Catching up with Savannah Bananas baseball player, New Milford alum Jackson Olson
NEW MILFORD, Conn. — Things haven’t always worked out for Jackson Olson and that’s made all the difference.
Olson, 25, was an All-State shortstop for the Green Wave and helped lead New Milford to the semi-finals of the CIAC Class LL Baseball Tournament in 2016. Olson eventually accepted a scholarship to the University of Hartford and in 2018 was instrumental in leading the Hawks to their first-ever America East Championship and an appearance in the NCAA Division 1 tournament.
Olson’s dream of eventually playing professional baseball seemed even more real when his .348 batting average in America East play got the attention of Major League scouts.
By 2019, while playing in the Cape Cod summer league, the Arizona Diamondbacks came knocking and offered Olson a free agent contract. After much consideration, he chose to play another year at Hartford and await the MLB Draft that June.
“It was a difficult decision to turn down the offer, but scouts told me that I would likely be drafted in the top 10 rounds, so it was the right thing to do,” Olson said.
Unfortunately, in March of 2020, COVID-19 forced the cancellation of Hartford’s season after 12 games. To make matters worse the Major League draft was cut from 40 rounds to 5, dissolving Olson’s chances of being drafted.
However, life took an interesting turn on the basepaths of life. Olson found another way to stay close to the game; in a big way through the social media outlet TikTok. His posts on baseball have already had almost 400 million views and Olson has 750,000 followers.
His fame as a TikTok and Instagram personality has afforded Olson experiences that professional baseball most likely would never have offered. He was front and center during the 2021 MLB Playoffs and World Series through commercials for Fox Sports and Taco Bell. With his newfound fame, and the chance for more opportunities, he made a decision to move to Los Angeles and has lived there since January.
He made a viral TikTok with Zac Brown from the Zac Brown Band during the 2021 World Series and walked the Red Carpet at a Hollywood movie premiere. Olson has also done work for MLB, Direct TV, Sony PlayStation, Adobe, Mohegan Sun, Meta, and Buffalo Wild Wings. He recently toured 20 MLB Stadiums ranking the venues for overall experience for the ticket marketplace Gametime.
Olson has thrown out the first pitch at home games for the Milwaukee Brewers, Detroit Tigers, and St. Louis Cardinals. Perhaps the most nervous he’s been in that regard was in Connecticut when he threw out the first pitch at a Hartford Yard Goats minor league game. His TikTok post of that experience drew 1.4 million views. “I played 9 games at Dunkin Donuts Park with UHART but was never as nervous as I was throwing out that first pitch.”
Jackson’s playing career has also been revived but quite a bit differently. He is now a member of the Savannah Bananas, a dynamic professional baseball team in Georgia, described as the Harlem Globetrotters of Baseball. The Bananas – whose roster includes former Major Leaguers from time to time such as retired Boston Red Sox pitcher Jonathan Papelbon – have had their games shown live on ESPN. Olson has already signed up for the Bananas 32-city tour in 2023. The tour includes an August 14th game at Dunkin Donut Park in Hartford. His amusing and even sentimental posts have gone viral on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
Looking back on the dizzying turn of events in his life, Olson said: “Sometimes a door will close but another will open. Never stop chasing the dream because even if it doesn’t come true, it’ll lead you to your next one.”
Jackson Olson
TikTok: @jacksonolson_
Instagram: j_olson2
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