MILWAUKEE (AP) \u2014 Baseball is in a bat-flipping golden era, where players are encouraged to soak up their turns in the spotlight, and Junior Caminero, Yandy Diaz and William Contreras are taking bat tossing and slow celebratory trots to new levels this October.<\/p>\n
Caminero, the Tampa Bay Rays’ budding slugger, took 38.7 seconds to saunter around the bases after an AL Championship Series home run. Famous in baseball circles for his slow, spectacular jaunts, his average trot time is still faster than those of Diaz, his Tampa teammate, and Contreras, a Milwaukee Brewers foe in a World Series that begins Friday night.<\/p>\n
Opinions on their leisurely trips home differ across the generations.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know what I\u2019d do: Put one right in his ribs next time up,\u201d Hall of Fame relief pitcher Goose Gossage said. \u201cAct like a big leaguer. It\u2019s a real simple deal. Act like you\u2019ve been there and done that before. They act like fools.\u201d<\/p>\n
Old-school players may disapprove of the theatrical trots, but a lot has changed since Jos\u00e9 Bautista’s massive bat flip during a 2015 AL Division Series became an inflection point in the debate over sportsmanship vs. celebration. Major League Baseball, determined to embrace its young stars<\/a> and international flair, has successfully carved out space for viral \u2014 and marketable \u2014 displays of exuberance.<\/p>\n \u201cThe game is different. It\u2019s in a different place, different state,\u201d said Rays manager Kevin Cash, a big league player from 2002-10. “You don\u2019t want to cross the line of showing up the other team. Always show respect for that, but they\u2019re exciting moments and I want our guys to enjoy them.”<\/p>\n Caminero’s first postseason homer, a two-run drive off the left-field foul pole that gave the Rays a four-run, seventh-inning lead in Monday night’s pennant-clinching 7-3 win<\/a>, resulted in that 38.7-second stroll, the longest tracked uninterrupted postseason home run trot<\/a> since MLB Statcast started measuring in 2015.<\/p>\n His Trop Trot took more than twice as long as Usain Bolt\u2019s 19.19-second record in the 200-meter dash, longer than the 400-meter relay record of 36.84 seconds set by Jamaica, longer than the 500-meter speed skating record of 33.61 seconds by Pavel Kulizhnikov in 2019.<\/p>\n Caminero turned toward the Rays dugout short of first base, pounded his chest with both fists four times, cupped his right ear after rounding second to hear more cheers and pounded his chest again with his right hand. He stopped ahead of the plate, pointed into the stands at Randy Arozarena and imitated the former Rays star’s crossed-arms pose, then crossed home.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s hard to really watch, beating on his chest like Tarzan,\u201d Gossage said.<\/p>\n Caminero wasn\u2019t concerned about Gossage’s comments.<\/p>\n \u201cJust enjoy the moment,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody enjoys the moment because I don\u2019t know if the moment is coming (for) us again.\u201d<\/p>\n Caminero holds the regular-season record trot time at 40.65 seconds, set Sept. 15 with his walk-off, ninth-inning drive against the Athletics\u2019 Elvis Alvarado. Statcast’s uninterrupted trots don’t include balls when a home run was not immediately clear to the batter.<\/p>\n At this rate, the World Series record-long trot seems certain to fall, 31.29 seconds by the New York Yankees\u2019 Juan Soto after going deep off the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2 of 2024.<\/p>\n