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On July 13, 2021, Biola University infielder RobertAnthony Cruz surprised his dad at work at an auto care shop in Riverside, Calif., with the news that the Washington Nationals were signing him as an undrafted free agent. Perhaps that story sounds familiar.

The emotional video of the interaction, which Cruz’s mom captured on her son’s phone and he later posted on TikTok, was viewed more than 15 million times over the next two days. Cruz appeared on “Good Morning America,” received a direct message from then-Nationals star Juan Soto welcoming him to the organization and gained 150,000 new TikTok followers overnight.

On Saturday — exactly three years since that day filled with tears of joy — Cruz will make his Nationals Park debut before a sellout crowd, not for the Nationals but for the wildly popular barnstorming Savannah Bananas and their zany brand of baseball.

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“Seeing this thing come full circle, it’s pretty special,” the 25-year-old Cruz (Coach RAC to his growing fan base) said in a video interview this week. “You just can’t make it up.”

Becoming Coach RAC

After being released by the Nationals two weeks into minor league spring training in March 2022, Cruz drove home to Riverside feeling embarrassed and unsure of what his future held. Unable to sleep a couple of months later, he recorded a video he had put off since he left Florida and posted it on TikTok.

“So I may have played my last game without knowing it,” Cruz said, before describing the thrill of sharing a spring training clubhouse with veteran Nationals infielder Dee Strange-Gordon, whom he watched play as a young Los Angeles Dodgers fan, and his struggles finding an opportunity with another major league team over the ensuing weeks. The next morning, the video had a half-million views and dozens of supportive comments.

Cruz, who had hoped to provide his newfound social media following with an inside look at the life of an aspiring major leaguer, pivoted to creating content that would help younger players realize their potential. He credited Nationals minor league field coordinator Jeff Garber, a 10th-round pick in the 1988 MLB draft out of James Madison University who played 679 games in the minors across eight seasons, for planting the idea of coaching in his head.

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“Right before I got released, he basically said if you ever want to get into coaching, you would be a great coach with the way that you listen and the way that you’re always trying to learn,” Cruz said of Garber. “That stuck with me.”

So Cruz, who already owned professional-quality camera equipment from the wedding photography business he started during college, resolved to post one coaching video a day for the next three months. As the weeks went on and Cruz became more adept editing with Adobe Premiere, the production quality of his content improved. Every time he finished one video, he got two or three more ideas.

Cruz’s coaching videos covered a wide range of topics, from drills he wish he knew when he was younger to baseball etiquette, base-running tutorials and advice for baseball parents. In addition to providing tips on proper swing mechanics and hand positioning for infielders, Cruz created dozens of videos about the mental aspect of the game. He worries the commercialization of youth baseball has increased the pressure on young players to perform at the expense of having fun.

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“So many lessons that I learned when I was [at spring training] are lessons I’m able to share on social media with regards to dealing with pressure,” he said.

Cruz tripled his social media following over the next year. In addition to the nominal payments he received directly from TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, he established partnerships with baseball gear and lifestyle brands, which came with retainer fees and commission bonuses. Cruz took a job coaching the JV team at his former high school and, with former Biola teammate Anj Bourgeois, created “Not Your Average Baseball Camp,” which features on-field instruction and a session on how to use social media. Cruz’s taxes were a mess, but he was loving life as a full-time coach and content creator.

Welcome to Bananaland

For the uninitiated, the Savannah Bananas travel the country playing exhibition games governed by a unique set of rules designed to make baseball more fun. They include a two-hour time limit; prohibitions against bunting, walks, stepping out of the batter’s box and mound visits; and a scoring system that makes every inning count. Oh, and if a fan catches a foul ball, it’s an out.

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Games feature constant music, choreographed dances, props, costumes and even a player on stilts. Most of the extracurricular fun is scripted, but the baseball, played by former minor league and college players, is not. Fans can’t get enough. Tickets retail for $35, but the get-in price on the secondary market for Saturday’s exhibition in D.C. — the latest stop on the Bananas’ 96-game, 29-city tour — is nearly three times that amount.

Last summer, a friend encouraged Cruz to apply for a spot at a Bananas tryout in nearby Orange County, Calif. Cruz was familiar with Banana Ball — Dalton Mauldin, one of his former teammates from summer collegiate ball in Casper, Wyo., had been with the team since 2021 — but he was hesitant. Cruz’s Coach RAC brand was taking off, and he didn’t have much desire to play again.

Cruz ultimately applied, received an invite to the tryout and made an impression, both with his baseball skills and the back handsprings and tucks he had learned as a gymnastics-obsessed kid who watched VHS tapes of the Summer Olympics on repeat.

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“Everything kind of went my way,” Cruz said. “I got several hits, and I was able pull out some of the gymnastics stuff that I did forever ago. It went really well.”

Three weeks later, the Bananas offered Cruz a spot on the team. He left his house in Redlands, Calif., in January and settled into an apartment with his wife, Gigi, in Savannah, Ga., where the Bananas will play 23 games this year. He has been back to California only a few days since.

The Bananas opened their season at the Yankees’ spring training ballpark in Tampa in early February. A month later, they sold out 41,000-seat Minute Maid Park in Houston, the first of six major league ballparks on their 2024 tour. Astros legend Roy Oswalt, who made a guest pitching appearance along with Roger Clemens, said the crowd noise was comparable to World Series games in which he pitched in the same ballpark.

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Cruz has made his mark in his first year as the Bananas’ left fielder. He has added a backflip catch, including one that ended a game in Buffalo last weekend, to his arsenal of trick plays, and got a hit while stomping his feet to Dance Dance Revolution steps that were displayed on the scoreboard.

Cruz’s parents, Cynthia and Ron, have attended several of his games, including last month’s exhibition at Fenway Park, where Cruz launched home runs in batting practice, signed the Green Monster, led a Bible study the morning of the game behind home plate and signed hundreds of autographs. Bananas owner and founder Jesse Cole, a.k.a. the Yellow Tux Guy, arranged to fly Cruz’s parents out to D.C. for Saturday’s game.

“My dad will wear my Bananas jersey everywhere he goes, like the grocery store,” Cruz said. “I think he loves it when people ask him questions.”

Cruz has continued to grow his personal brand with the Bananas. He has 782,000 followers on TikTok, 448,000 followers on Instagram and 367,000 subscribers on YouTube, where he posts longer-form videos.

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“It’s been a little harder on the road, but it’s definitely been a priority to keep up with the coaching videos,” he said. “As much as I love playing, it’s helping me realize I enjoy making content and coaching even more. There’s definitely more of that in the future.”

Cruz still keeps in touch with some of the Nationals prospects he met during his brief time in the organization, including 2021 draft picks Brady House and Daylen Lile. Ahead of his first trip to Nationals Park for what he described as the “most special game of the year,” it’s not lost on Cruz that he’s connecting with more fans playing in front of sold-out crowds and appearing on ESPN with the Bananas than he would be if he were grinding it out in the minor leagues.

“I definitely think that this whole journey has shaped who I am, and I’m very thankful for that,” Cruz said. “It’s a little too perfect that three years later, on the same day, I get to play at that park under a way different set of circumstances than I would’ve expected. … It’s better than I could’ve drawn it up.”

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