The Tri-City Chili Peppers recently played a game of baseball under black lights in front of a crowd of 10,000 in Durham, North Carolina. (Courtesy Tri-City Chili Peppers)
Borrowing a page from the Savannah Bananas’ playbook, the Tri-City Chili Peppers are taking their show on the road.
The amateur baseball team that plays at Shepherd Stadium in Colonial Heights recently kicked off its first “Cosmic Takeover Tour,” where it’ll bring its glowing, black-lit “cosmic baseball” games to seven cities throughout the country.
The Chili Peppers and team owner Chris Martin debuted cosmic baseball last year as a way to drum up interest in the team. Shepherd Stadium was outfitted with black lights, and the players wore fluorescent uniforms and played with balls, gloves and bats that are black light-reactive.
It was a hit, with each cosmic game selling out the 2,000-seat stadium at 901 Meridian Ave. The concept also caught the eye of other team owners.
The Chili Peppers play in the Coastal Plain League, in which teams are often made up of college players looking to get some reps in over the summer. But Martin said after the first cosmic game, he started getting calls from teams further up the pyramid in minor league baseball, looking for ways to bring cosmic ball to their stadiums as a promotion.
Chris Martin
“I don’t know if it could have gone any better,” Martin said of the first year of cosmic baseball. “You sell out every single game at home, and then from a business perspective, you see massive growth in revenue. And then you start getting phone calls from Triple-A teams saying, ‘We want you to come out here and play in our stadium.’”
By the end of last summer he’d heard from around a dozen teams wanting the black-lit Peppers to come to town, but Martin said he was apprehensive about organizing such an ambitious tour on such short notice.
“We had basically six months from the time we said, ‘Let’s go on tour,’ to our very first tour date,” he said. “It’s literally starting a whole new business and trying to do something that nobody’s ever done before, which is play baseball in black lights and take it to these cities. You’re creating things on the fly.”
That first tour date was a few weeks ago in Durham, North Carolina, where the Chili Peppers played in front of a crowd of 10,000. Their opponent was the Glow Mojis, the Chili Peppers’ house opponent, similar to the Washington Generals that play against the Harlem Globetrotters or the Party Animals, the Savannah Bananas’ opponent.
Through the rest of the summer they’ll be packing up their black-light rigs, reactive clothing, fluorescent uniforms and glowing bats and balls and heading to places like Nashville, Indianapolis, Toledo, Ohio, and Sugar Land, Texas.
To pull it off, Martin said they invested $2 million into infrastructure, purchasing four 50-foot trailers and flatbeds, along with a “massive amount of black lights” on rigs that can be transported. As a result, the Chili Peppers’ full-time staff grew from one person in 2024 to 13 this year.
The bats, balls and gloves are all black light-reactive.
Deals are already being signed for 2026’s cosmic baseball tour, and Martin said he’s looking to do more stops and venture even farther west.
“This year our focus was seven cities. Next year, our focus is 30, and we’ve had some really big conversations with expanding and being in larger stadiums as well,” he said. “This year is basically our big run-up to having a massive 2026.”
Martin said he can’t disclose details on how money is made from cosmic baseball, just that contracts are worked out with each stadium to bring the event there.
The players who play cosmic ball for the Chili Peppers are different from those who play on the normal Chili Peppers team, which is made up of college players who are less concerned with the black lights than they are with making it to the big leagues.
“When we first launched it, (the players) thought it was cool and fun, but at the same time, their whole focus is to try to play professionally. So we ended up changing it up,” Martin said. “Our cosmic team is completely different from our Coastal Plain League team.”
However, the extra revenue and attention from cosmic baseball has had a positive impact on the Chili Peppers at Shepherd Stadium, Martin said, allowing them to get a new video board and renovate locker rooms and offices. He said all the cosmic players are paid professionals and have played pro ball at some level before. Some are even former Bananas.
“Going on tour has allowed us to gravitate things back to our city … and all of this is possible because of the support that we’ve received, not just locally but nationally as well,” Martin said, noting that more multigame ticket packages have been sold this year than in any previous year.
Martin said for now they’re operating both the cosmic team and the CPL team under the same name and entity, but they may split them off in the future.
In addition to the tour, the Chili Peppers have six cosmic games scheduled for Shepherd Stadium, beginning June 7.
It’s hard to not draw parallels between the cosmic Chili Peppers and the Savannah Bananas, the Chili Peppers’ former league-mate in the CPL.
The Bananas have since left the league to travel the country playing their own brand of exhibition baseball, “Banana Ball,” that’s known for its trick plays, custom rules and high-energy outings. Martin said he thought about the Bananas’ tour when he had to decide whether to try a cosmic version.
“The closest example is the Bananas, right? Like, they traveled playing all these triple-A stadiums, and now they’re in major league and NFL stadiums. That’s the closest reference to people wanting you to go on tour,” he said. “So, at first we said, ‘No, we didn’t want to do this. We want to just focus on our brand here.’ And then I, honestly, I felt like if I didn’t say yes to it, I was going to regret it.”
It’s been a winding road for Martin and the Chili Peppers, whose inaugural season in 2020 was scrapped because of the pandemic. But Martin said the thought processes formed during the pandemic led them here.
“COVID makes you think creatively, and so we started doing a lot of fun, untraditional things on the field, and it just kind of took off,” he said. “We’re just trying to have as much fun as we possibly can, and we’re not really focused on anything outside of that.”
The Tri-City Chili Peppers recently played a game of baseball under black lights in front of a crowd of 10,000 in Durham, North Carolina. (Courtesy Tri-City Chili Peppers)
Borrowing a page from the Savannah Bananas’ playbook, the Tri-City Chili Peppers are taking their show on the road.
The amateur baseball team that plays at Shepherd Stadium in Colonial Heights recently kicked off its first “Cosmic Takeover Tour,” where it’ll bring its glowing, black-lit “cosmic baseball” games to seven cities throughout the country.
The Chili Peppers and team owner Chris Martin debuted cosmic baseball last year as a way to drum up interest in the team. Shepherd Stadium was outfitted with black lights, and the players wore fluorescent uniforms and played with balls, gloves and bats that are black light-reactive.
It was a hit, with each cosmic game selling out the 2,000-seat stadium at 901 Meridian Ave. The concept also caught the eye of other team owners.
The Chili Peppers play in the Coastal Plain League, in which teams are often made up of college players looking to get some reps in over the summer. But Martin said after the first cosmic game, he started getting calls from teams further up the pyramid in minor league baseball, looking for ways to bring cosmic ball to their stadiums as a promotion.
Chris Martin
“I don’t know if it could have gone any better,” Martin said of the first year of cosmic baseball. “You sell out every single game at home, and then from a business perspective, you see massive growth in revenue. And then you start getting phone calls from Triple-A teams saying, ‘We want you to come out here and play in our stadium.’”
By the end of last summer he’d heard from around a dozen teams wanting the black-lit Peppers to come to town, but Martin said he was apprehensive about organizing such an ambitious tour on such short notice.
“We had basically six months from the time we said, ‘Let’s go on tour,’ to our very first tour date,” he said. “It’s literally starting a whole new business and trying to do something that nobody’s ever done before, which is play baseball in black lights and take it to these cities. You’re creating things on the fly.”
That first tour date was a few weeks ago in Durham, North Carolina, where the Chili Peppers played in front of a crowd of 10,000. Their opponent was the Glow Mojis, the Chili Peppers’ house opponent, similar to the Washington Generals that play against the Harlem Globetrotters or the Party Animals, the Savannah Bananas’ opponent.
Through the rest of the summer they’ll be packing up their black-light rigs, reactive clothing, fluorescent uniforms and glowing bats and balls and heading to places like Nashville, Indianapolis, Toledo, Ohio, and Sugar Land, Texas.
To pull it off, Martin said they invested $2 million into infrastructure, purchasing four 50-foot trailers and flatbeds, along with a “massive amount of black lights” on rigs that can be transported. As a result, the Chili Peppers’ full-time staff grew from one person in 2024 to 13 this year.
The bats, balls and gloves are all black light-reactive.
Deals are already being signed for 2026’s cosmic baseball tour, and Martin said he’s looking to do more stops and venture even farther west.
“This year our focus was seven cities. Next year, our focus is 30, and we’ve had some really big conversations with expanding and being in larger stadiums as well,” he said. “This year is basically our big run-up to having a massive 2026.”
Martin said he can’t disclose details on how money is made from cosmic baseball, just that contracts are worked out with each stadium to bring the event there.
The players who play cosmic ball for the Chili Peppers are different from those who play on the normal Chili Peppers team, which is made up of college players who are less concerned with the black lights than they are with making it to the big leagues.
“When we first launched it, (the players) thought it was cool and fun, but at the same time, their whole focus is to try to play professionally. So we ended up changing it up,” Martin said. “Our cosmic team is completely different from our Coastal Plain League team.”
However, the extra revenue and attention from cosmic baseball has had a positive impact on the Chili Peppers at Shepherd Stadium, Martin said, allowing them to get a new video board and renovate locker rooms and offices. He said all the cosmic players are paid professionals and have played pro ball at some level before. Some are even former Bananas.
“Going on tour has allowed us to gravitate things back to our city … and all of this is possible because of the support that we’ve received, not just locally but nationally as well,” Martin said, noting that more multigame ticket packages have been sold this year than in any previous year.
Martin said for now they’re operating both the cosmic team and the CPL team under the same name and entity, but they may split them off in the future.
In addition to the tour, the Chili Peppers have six cosmic games scheduled for Shepherd Stadium, beginning June 7.
It’s hard to not draw parallels between the cosmic Chili Peppers and the Savannah Bananas, the Chili Peppers’ former league-mate in the CPL.
The Bananas have since left the league to travel the country playing their own brand of exhibition baseball, “Banana Ball,” that’s known for its trick plays, custom rules and high-energy outings. Martin said he thought about the Bananas’ tour when he had to decide whether to try a cosmic version.
“The closest example is the Bananas, right? Like, they traveled playing all these triple-A stadiums, and now they’re in major league and NFL stadiums. That’s the closest reference to people wanting you to go on tour,” he said. “So, at first we said, ‘No, we didn’t want to do this. We want to just focus on our brand here.’ And then I, honestly, I felt like if I didn’t say yes to it, I was going to regret it.”
It’s been a winding road for Martin and the Chili Peppers, whose inaugural season in 2020 was scrapped because of the pandemic. But Martin said the thought processes formed during the pandemic led them here.
“COVID makes you think creatively, and so we started doing a lot of fun, untraditional things on the field, and it just kind of took off,” he said. “We’re just trying to have as much fun as we possibly can, and we’re not really focused on anything outside of that.”
I looked into purchasing some tickets for a glow game, but all I could find were options to purchase ticket packages where you have to buy multiple games and one of them is a glow game. Perhaps I was in the wrong spot/website, but if that’s the only way I can take the family then we’re going to pass. I don’t want to be forced to pay for multiple games I have no interest in watching.
Unfortunately, the only way to get tickets for 1 Cosmic game was to buy a 4 game ticket package where 3 of the games are not Cosmic. However, we bought our package when it first came out and they had an exibition/spring training game a few weeks ago and they did the Cosmic stuff for an hour, so we basically got 2 Cosmic games and 3 regular games with our ticket package.
Why bash the baseball club wanting to draw interest because you are on the wrong website or have no interest in baseball?
Congrats, Chris!
I knew you would hit it out of the park on this one.
Looking forward to you building your own ballpark to teach the game to all the kids in RVA!