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It may be a bit different than how he envisioned it as a kid, but Imperial native Noah Niznik will finally step on the Busch Stadium field for the first time Friday night.

Niznik will play in front of a packed crowd at Busch Stadium when the Savannah Bananas bring their zany brand of baseball to ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ in the first of two games here on back-to-back nights.

"Excited is an understatement," Niznik says. "It feels surreal. I don't think it's really going to hit until we step foot on that field."

Since bringing Banana Ball on the road for the first time in 2021, the team has been a massive success, selling out every game. The game features designed to amp up excitement: batters can steal first and any ball caught by a fan in the stands is an out, among others.

In March, the Bananas at an NFL stadium in Tampa, Florida. In April, the Bananas at Clemson University's football stadium, Death Valley, in South Carolina.

Tickets to the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ stop went quickly, requiring a multi-step process, and some luck, to purchase. ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ had more entries into the lottery to buy tickets than any other city on this year's tour. Early this week, resale tickets on Stubhub for Friday's game began at nearly $200 apiece.

The Cardinals are already in talks to bring the Bananas back to ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ in 2026.

"I have had more ticket requests for this event than any in recent memory," Vicki Bryant, Cardinals vice president of event services and merchandising, said in an email.

After attending a Banana Ball game at Fenway Park last year, Bryant knew she had to bring the team to ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ and began the conversation.

Tom Gabel is among the many local fans anticipating the event. Gabel plans to attend with his sons, ages 9 and 12.

"They are most excited about the general goofiness and showmanship of the Bananas," he says.

Niznik, a left-handed pitcher who helped lead Vianney to a state championship in 2018, never had the chance to play a game at Busch Stadium while in high school.

After his five-year career at Southeast Missouri State ended, he heard from a few scouts "but nothing really came from that." Thinking his playing days may be over, Niznik prepared to become a coach in the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ area.

Then he got a message from a Bananas representative.

"I thought it was fake," Niznik said of a message sent via social media. "I was just like, this is just another bot kind of thing, somebody just scamming.

"Then I saw another person from the Bananas organization followed me. I was like, all right, there may be some truth to this."

The next step was to send a video to prove he could be a Banana, and Niznik's girlfriend, Lydia Test, now a SEMO gymnastics coach, was well-equipped to help.

"They know you can play baseball. They just want to see ... your personality side, how creative can you get," Niznik says. "So once I showed that to my girlfriend, Lydia, who choreographed for gymnastics, she pretty much took that and ran with it. She choreographed the whole song and dance for me and whatnot, and gave me a little speech before that kind of talking about myself."

After a fast-moving tryout in Dallas that merged baseball, dancing and trick plays, Niznik made the cut and was a Savannah Banana.

He made a big splash in his first season, earning the award.

He's known for from the stands, with more dancing, "flipping the ball around" and generally having the time of his life.

All of that baseball trickery and all of those dances take work, though. A typical Bananas practice this time of year may start with what Bananas coach Tyler Gillum calls "daily vitamins," the team's trick play practice, then maybe some more traditional baseball practice followed by dance rehearsals.

A year in, Niznik is still not fully used to playing in front of massive crowds, like the one in Tampa.

"You feel like you're in a movie," he said. "You get out there with no fans in it, and it still just just blows you away. Like, what are we doing? And then once you see those seats filled up, and you're out there in the game, you kind of just like, black out. You look around. It's just the most people you've ever seen come to watch you play."

Despite the spectacle of it all, the choreographed dances and general showmanship, the Bananas, often compared to the Harlem Globetrotters, are not like that trailblazing basketball squad in one key regard.

"At the end of the day, we're still playing a competitive game," Niznik said. "We're still trying to beat each other. We're playing with some competitive nature, just mixing in a little bit of dancing here and there, some entertainment, just getting the crowd involved.

"But as far as the game goes, none of it's scripted. … We're just playing some ball, just playing hard, trying to win."

Another ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½-area tie

The Bananas' emcee, or chief potassium enthusiast, Matt Graifer, attended Southern Illinois Edwardsville, graduating in 2010.