Rays CF Kameron Misner's Wacky Inside-The-Park Homerun Will Definitely Be The Top Highlight Of Spring Training

If you watch baseball long enough, you’ll see something so unbelievably bizarre that you just shake your head and laugh.

Tampa Bay Rays backup center fielder Kameron Misner provided us with one of those moments on Sunday.

During a spring training game against the Detroit Tigers, Misner stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the seventh with two out and the bases empty. Misner then popped up a routine fly ball just past the infield, and he hung his head in frustration. Nevertheless, he dutifully ran hard to first base, awaiting a defender to register him out.

Kameron Misner (seen here in 2022) hit one of the craziest inside-the-park homeruns ever. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Four Tigers defenders converged on the ball. You’d think someone, anyone, would reel in this harmless pop-up.

Well, it turns out, there was nothing "harmless" about this, and the sequence went from bad to worse rather quickly.

The first sign of trouble was that among the four major-league caliber defenders on the field, not a single one of them came up with it. Not ideal, but forgivable. Sometimes balls just find the uncovered ground in a web of defenders.

But it all got unbelievably worse when shortstop Andrew Navigato somehow scorpion-kicked the ball into right field after he dove for it. As an aside, he was the last one to react to the ball after the pop-up initially happened, meaning one of the other three guys should have made a play instead of him.

Anyway, the Tigers stood dumbfounded as they realized that not only did none of them catch the ball, but they could have a real chance of letting up an inside-the-park homerun. Which they did.

As all of this is happening, Misner is hustling like crazy to round the bases. Had he not hustled to first base after swinging, he would have at best gotten a triple. But because he ran - not jogged - out of the box, he scored a homer standing up. I'd be shocked if we get another play as memorable as this from spring training. 

This is exactly why you always give 100 percent effort out of the batter’s box. Nine times out of 10, the pop flys will get caught. But on that one other time, you might just do something that will make you and everyone present sit back in amazement.

Because it's spring training, the game ended in a 9-9 tie. But Misner sure left the ballpark feeling like a winner that day.