‘Oh Jesus’: Savannah Bananas baseballer’s live TV backflip goes horribly wrong

A live TV stunt has gone horribly wrong after a baseball star attempted a backflip but ended up a bloody mess.

A Savannah Banana baseballer has quite literally fallen on his face on live TV.

While some people can be dud interviews or stumble over their words, Robert Anthony Cruz, who goes by Coach RAC online and in games for Harlem Globetrotters-style baseball team, tried to kick off his interview with CNN’s News Central with a bang.

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Just not a bang like this.

As they cut to him, Cruz went to perform the backflip but got stuck halfway, falling hard on the ground.

Anchor Kate Bolduan said: “Oh Jesus,” before the flip before the set went silent.

Cruz himself, who’s microphone pack went flying, appeared to say: “Oh my god, that never happens.”

While the camera cut back to the anchors, co-anchor John Berman said: “That, what you just saw there, is a brand-new twist on America’s favourite pastime.”

A CNN spokesman confirmed to Entertainment Tonight that they were “glad he’s okay and taking it in such stride”.

The Savannah Bananas are an exhibition baseball team that have taken social media by storm with videos of them dancing before pitches, emphasising showmanship, fan participation and fast games.

Cruz, 26, who was formerly a prospect for the Washington Nationals, took to Instagram after the fact to share what really happened in the viral moment.

After requiring stitches in both his lip and his chin, he posted on his Instagram stories that the world “has my full permission to laugh”.

“I can’t not laugh every time I watch it too — that sound, it’s crazy,” he said.

He'll never live that one down. Photo: Instagram

He fell HARD. Photo: Instagram

He also shared a DM from a young baseballer that said: “You’re still my hero”.

In a later video, he explained where it all went wrong.

“They say all press is good press, huh? Well, you’ve probably seen the video — your boy is bouncing around the internet like a beach ball at a Nickelback concert,” Cruz said.

He explained he was asked by producers if he had any tricks up his sleeve and he promised to do a backflip.

He’s no beginner either, having caught balls doing backflips in games for the Bananas.

He said he’d been on very little sleep after running a baseball camp for kids and had only arrived in New York at 2am.

“I have done tens of thousands of backflips in my life — I had zero reason to doubt my abilities,” Cruz said.

“Anyway, I’m standing on the stage, I get the countdown, it’s time. I send the flip. Next thing I know, I am on the floor and I’m rattled. I was pretty confused, my mic pack fell out of my pocket, my shoe flew off of my foot.

“I don’t even know how that happened.”

Banana Ball is nuts. Photo by Jaiden Tripi/Getty Images

Cruz said he felt bad for the anchors who were left speechless, and that he wanted to continue the interview … until he noticed the blood.

Thinking back he believed it happened because there was a bright board behind him and he was looking for the ground.

“I kinda just lost where I was in the air and wound up under-rotating, plus my feet slipped,” Cruz said.

“Apart from my damaged pride, I didn’t sustain any serious injuries.”

Originally published as ‘Oh Jesus’: Savannah Bananas baseballer’s live TV backflip goes horribly wrong