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Every entrepreneur knows how tough it is to innovate in a traditional industry. And few industries cling to tradition more tightly than baseball. Nowhere else do fans protect the game’s ‘integrity’ the way the Supreme Court guards the Constitution — preserving the original no matter how much the world changes around it.
The Cole family, owners of the Savannah Bananas, see it differently. As they recently discussed on the Self-Made Podcast, Jesse Cole, a former college baseball player, believes loving the game means changing it and pushing it forward.
“When you’re playing, you’re in the middle of it, and you’re having fun,” Cole tells Entrepreneur. “But when I watch it, I start to get bored.”
Between mound visits, bunts, walks and endless timeouts, he found himself drifting during a three-hour game. Instead of accepting these flaws as “tradition,” he set out to fix them.
Related: This Team Is Making Sports History by Giving Fans Ownership
Ripe for innovation
The Cole family never set out to become the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball. When they first got started, they were just trying to sell tickets for their floundering summer league team.
“Our first game, we tried to have the fastest and most entertaining game,” Cole says. They cut out walks, bunts and mound visits, and introduced a hard two-hour time limit instead of nine innings.
To their surprise, the players loved it — some even said it was the most fun they’d ever had on a baseball field.
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