prosper in different ways.
"So I think that's been a beautiful thing to see... You get a bunch of different fans, and you kind of get to see how it impacts each one differently. So, it's been cool."
But not all players are former college baseball players.
Take Skole for example. The Roswell, Georgia, native was a 2010 first-round pick by the Texas Rangers as an outfielder, and even had a stint as a walk-on defensive back for the University of Georgia football team after originally committing to Georgia Tech for football.
Now, the outfielder, who's in his fourth year in Banana Ball, is playing in college football stadiums and performing well. He was the regular-season MVP in 2025, earning a Triple Crown by hitting .372 with 17 homers and 77 RBIs.
"It's been cool to see how exponentially it's been able to grow, just like from a fan standpoint, even from getting better players like Mike and that kind of stuff," Skole said. "But yeah, all of us are either on the way out of a minor league career or maybe some guys who didn't get a chance in the draft out of college. So it is a blessing to have this sport as a whole, to just keep putting a uniform on, keep going out there competing.
"And that's kind of what I think a majority of us love about it, is that we're still going out there every night competing. There is a fan aspect of it to entertain, but it's like a pickup basketball game for us is what I tell a lot of people. From 7-9 (p.m.), we're trying to beat the other team up, they're trying to beat us up and then we're all friends again after the game is over. So it's a cool and fun environment for not only the fans, but for us as well."
Experiencing a different part of the country
This week's series at Dehler is also part of a Mountain West and Great Plains swing for the two teams.
The two teams played each other from Aug. 13-15 at The Ballpark at America First Square, the home of the Salt Lake Bees (Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels) in South Jordan, Utah. The Party Animals also played in a two-game series on July 31 and Aug. 1 against the Texas Tailgaters at Albertsons Stadium, the home of Boise State's football team.
The Firefighters then head to Sioux Falls to play a three-game series against the Indianapolis Clowns from Aug. 27-29 at The Birdcage, while the Party Animals play the Tailgaters Aug. 28-29 at Constellation Field, the home of the Sugar Land Space Cowboys (Triple-A affiliate of the Houston Astros), in Sugar Land, Texas.
"Not a lot of guys have come through this part of the country, so that's been exciting for us," said Skole, who went to Yellowstone National Park for the first time on Tuesday.
And they're ready to channel that excitement into three-games at Dehler, especially both teams fighting for a playoff spot. Both teams enter the series at 23-27 and tied for the fourth and final playoff spot. The top-four teams in the six-team league advance to the playoffs in October, with the regular season concluding in late September.
"There's some major intent to win these games for both sides," Skole said. "Like obviously we want to put on a good show for the fans and that's the most important part, but you're getting two squads that are trying to get that last spot in the playoffs, which will make for some good Banana Ball games."