Laurel: To an ap-peel-ing visit. The Savannah Bananas brought their signature form of entertainment married with baseball to PNC Park over the weekend.

It was two days of fun and excitement rarely seen in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ home venue. Yes, the Bananas are out-of-town barnstormers. Yes, the event had a boatload of stunt offerings, including internet celebrity Mr. Beast coming in and giving away the kind of cash usually promised by Gus, the Pennsylvania Lottery’s second most famous groundhog.

But while Banana Ball creator and Bananas team owner Jesse Cole might have brought the guys up from Georgia, two of the most visible players are from Western Pennsylvania. Butler native Alex Ziegler, a former Vulcan from California University of Pennsylvania, is the team’s bat expert. Aliquippa’s Ryan “The Glove Magician” Cox is shortstop.

TribLive columnist Tim Benz used his time after the weekend appearances to say why people were wrong to compare the team to the Pirates. He had good points, and we won’t say he’s wrong. Banana Ball and baseball are not the same, and the act might grow old after a while.

But let’s explore why people could be right to want a little more of what Cole’s team is offering. It’s a product that makes fans feel enthusiastic. It’s filling up seats both in Savannah and on the road. Perhaps more than anything, it’s not making anyone rent billboards or airplanes with the message “sell the team.”

Yes, an entertainment-forward outfit like the Bananas might not be the sports-first major leagues. But that doesn’t mean Pirates owner Bob Nutting should shrug off watching an exhibition team fill his stadium with gleeful fans for two days.

Lance: To getting scammed. Having your Facebook page hacked is a modern problem that most people can understand.

But most people don’t wield a gavel.

Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Scott Mears was the victim of a hacker, it was revealed Tuesday. This wasn’t just an instance of cloning an account. The scammer embarked on an increasingly common fraud, posting to Mears’ page that the judge’s uncle was moving into assisted living and possessions were being sold. The scammer solicited money for everything from vehicles to exercise equipment.

“I am urging residents to remain vigilant against these types of attacks and to report them to law enforcement immediately,” Mears said in a statement.

Did the hacker know that he had scored a judge when he took over the page? Unknown. But Mears has concerns about the crime exploiting the trust of his position. It’s an understandable worry and makes the crime all the worse.

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