Junior Caminero’s slow walk around the bases has turned into a punchline with some serious star power behind it.
At the MLB Awards show Wednesday night in Las Vegas, the Rays third baseman was one of more than 30 major-league players honored. But he ended up as the only one whose tribute came with a song, thanks to hosts Roy Wood Jr. and Mookie Betts.
The bit was built around Caminero’s 40.65-second trip around the bases after his Sept. 15 walkoff home run against the A’s, a pace Wood said became too good to pass up. What started as part of an opening monologue idea about Caminero and Brewers catcher William Contreras - players who take walkoff homers literally - eventually turned into a full song once Wood, Betts and writer Sarah Tiana started kicking around other possibilities.
“I just thought that would be a funny song if we just talked about how slow it was,” Wood said, “and all the different events in history that happened while he trotted around the bases.”
Wood said the group looked at a wide range of references while writing it, from baseball to pop culture, and even worked in the idea that Caminero’s 1-year-old daughter might be grown by the time he reached home plate. Betts added his new guitar-playing skills and a “He’s so slow ... ” chorus, giving the performance a little extra bite.
Among the comparisons, Wood said Caminero took longer to circle the bases than the O.J. Simpson trial, Tommy John surgery rehab, a marathon up Mount Everest, payoff of a 30-year-loan, TSA lines without PreCheck, nearly three-hour movies and an Artemis spaceship getting to the moon and back.
“We love Junior Caminero,” Wood said on the show, then noted the trot was so long “Mookie learned how to play the guitar before be touched home.”
Wood said the slowest official Statcast time since tracking began in 2015 was the perfect setup for the joke. He also said the hosts didn’t ask Caminero for approval or warn him beforehand, but they felt comfortable doing it because of the trust they’ve built with players over the past three years hosting the event.
“They know I come in peace,” Wood said. “And they know that I have a respect and reverence for the game.”
Even so, he admitted some concern that the joke might land the wrong way, making Caminero seem like he wasn’t playing the game the right way. That worry eased once he saw the reaction from the Rays third baseman, who was seated close to the stage.
“We went over, dapped him up and spoke to him immediately (afterward),” Wood said. “He was less than 10 feet away from us the whole time we were doing the song and was totally a great sport about it.
Like, he couldn’t have been greater. He laughed, his wife laughed, it was really chill. ...”
“I’m happy he was a good sport about it, too. Because, Lord knows, the last thing you want is somebody that strong pissed off at you.”
Looking back, Wood said there was one comparison they probably should have leaned into even more: Bartolo Colon. Colon, then nearly 43, ran the bases in 30.59 seconds after his first homer in 2016, and Wood said that contrast would have made for a great side-by-side.
“I wish we could have just done a side-by-side of Caminero around the bases compared to Bartolo,” Wood said. “I just threw it out as a silly line at the end, and that was fun. But the idea that Bartolo got around the bases faster, that you’re slower than Bartolo. ...”
He also tossed out another line about Caminero being so slow, “I thought he was (one of the Molina brothers).”
One Tampa Bay-specific line didn’t make the cut, though Wood said it was too hard to rhyme: “His home run trot took so long, the new stadium had been built. It’s the only home run trot to end in a different stadium than the one it started in.”
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