Homeless To Home Plate: Wyoming Man's Fantastic Journey To The Savannah Bananas

It started with a selfie.

That's the funny part of the story, said Bradlee Skinner.

The remarkable part came years earlier, when the former Wyoming high school English teacher was homeless, delivering pizzas and wondering how his life had unraveled.

Today, Skinner spends his weekends DJ'ing in front of tens of thousands of screaming fans for the Savannah Bananas, the wildly popular baseball entertainment phenomenon that has become one of the hottest tickets in sports.

"It's been amazing," Skinner told Cowboy State Daily.

The job has taken him from Wyoming classrooms to iconic ballparks such as Coors Field in Denver and soon Wrigley Field in Chicago, where he rubs shoulders with performers and entertainers he once showed his students as examples of creative excellence.

It's a journey Skinner never could have imagined when life hit rock bottom more than a decade ago.

From Rock Bottom To The Classroom

In 2013, Skinner had lost nearly everything. He had quit a teaching job, saying, "I reached a point where if I didn't end it, it was going to end me." 

But he said his mental health was unstable then, and he found he could not land another job.

Soon, the money ran out.

"I had lost my job, lost my house, lost a lot of my self-identity," he said. "I was in a really, really dark place."

While delivering pizzas and doing anything he could to earn a buck, Skinner said he hadn't yet learned the importance of caring for his mental health as much as his physical health.

The people around him carried him through.

"I could either be humiliated that I was dancing on a street corner, or I could be humbled that people cared enough to reach out," he told Cowboy State Daily.

A former student even offered him and his wife, Melissa, a place to live.  

Those moments changed Skinner’s perspective.

Later, when he interviewed for a teaching position at Rock Springs High School, then principal Darrin Peppard recognized Skinner as someone who needed an opportunity.

"I was more than happy to give him that opportunity," Peppard said. "Almost immediately I noticed, once the school year began, he's just a kid magnet. Students are just drawn to him."

Skinner spent three years teaching in Rock Springs before moving to Green River High School, where over the next nine years he taught English while building the school's theater program.

Baseball Meets Broadway

Outside the classroom, Skinner had another passion.

He DJ'ed weddings, school dances and corporate events with Melissa through their Wyoming entertainment company, Phony Stark Industries.

The name came out of the blue, courtesy of one of his students.

One day in class, a student remarked that Skinner resembled Tony Stark from the Iron Man movies.

Another student sitting in the back of the classroom immediately replied, "It's more like Phony Stark."

The name stuck.

Melissa also played an unexpected role in launching Skinner's DJ career. While in college, he enrolled in a radio broadcasting class, he jokes, because "there was this really cute girl who ran the radio show."

That girl was Melissa.

Discovering Banana Ball

Skinner first heard about the Savannah Bananas in 2022.

"I was like, 'This is weird'," he said.

Founded by Jesse and Emily Cole, the Bananas were created with one goal: make baseball fun again.

The organization transformed the traditional game into "Banana Ball," a fast-paced version with a two-hour time limit, no bunts, no walks and fans catching foul balls for outs. Baseball is only part of the show.

Players, all in bright yellow uniforms, dance between innings. A senior-citizen dance troupe called the Banana Nanas performs alongside the Man-Nanas, a dad-bod cheerleading squad. Even the first-base coach breakdances. Team owner Jesse Cole famously wears a bright yellow tuxedo.

The result has become one of the biggest sensations in sports entertainment.

"I think it's easier to get tickets to see Taylor Swift than see the Bananas right now," Peppard said.

As someone with backgrounds in both theater and entertainment, Skinner was fascinated.

"The preshow, the postgame party – everything is a theatrical performance," he said.

In 2024, he brought a group of Green River High theater students to Salt Lake City to watch the Bananas play the Party Animals. By then, he was teaching English and building the theater program.

He said he wanted his students to see how theatrical skills translate far beyond the stage.

“Students see you can be involved in theatre and the skills you can learn don’t always have to be on the stage,” he said.

One Selfie Changed Everything

Before the game, players mingled with fans outside the stadium.

Skinner heard music and immediately knew there had to be a DJ nearby.

While his students posed for pictures with players, Skinner wandered over and snapped a selfie with the DJ in the background.

The DJ noticed.

The two struck up a conversation about their work, exchanged contact information and stayed in touch.

No Pressure — Just 50,000 People

Early in 2025, the Bananas' DJ contacted Skinner and encouraged him to audition for a DJ slot. They were adding more teams, and auditions for new DJs were being scheduled.

Skinner quickly submitted a demo reel.

Interview after interview followed.

Eventually, he received a phone call inviting him to audition in person.

He assumed the tryout would happen at the team's home stadium in Savannah, Georgia, or perhaps another minor league ballpark.

Instead, they invited him to Coors Field.

"Oh yeah, sure," he remembers thinking. "I'll DJ in front of 50,000 people. No pressure."

The audition worked.

Skinner joined the organization for the 2026 season, performing with both the Bananas and one of the league's newer teams, the Texas Tailgaters.

“The opportunity just became too big and it’s too exciting (to pass up),” he said.

He resigned from his teaching post in Green River at the end of the school year.

'He's Living His Best Life'

When Skinner shared the news with his students, many were stunned.

“It was like this big ahhh moment, like, that’s pretty crazy,” former student Jeremy Neher said. “He told us with a smile on his face. He seemed to be ecstatic.”

Fellow English teacher Victoria Hemphill told Cowboy State Daily she saw the struggle Skinner had in leaving the school.

“He knew he was impacting kids,” she said.

She called the move to DJ brave.

“The selfish side of me says, yes, I would love to have Brad back in the school,” she said. “But seeing him see so brave, I can say, ‘Hey, I know that guy'.”

Peppard said he wasn't surprised by the career move.

"My reaction was, obviously I am so excited for him, but in part I'm not surprised at all," he said. "He's living his best life."

Never Too Old To Chase A Dream

During the baseball offseason, Skinner plans to continue DJ'ing weddings and corporate events while growing an educational speaking and consulting business.

He also said he believes he'll return to teaching someday.

He's simply following a different classroom for now.

His message to students remains the same as when he stood in front of a whiteboard.

"You're never too old to chase your dreams," he said.

These days, many of the performers he once showed students on YouTube have become colleagues, including Broadway star Ben Platt, songwriter duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul of The Greatest Showman, and Mandy Moore, known for choreographing Taylor Swift's Eras Tour.

For Hemphill, Skinner's story sends an important message to Wyoming students.

"Those cool jobs go to somebody," she said. "I do think he inspired kids to think outside of our sometimes limited perspective in Wyoming. If you want that, go get it."

Neher believes that's exactly why students connected with Skinner.

"He sees his students not just as another day of work but as people who care about the same things he does," Neher said. "He sees them as future world changers."

Kate Meadows can be reached at kate@cowboystatedaily.com.