'The One Piece is Real,' An Interview with Reese Alexiades from The Savannah Bananas

© The Savannah Bananas – All Rights Reserved.

Summer is only a few months away in North America, and what says “summer” more than baseball? The sound of the bat hitting a ball, the shouts of the crowd, the opening music of One Piece…

While it might seem ridiculous to connect baseball and an anime about a rubber pirate, in the past few years, the popularity of this particular anime has made its way to major league baseball, with the LA Dodgers and the Seattle Mariners holding One Piece game nights in 2025 and 2026.

But let's face it. If baseball is the world, then MLB is the World Government, the big organization over all. Who then are the pirates in that world? Well, let me introduce you to the Savannah Bananas, the originating team in the barnstorming league of Banana Ball. Founded in 2018, the Bananas have played their own brand of baseball since 2023, and are now joined by five other teams in the league.

Banana Ball league games add several rules to spice up games. Points win games, not runs, with points added for trick plays. Games are conducted with a two-hour time limit and other rules to keep the game moving along. Players are encouraged to add custom celebrations to their plays. Why am I telling you all this?

Because in the Banana's outfield is Reese Alexiades, a man who has brought One Piece to Banana Ball, with a passion. His celebrations range from walking up from the stands to the field, accompanied by the opening theme, to a variety of character-based celebrations on the field.

Reese Alexiades “Best One Piece Celly's of 2025”:

I talked to Reese by phone to discuss his fandom and how he's bringing the lessons of One Piece to Banana Ball. (This interview has been edited for clarity and ease of reading.)

Can you give a brief explanation of Banana Ball for the anime & manga fans? We may not be familiar with it.

ALEXIADES: Our whole goal is to make baseball fun and to give the best fan experience possible. So what we do is we play baseball, but we make it fun, we make it entertaining, we have certain unique rules to speed up the game, such as our time limit.

We also have certain rules that get the fans engaged, like if a fan catches a foul ball, the batter's literally out, so it's a way to get people involved, to speed up the game. But also, on the field we're dancing, we're doing trick plays. We're having fun, and we're really breaking the fourth wall between fan and player experience.

How did you come to Banana Ball?

ALEXIADES: My first year was 2024. I was playing indie ball for a few years. I was never drafted to the major leagues. I was never signed as a free agent, which was my goal at the time. In 2023, I won MVP of the Pioneer League. The Bananas reached out and talked with me —I really had no idea what it was about. So I figured out what the whole organization was about and went to a tryout just to see if I had fun.

I had an absolute blast and actually got a contract that same day as the tryout.

Was One Piece your first anime? When did you first discover it?

ALEXIADES: No, it's not my first. My first was Attack on Titan back in high school. But I discovered One Piece through my brother. My brother's a huge anime fan, and so he was watching it and reading it too, but I started watching for like a year. I got about 200 episodes in. Then I joined the Bananas my first year, so I didn't really watch much that first year, then picked it back up.

What motivated you to integrate your love of One Piece into your Banana on-field persona?

ALEXIADES: At the Bananas, they want us to build characters so we can connect with people in unique, different ways. We're not like traditional baseball, where you do something, you put your head down, and you move on— we're celebrating everything, and so, I've always seen it as you do a trick play and you celebrate.

One Piece Walk-up:

ALEXIADES: I'm not the biggest dancer, so I'm always trying to figure that out, but you know, I was in Sky Piea and Water 7 territory…and I see this character Frankie saying, “Super”. My character in Banana Ball is “Super Reese,” and it kind of just tied in perfectly. That's how I started—because of the Frankie “Super.”

Super:

You're not the only one integrating anime themes in Banana Ball; the Indianapolis Clowns have a Naruto runner. (Former MLB player, Jackie Bradley Jr.) Are there any lessons from One Piece that you incorporated into your life, either on the field or off?

ALEXIADES: When I'm watching the show, I keep seeing this idea of the Strawhat crew, specifically, their friendship, and you can't do anything alone. This whole idea of finding your crew and doing things together. And following your dreams together hits hard for me. I'm a pretty quiet guy, and I always think I have to do this myself. It's just a constant reminder of working together, and friendship and community are the most important things in this life. And you know, at times it frustrates me, because I see Luffy fighting, and he's always getting help from others at the same time. I think that's very purposeful and that a strong crew is very important.

Speaking of your crew, how do your teammates feel about the One Piece gags? They seem very cool about it.

ALEXIADES: They couldn't be more supportive. I remember the first time I hit “Super” in a game. It was an Anaheim last year, and this guy hits a ball, and I got to do a full layout, an incredible baseball play. And then I hit the “Super,” but I was both nervous and excited to do it because doing something in front of 40,000 people, for the first time, is hard.

Nobody on my team really knew what One Piece was. There are a couple of guys on the other teams who do, not too many. So, I overcrossed my arms because I was both nervous and excited, so I messed it up on the first one, but as the year went on, there's been nothing but support. Every time I hit a home run, the whole team's at home plate, ready to hit the “Super”. Even when we're just walking around, in the stadium or in the clubhouse, you know, guys see me, and they hit various celebrations.

You do a lot of deep cuts, like Boa Hancock, or making your teammates say Crocodile's “Hisashiburi da na, Mugiwara.”

Boa is one of the favorite poses in the organization. For Crocodile's quote. I had it in my notes how to say it, gave them about 10 seconds, and then I was like, all right, now try. When Crocodile says it, it's super cool.

My teammates need more practice:

You always post the character images for the celebrations in your videos, so people who don't know the reference can get it. The comments you have on your videos are so awesome —they're so rooted in the fandom.

I credit the One Piece community, you know, they, I feel like they embraced me. Whenever I posted something about OP, it was kind of like, oh, we want more. It just inspires me to do more and keep going.

My bat will bring success:

You do spread your love pretty wildly in your field gags, but we have to know— who is your favorite character?

ALEXIADES: My favorite character is Zoro. He's just too cool, and I love his demeanor.

I love the bat gag you did with the 3 bats. Who's your favorite villain?

ALEXIADES: My favorite villain is Doflamingo. Who's this guy? I think he's like the most natural evil out there, and you just have to root for Luffy to save Dressrosa and beat him up.

Are you a fan of the anime, the manga, or both?

ALEXIADES: Now, both. I've watched the anime all the way through, and now I'm reading Elbaph, but yeah, whether watching or reading, now I do both.

Have you watched the live action at all?

ALEXIADES: Yes. I'm already four episodes deep into Season 2. Being able to compress it into a short time period, and I think the characters are great. It's super fun, and they adapt it so well. They don't try to make it too realistic, right? They bring the goofiness of it, I think.

I know you have some videos and other anime, like Jujutsu Kaisen.

ALEXIADES: I'm currently watching JJK, and I bought the first 2 books of Berserk. My brother absolutely loves it. So I'm about to start reading that as well.

So how do you choreograph your gags? Do you plan?

ALEXIADES: Yeah, I'm the type of person who has to plan. If I didn't do that and I tried to do it all on the spot, I'd overthink it, and it would go horrendously wrong, so I have to. Before every hit, yeah, before every game. I'm going to do these 3 celebrations or these trick plays. And so before every hitter, depending on the situation, I'll decide whether I'll do a more difficult trick play or if it's a hard-to-catch, I'll do an easier one, but it depends on the situation. And then I'll always have the idea “I'll do this celebration” if I make a trick play. So I'll always have a plan.

To wrap up, what kind of shenanigans can we look forward to from you and the Bananas?

ALEXIADES: Every time you watch, you'll always see something new, and you never know what to expect. Whether we have a cool guest or we do different walk-ups. It's always something new and unexpected. But for me, I definitely see a whole list of new One Piece celebrations I have planned. I'll start pulling from past anime I have watched as well, but I'll keep integrating and just providing a little fun.

This past weekend, I did do a One Piece walk-up that was cool. I was in the crowd, and it was for the live action. They should be posting it this week, but we'll see. The whole crowd—they got 750 straw hats, and so the whole section was wearing a straw hat as we came down, and did a little dance on home plate. My social media following is like no Bananas fans, you know, I feel like it's all separate. It's funny, like when we had all the straw hats this weekend. You know, you could tell everyone [in the crowd] was like, what is this?

I've signed up to volunteer at a game down the Jersey Shore this summer, and I'm hoping I'll be able to catch up with you and do the pose where the Strawhats say goodbye to Vivi. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

ALEXIADES: Definitely.

Check out the schedule for the Savannah Bananas or the other Banana Ball teams. Tickets are sold by lottery, but they are always looking for volunteers. And check out Reese's and the Bananas' One Piece videos on YouTube and other social media platforms.