Northwoods League Adds Two More Teams for 2027

A couple of small Midwestern towns announced this year that they will be awarded 2027 expansion franchises in the Northwoods League - Dyersville, Iowa and New Buffalo, Michigan.  The population of Dyersville and New Buffalo combined equals about 6,000 people, which is still smaller than the next smallest city on the circuit, Traverse City, Michigan.  The Northwoods League has proven time and again that they can make their product work even in the most remote and smallest of markets, but these two experiments will certainly put that to the test.

Pardon the reference, but Dyersville is truly employing the "if you build it they will come" approach.  The Dyersville Dreamers are going all-in on a permanent ballpark at the Field of Dreams site, piggybacking on the popular MLB and MiLB games that have been held there, and banking on the fact that a small farming town in the middle of Iowa can lure enough fans to make it profitable.  The Field of Dreams has been the #1 tourist destination in the state since the movie was released almost 40 years ago, so likely the ownership is relying on a lot of revenue through tourism as well - which has historically been a dangerous recipe for success.  The nearest place resembling a city is Dubuque about 30 minutes east.  New Buffalo is nestled on the Lake Michigan shore in the southwestern corner of the state, and is even smaller than Dyersville with about 1,700 year-round residents - so small in fact that they're playing at a local high school field.  The Dyersville team makes some sense to me since they built the ballpark for the Field of Dreams Game anyways so why not use it, but I can't fathom the New Buffalo team being that big of a draw.  The place moniker they've chosen in "Dune Coast" implies they're hoping for a regional outreach, but again this area is primarily known for tourism which isn't usually a reliable formula.  Not to mention the area population has been steadily declining over the past few decades.  The location does make sense within the footprint of the league, but beyond that I'm at a loss.  It was revealed a few weeks ago that they will be known as the Dune Coast Quillbacks, in reference to the porcupines that were once native to the area.

Even though the league is adding two more teams, this is technically not an expansion, as the league total should remain at 26 for at least the 2027 season.  The Rochester Honkers announced that, after over 30 years in the league, they would be going on an indefinite hiatus due to deteriorating conditions at Mayo Field.  I attended a Honkers game in 2009 and even back then it was one of the worst maintained stadiums I've ever been to, so I can't imagine how bad things must have gotten over the last 17 years to finally say enough is enough.  The Rox and the Wausau Woodchucks are now the lone remaining of the original 5 franchises.  With the removal of the Honkers and the addition of the Dreamers and Quillbacks, that makes for a total of 27, so I can only assume the traveling Minnesota Mud Puppies team will cease operations for 2027 as well, which gets us back to the 26 teams.  This league continues to grow faster than I can visit its ballparks, but I'm excited for a future visit to the Field of Dreams with my family.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 8/24/26:

Brewers 81-50, +6.0; 3 @ Mets, 3 v. Rangers, 4 @ Cubs, 3 @ Reds, 3 v. Cubs, 3 v. Reds

Twins 63-68, - 5.5, -2.0 WC; 3 @ Athletics, 3 v. White Sox, 3 v. Tigers, 3 @ White Sox, 3 @ Tigers, 3 v. Guardians

2026 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 7

Peter - 25

Banana Ball in Minneapolis

All photos of Banana Ball @ Target Field available on Flickr.

My family and I finally got to experience the phenomenon that is Banana Ball for the first time yesterday.  I wouldn't necessarily say this was a "baseball bucket list" item for me, but we've definitely been trying to go for awhile, as it's been soaring in popularity every year and selling out venues across the country on an annual basis.  Because of how in demand tickets are and their barnstorming setup in which these teams play a unique mostly road schedule every season, the process for getting tickets is pretty arduous.  You have to sign up for a mailing list which then gets you the opportunity to sign up for a ticket lottery for select cities, but even winning the lottery does not guarantee that you will get tickets as we found out last year when they played in St. Paul.  Within literal seconds of clicking the ticket link, the entire 7,000+ seat stadium was sold out.  We were also unsuccessful in registering for tickets in 2024 in Des Moines.  This year, the Bananas were scheduled for 3 dates at Target Field, which is over 5x the size of the minor league venues in St. Paul and Des Moines, so we were a little more confident we'd be able to snag seats this year.  Long story short - we were part of a sellout crowd on Sunday.  Sadly, this was probably the most full I've ever seen Target Field including postseason games, but it's also a testament to a sport that has been selling out 100,000 seat football stadiums with ease.

We had some idea of how big the crowd would be before we even got there.  It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get from our house in Cold Spring to a parking garage - for context that is about double the normal drive time.  I-394 was backed up for miles into the stadium ramps, which switched to FULL just as we were entering, and we had to scurry into the closest open ramp we could find.  I love a lot about Target Field, but it is one of the worst stadiums in baseball to park at for a capacity crowd (thankfully that rarely happens for the Twins).  Despite the delays, we still managed to get inside about 15 minutes before first pitch, and we took our excellent seats in the 3rd row by the right field pole.  The Banana Ball Championship League is now up to 6 teams, and we were fortunate enough to be seeing the OG Bananas vs. the Loco Beach Coconuts.

I could probably spend hours and an entire post just explaining the origins of Banana Ball and its rules, but in the interest of brevity, I'll try to distill this to one paragraph.  Banana Ball is basically an offshoot of baseball meant to emphasize fun, fans, and constant action.  It started as a few wacky exhibition games played by the Savannah Bananas, who actually used to be a real summer collegiate team that replaced the former Sand Gnats in 2016 (whom we saw on the Tour).  When those exhibition games started to become more popular and better than real baseball, the Bananas ditched the Coastal Plains League entirely in 2023 and Banana Ball was officially formed.  In its infancy the schedule was sparse, with barnstorming games played against existing organized baseball teams, but as of this year it has grown into its own official league with six dedicated teams and a 7+ month schedule.  Savannah is still "home" to the Bananas and hosts games a few times a month for the home fans, but by and large it is still a barnstorming schedule, with a new slate of road cities and games introduced every year, some of them not even being played in baseball stadiums.  The difference in 2026 is that it is now an incorporated league, so there are team standings with an actual championship series played in October.  As I mentioned, the game is rooted in baseball and its basic structure would be recognizable to baseball fans, but it has many quirky rules that are meant to keep fans engaged.  I won't get into all of them, but some of them include no walks, the winner of each inning gets one point (so technically every inning can be a walk-off), a "Golden Batter" that can hit at any spot in the lineup, and foul balls caught by fans count as an out.  This last rule was particularly important this weekend at Target Field, as Minneapolis fans recorded a record 10 outs in Saturday night's contest.  For anybody who attends a Banana Ball game, you'll quickly realize that anything goes so long as nobody gets injured or embarrassed.  It's a spectacle that is basically a circus troupe performing baseball.  There is a stat called "trick plays" and it is not uncommon to see players regularly do back flips or catch balls between their legs or behind their backs.  It gets to the point where seeing just a regular no-frills baseball play occur on the field is shocking.

We saw the Loco Beach Coconuts defeat the Savannah Bananas by a final score of 3-2.  I think?  It might have been 4-3.  There are no box scores and I'm not going to pretend I knew half of what was going on, but that's not exactly the point.  I was surprised that the scoreboard even showed batting averages and RBI totals which seemed out of place for this sport.  I remember that the Coconuts walked it off in the 9th and I was bummed that it did not go to extra inning "showdowns" which is the wild Banana Ball version of extra innings that involves just a catcher, pitcher, and a batter, with no other fielders.  The two coolest parts of the game were when one of the Bananas batters hit while wearing stilts, and when Twins legend and 2006 AL MVP Justin Morneau came out to play first base for an inning.  It seemed to be a little staged with one easy grounder to short and one ball that was probably purposely thrown up the line for him to snag, but he clearly still had the ability to play and made a couple of nice plays.  2022 HOF Inductee Tony Oliva also came out and "coached third base" for one batter at the ripe old age of 88.  Watching Tony O brought back a lot of memories of Erik and I seeing him in a suite full of adoring women every time we were at the Metrodome.  The way the Bananas incorporate local celebrities and former players into their games is one of best parts of what they do and just further emphasizes their credo - give the fans what they want to see.

Our kids loved the non-stop music and thrills and had an absolute blast!  If a 5-year old and an 8-year old can stay engaged with anything for two hours let alone baseball, then we know that Banana Ball has achieved its goal.  We are all hoping that this is not the last time we'll get to experience one of these events, but if so, it was worth every penny.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 8/10/26:

Brewers 74-44, +5.5; 3 @ Padres, 4 @ Dodgers, 3 v. Mariners, 2 v. Braves, Little League Classic v. Braves

Twins 58-61, - 4.0, -1.5 WC; 3 v. Orioles, Field of Dreams Game v. Phillies, 2 v. Phillies, 3 v. Braves, 3 @ Padres

2026 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 7

Peter - 25