‘Follow your dreams’
Savannah Banana’s Jackson Olson returns home, encourages students to follow their passion
DANBURY — The last few years have been a whirlwind for Jackson Olson.
The former All-State shortstop out of New Milford has seen his life transform through the simple decision to follow his passion, baseball.
From his days at the University of Hartford playing Division I baseball, to having his draft aspirations pulled out from under him due to COVID, Olson has kept his baseball dreams alive through the endless pursuit of his passion.
While it seemed like his playing days were over, Olson has parlayed a large TikTok following of more than 890,000 followers and his position as a member of MLB’s first ever creator class towards a path he never would have imagined.
Through posting on social media, Olson was able to get the attention of a growing national sensation, the Savannah Bananas.
Olson returned to the field for six games last year to play third base for the team that has become known as an intersection between baseball and fun.
“It has been crazy, the most surreal experience of my life so far,” Olson said. “It is the greatest show in sports.”
On Wednesday, Olson returned to his home state where he sat
down with the Danbury baseball team to speak with them about following their passion.
“Follow your dreams,” Olson said. “And don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t.”
Olson had played under John Wrenn during his time at New Milford. Wrenn has since become an assistant coach at Danbury. Together, Wrenn and head coach Shawn Ratchford reached out to ask Olson to share his experiences with their team.
“We ended up connecting a couple times in the last couple years” Olson said. “Now that I am actually playing baseball again, it made sense to come back and talk to some baseball players.”
Olson found his love for content creation while he was still playing college ball, and when his draft day hopes fell by the wayside his secondary passion provided him with new opportunities.
After college, Olson took a life-changing risk to move out to California. His
first job was delivering groceries for Instacart. Eventually, his TikTok account garnered attention from the MLB.
He was offered a shortterm job as a brand ambassador for the MLB, which has since grown into content creation for multiple companies. While he was taking an MLB stadium ranking tour as an ambassador, the Savannah Bananas came across his feed. He immediately made a post and tagged the team, which quickly garnered a response.
“Basically, I posted a TikTok and they took notice,” Olson said. “The owner and their media team reached out to me, and it happened from there.”
After some dialogue, Olson was asked to fill in at third base after nearly a year and a half away from playing the game he loved.
“I’ve only played six games there so far,” Olson said. “And it has been a crazy experience so far even with just those six games. This year we are going to 33 cities on a country-wide tour playing in front of a half million fans.”
While speaking with the Danbury baseball team, Olson recounted his journey through the ups and downs. He fielded questions about his college days to his first six games with the Bananas last year.
“I was a shy little high school kid who didn’t really have any crazy dreams,” Olson said. “I wanted to play D-I baseball, which I ended up getting to do. I want to let these kids know that you can really do anything you want to in life.”
Olson will spend the upcoming season with the Bananas at third base and will even return to his home state for a game in Hartford. A game that coach Wrenn and various Danbury players plan to attend.
“It is awesome, Hartford gave me my first opportunity to play college ball,” Olson said. “We actually played 10 games (at Dunkin Donuts Park) when I was at UHart, so coming back is going to be a crazy experience and a really cool homecoming.”
Olson’s career path has given him much insight into finding happiness, lessons which he shared with the Danbury players he so identifies with.
“You just have to find the fine line between having fun and working hard,” Olson said. “A lot of kids have too much fun, and others work too hard and don’t have enough fun. But you will succeed better doing both equally.”
“The Bananas have definitely taught me that,” Olson said. “A lot of people think the Bananas are just a fun circus game, but you are facing really good competition, but you are also dancing and doing stuff you have never done before. I have a dog bring me my bat, and I have to make sure I am giving the right signal to the dog, or it won’t come. That kind of stuff is crazy.”
Olson’s path was not one he ever would have predicted, but in pursuing his love for baseball through the medium of Tik Tok he finds himself as happy as ever.
Through example, Olson hopes to show kids like him that great things can happen if you do what you love.