Baseball alumnus Cox and Bananas to play in Philly during final World Tour stop

PHILADELPHIA, PA – The Savannah Bananas are set to take the field at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. This is a great opportunity for locals to see former Kutztown baseball player Ryan Cox in action as a member of “The Greatest Show in Sports.”

Cox, who plays infield for the Bananas, is known as the “Glove Magician” and is in his third year as an infielder after being selected from hundreds of prospects to join the team. The Kutztown alumnus played independent ball following his time with the Golden Bears and earned a tryout with the eastern Georgia-based team after catching the attention of Savannah Bananas owner Jesse Cole.

The Bananas, a circus-style traveling baseball team that aims to bring fun, quirky entertainment to the American hobby, make the final stop on their 2024 Banana Ball World Tour at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia this Saturday at 7 p.m. Though tickets are sold out, this game and most subsequent games will be streamed live on the team’s YouTube channel, with select games airing on ESPN or TruTV.

The 2024 edition of the World Tour will mark the Bananas’ second year of nationwide travel, following their departure from Coastal Plain League college ball in 2022. Last year’s tour pitted the team against select minor league teams and the Party Animals, a competitive equivalent of the Washington Generals – arch-rivals of the Harlem Globetrotters. The major league stadium series is an addition to this iteration of the tour, as the Philadelphia stop will mark the fifth of six games played in a major league stadium – the most recent being in Cleveland on Aug. 10.

Cox, a three-year infielder for the Golden Bears, came to Kutztown in 2015 after one season at Division I’s St. Bonaventure. He was a .331 career hitter at KU, including a career-best .377 in 2018. The Aliquippa, Pa., native played in 100 career games and had 111 hits, 59 RBIs and 59 runs scored while posting a career fielding percentage of .968 at shortstop. Cox was named to the KU Dean’s List in three of his four years with the Golden Bears.

The Savannah Bananas take on the Party Animals before a sold-out crowd at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday, September 21 at 7:00 PM.