Junior Caminero ruins the sanctity of baseball with epic LIDOM HR trot

All the hope Tigres del Licey had of a third straight Dominican Republic Professional Baseball League (LIDOM) title vanished with one swing of the bat by Junior Caminero. What followed was nothing but can't-miss television.

In Game 7 of the Dominican Winter League's championship series, Tigres del Licey encountered Albert Pujols' Leones del Escogido. With the score knotted up at five apiece in the bottom of the ninth inning, the 21-year-old rising star of the Tampa Bay Rays, Caminero, delivered quite the unforgettable moment.

The infielder came through with the biggest moment of his young career, smashing a towering championship-clinching bomb over the centerfield wall that honestly may still be in orbit. Apparently, the recorded distance was 454 feet. That frankly seems like an underestimate.

Caminero obliterated what was deemed a 92 mph sinker off former Atlanta Brave Jairo Asencio. The homer was estimated to be traveling an absurd 114.2 mph off the bat.

Chaos then ensued. Caminero went on to produce this masterful extended home run trot. One that should be put in the Hall of Fame of trots. One that we're going to place as the bar for the foreseeable future. It included celebrating with his teammates before he even reached first base, punching the air about 50 times and finally giving his third base coach an embrace before tossing his helmet in the air.

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Junior Caminero helped secure Leones del Escogido's 17th LIDOM title

The Santo Domingo-based ball club had not won a LIDOM title since the former New York Mets manager Luis Rojas led the team to a championship in 2015-16.

If only we could see Caminero's performance around the base paths replicated in a Rays uniform this upcoming season. That's obviously highly unlikely given displays like that are typically not received well by a good portion of the American public and/or media. Imagine what an opposing pitcher in Major League Baseball would have done if an individual did what we're now calling "A Caminero" around the bases. It would anger not only the pitcher but the entire team, including the manager. We'd see retaliation. In the Dominican Republic, though, that's just ball. As simple as that.

It could be foreshadowing for what is to come for Caminero in 2025, who could very well be one of Tampa Bay's most important players going forward. He has flashed power potential at the Major League level, managing to generate a 116.3 mph max exit velocity last season. Overall, Caminero recorded a 246/.296/.412 slash line in 2024, while finishing seventh in the league in average bat speed (77.2) among players with at least 200 swings. That was tied with AL MVP Aaron Judge.