Banana Ball Math: working our way to the 2025 Championship
The nerdy mathy stuff behind this year's upcoming Championship series in Savannah.
Before you know it, the 2025 Banana Ball World Tour playoffs will be soon upon us. I have been hearing a lot from the Party Animal nation who want to see their team in the 1 hole, and right now, those chances look really good. There are some scenarios where the Bananas could take it and even some very rare scenarios where even the Tailgaters could take it, but the Tailgaters would have to do some serious damage against the Animals. This is something that the Party Nation would not want to see.
Because of the uneven schedules for this year’s World Tour (something that should not be a thing next year with the introduction of the Banana Ball Championship League), let’s talk about the math and let’s look at all scenarios to see who will take the different seed spots and for those who have not yet heard, what the format for the 2025 Banana Ball World Tour Championship will look like. Time for some….
In Banana Ball, we have sort of a “pennant race” going on right now between The Savannah Bananas and The Party Animals. As we had mentioned previously, Banana Ball has officially announced the dates and format for the Championship Series and how the teams will be seeded (ranked).
Overall, it will be a five game format. There will be two groups. The number 1 and 4 seeds will play against each other and likewise, the number 2 and 3 seeds will play against each other. This is pretty typical for these types of tournaments.
Because it is Banana Ball, you should expect a twist. That twist is that each group will play two games against each other. If the same team wins both games, they will automatically advance to the Championship Game a week later.
However, if each team wins one game each (for example, the second seed wins a game and the third seed wins a game), fans will need to stay locked into their seats, on YouTube or TruTV. This is because at the conclusion of the second game, there will be a showdown to determine which of the two teams will go the Championship Game. That’s right!, it can all boil down to a showdown.
The 2025 World Tour schedule was a very interesting one because two teams, The Firefighters and The Texas Tailgaters did not start playing until the middle of the season.
In an email sent to K Club members, Banana Ball had announced that the seeding will be based on percentage of the number of wins to the number of games that that were played. In an inquiry to Banana Ball by Michi-chan Sports, we have confirmed that the six games played during this World Tour against Banana Ball’s development team, The Visitors will be factored in to the standings. This will affect the standings for the Bananas and The Party Animals.
Because The Firefighters and the Tailgaters started halfway into the season, they obviously played fewer games during this time. Even the Bananas and The Party Animals, despite playing during the entire season, did not play the same number of games. Overall, it comes down to:
The Savannah Bananas playing 72 games (it would have been 73, but one of the games against The Visitors was cancelled due to rain at Grayson Stadium);
The Party Animals playing 69 games;
The Firefighters, 35 games; and
The Texas Tailgaters, 31 games.
Also, just for the heck of it, The Visitors played 5 games (one additional game was rained out).
Since the Tailgaters have played less than one half of the games that the Bananas did, a Tailgaters win or loss will have a bigger impact on their overall percentage than a Bananas game. To determine this impact to the overall percentage per game, simply divide 1 into the number of games the team has played during the season (1 / [games]). Therefore (rounded to the nearest hundredth):
Party Animals: 1.45% per win.
Savannah Bananas: 1.39% per win.
The Firefighters: 2.86% per win.
Texas Tailgaters: 3.23% per win.
Therefore, if the Tailgaters win a game, it is the equivalent of winning about 2.3 games. For The Firefighters, about 2.1 games. We do note that there is no path for The Firefighters to achieve a number one seed, however we still need to watch their position as that will impact who will rank last and play the number 1 seed in the semi-finals round.
To determine the current percentage, divide the number of wins into the total number of games already played ([wins] / ([wins] + [losses]). We do not count games that were cancelled. This season, there only has been one.
For this article, I am going to consider current records on all World Tour games played up to August 10, 2025, which includes both games played in Denver and both in Baton Rouge.
Michi’s view - team by team
Let’s look at each team, where they are at right now and where they can potentially go:
Party Animals
The Animals are currently at 37-22 (37 wins and 22 losses) for a total of 59 games. The current percentage is 62.71%. If the Animals win all of their remaining games, their record would be 47-22 (69 games). This means that the best possible percentage the Animals can achieve is 68.12%. If the Animals do not win any more games, they would be 37-32, or 53.62%.
All remaining games for the Party Animals will be against the Texas Tailgaters. So far, these two teams have played 11 games of which, 3 of them have been won by The Tailgaters. 4 upcoming games will be Party Animals headliners where the Animals will have the home team advantage. The remaining six games games will give the Tailgaters that advantage. It will be interesting to see if having the home team advantage, where the team can walk off the inning and not have to go through three outs will shift the overall standings. If the Party Animals win their four remaining “home” games and lose all of the Tailgaters headliners, they will be at 41-69 (59.4%). Of course, any wins during the Tailgaters series will take you to 59.4% upward.
Savannah Bananas
The Bananas are currently 33-24 or 57.89% of games already played. They have 15 more games, 13 against The Firefighters and 2 against The Tailgaters. The Bananas will have home team advantage at all 15 of these games.
If the Bananas win all 15 of those games, they will end the season at 48-24, or 66.67%. If for some strange unlikely reason, the ‘Nanners lose every single game going forward, they would be at 33-39, which means the worst possible percentage would be 45.8%. If this was to happen, I am going to buy more Powerball tickets.
Texas Tailgaters
The Tailgaters are currently 6-13 or 31.58% of games already played. They have 12 more games; 10 against the Party Animals and 2 against the Bananas. Tailgaters will have home team advantage at 6 of these games. If the Tailgaters do not win any more games, they will end up at 6-25 or 19.35%. If they are able to win 6 games (such as those where they are the headliner/home team), they will end up at 12-19 or 38.71%. In the chance of a very rare sweep of those remaining 12 games, they would be at 18-13 or 58.06%. As we will mention below, there is a path for the Tailgaters to get the first seed, but it will require winning most of the games against The Party Animals and winning at least one game in the final Houston series.
The Firefighters
The Firefighters are currently at 5-18 or 21.74%. They have 13 games remaining, all against the Bananas with no home team advantage opportunities. Depending on the number of games that they win, their percentage can range from 11.43% (4-35) if they don’t win another game this season to 48.57% (17-18) if they win all of their games. The Firefighters have no mathematical path to taking the #1 seed.
Team pairings in the semi-finals
As previously mentioned, the parings in the semi-final games will be based on percentage of wins and will pit the #1 and #4 seeds in one group and #2 and #3 in the other group. We are making an assumption that the #1 and #2 seeds will have home team advantage in their respective games.
Before we continue, time for a station break! This Friday is my 57th birthday! If you are a hardcore Banana Ball fan like I am and you are appreciative of what I am offering in this article, I am going to ask everyone here to please consider making a donation to BANANAS FOSTER through my Facebook fundraising campaign. Emily Cole is doing great things to support the foster care community. Please show your support now by going to my Facebook fundraiser. With banana love from the Michi!
Michi-chan Sports has produced charts that will show every potential playoff situation that comes up (short of a game cancelled and not made up). These charts will show the names of the teams that will be playing and which team is assumed home (based on the background color).
These charts are based on the number of wins that the Party Animals have in their remaining 10 games starting on August 15, 2025. Cross-reference that with the number of wins that the Bananas have in their 13 remaining games with The Firefighters. There will be three sets of charts and this will be based on the outcome of the series between the Bananas and the Tailgaters in Houston. Whether the Bananas sweep the series, the Tailgaters sweep or the series is split will show which chart to use. There will then be separate charts for each group (#1 vs. #4 and #2 vs. #3).
As the games progress through August and September, I will post updates at Michi-chan Sports on Facebook and for those who are fellow members, in the K Club group with updates of where we are.
Please give the Facebook page a like, I would appreciate it!
REMINDER: START COUNTING GAMES WON FROM AUGUST 15, 2025 TO THE END OF THE REGULAR SEASON.
If the Bananas sweep the series in Houston
Group 1: #1 seed vs. #4 seed:
Group 2: #2 seed vs. #3 seed:
If the Bananas and Tailgaters split the series in Houston
Group 1: #1 seed vs. #4 seed:
Group 2: #2 seed vs. #3 seed:
If the Tailgaters sweep the series in Houston
Group 1: #1 seed vs. #4 seed:
Group 2: #2 seed vs. #3 seed:
Standings history
Here is a graph that shows the current percentage (based on games played to date).
“The Worm”
This chart tracks the overall percentage depending on whether or not a team was to win every game.
Of course, things will shake up in October during the Banana Ball draft, including the launch of the Banana Ball Championship League. I will write more about the BBCL in an upcoming article.
If you have any questions or have ideas for non top-tier sports that we should cover here at Michi-chan Sports (or you have some roller derby scores you want to share), our email is always available, staff@michichan.com.