I haven’t posted much of my own original thinking on LinkedIn in a while.
By Ethangoodman · September 22, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
I haven’t posted much of my own original thinking on LinkedIn in a while.
Partly because we’ve been so heads-down in our business that I’ve convinced myself I don’t have the brainspace. And partly, honestly, because I just haven’t felt especially inspired to write about anything publicly.
Until this past weekend.
Friday night, my wife and I took our 7-year-old son to see the Banana Ball World Tour at Comerica Park in Detroit. Party Animals vs. Firefighters. 🍌⚾
We’d started watching Savannah Bananas clips with him before bed (along with Lego unboxing videos; and after reading his books, of course!), and he was immediately hooked. So we surprised him with tickets the day of the game.
As a dad, I loved seeing his pure, unbridled excitement.
As a lifelong baseball fan and self-diagnosed purist (aka snob), I was skeptical.
I’d reduced Banana Ball to “Harlem Globetrotters for baseball” and assumed I was in for two hours of gimmicky, non-fundamentally-sound “baseball.” I’d suck it up for my son, but I was pretty positive I wouldn’t enjoy it.
And the experience WAS missing almost everything I’d always thought made baseball great.
No hometown allegiance or hatred for the visitors. No Ohtani- or Judge-level superstars. No 100-mph fastballs. No chess-match managerial strategy. No centuries-old rules or traditional 7th-inning stretch.
And yet...
I don’t think I’ve ever had as much fun at a baseball game in my life.
We danced, sang, cheered, interacted with players and characters, learned new rules, tried new food (Banana Puddin’ Coolers!), bought way too much merch, and probably sat in our seats for 10 minutes total.
The baseball was better than I expected, too. (The behind-the-back catches are INSANE!)
I was so impressed. My initial perception could not have been more wrong.
So why am I writing about this on LinkedIn?
On our drive home — with my son blissfully tuckered out in the backseat — I couldn’t escape one thought:
How many times must Jesse Cole have heard some version of “you’re crazy,” “this will never work,” or “who’s going to pay for this?”
But he kept going.
When conventional wisdom said go left — this is how baseball has always been done — he went right. He challenged assumptions about which parts of the experience were actually sacred, stuck to his idea and core values, tuned out the noise, and kept grinding.
That takes conviction. And courage.
I’m going to carry that with me as we close out ’26 and head into ’27.
Not because we need to make wholesale changes to our business — I feel really confident in our plan and trajectory.
But because, in a sea of sameness and copycats, where it’s easier to play it safe and follow the industry norm, there’s real value in asking:
What are we doing because it truly matters — and what are we doing simply because that’s how it’s always been done?
Sometimes it pays to go right when everyone else is going left.
Thanks, Jesse Cole and Savannah Bananas, for the inspiration. 🍌