TAMPA — The trip around the bases went quickly. Somewhere around 18 seconds.

Just enough time for Kameron Misner’s father and sister to hug, and for his mother to begin crying.

Barely enough time to reflect on the six years and 2,200 plate appearances mired in the minors. And maybe, in retrospect, the perfect amount of time to get through the final page of a why-we-love-baseball fairy-tale.

The 2025 baseball season in Tampa Bay began in a rented-stadium across the bridge from home Friday afternoon. And the first game ended with a walk-off home run from a player who had been sent to Triple A a week ago and was not in the starting lineup for Tampa Bay’s 3-2 opening day win against the Rockies.

“Baseball is a funny, funny game,” Misner said.

It’s also, occasionally, a cruel game. A frustrating game. A difficult game even for a tall, athletic, first-round draft choice with enough tools to convince scouts to stop in tiny Poplar Bluff, Missouri, to watch Misner play a decade ago.

Rays outfielder Kameron Misner did not initially make the opening day roster. He moved into the lineup when Richie Palacios went to the IL. [ JEFFEREE WOO | Times ]

He’s been waiting for a moment like this ever since. Three years at the University of Missouri. Three years in the Miami Marlins farm system before being traded to Tampa Bay for Joey Wendle. And three years bouncing from Double-A Montgomery to Triple-A Durham for the Rays.

Misner made his major-league debut late last season, and promptly went 0-for-14 with 10 strikeouts before getting his first base hit in his final at-bat before being sent back to Durham.

With his 27th birthday looming last winter, Misner knew he was reaching a crossroads and spent much of the offseason working on fixing the swing-and-miss issue that had kept him from realizing his potential. He showed up in spring training determined to prove he was ready to make the leap and hit .394 with two homers and two stolen bases in 33 at-bats.

He was sitting in the clubhouse in Port Charlotte with his uniform half on early one morning last week when manager Kevin Cash poked his head around a row of lockers and asked Misner to come into his office.

It was, Cash would later say, a “very tough conversation.”

After being told he was returning to Durham, Misner returned to the clubhouse, changed his clothes and walked out while the rest of the players were just beginning to prepare for the day.

“He was upset,” his father Terry said on Friday. “That was what he had been working for, but he was ready to go back to Durham and do what he’d been doing. But, yeah, he was upset, to say the least.”

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First-pitch swinging!

Kameron Misner’s first career home run is a WALK-OFF home run! pic.twitter.com/77K0dpZJQQ

— MLB (@MLB) March 28, 2025

Misner had barely driven back to Durham when the Rays called and told him to get a flight to Tampa. The finger Richie Palacios had fractured a week earlier was not healing and the Rays needed another outfielder.

Two days later, he was standing at the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning of a 2-2 game. Misner was inserted in the lineup an inning earlier after Jonathan Aranda had pinch-hit for Christopher Morel.

The first pitch he saw — a 97-mph fastball from Colorado’s Victor Vodnik — was driven over the rightfield wall for Misner’s first major-league home run. The first time, by the way, a player had ever hit a walk-off for his first homer on opening day.

“Pretty cool,” Misner said in his understated country drawl. “Pretty surreal moment.”

Rays players immediately poured out of the dugout, which you’ve probably seen a hundred times before, but Cash said this moment was special because of how well-liked Misner is in the clubhouse.

“He’s a really good teammate, really selfless, really likes to work and that garners a lot of respect from teammates,” said Rays first base coach Michael Johns, who was Misner’s manager at Durham in 2023. “And, you know, he’s been through a lot. Probably thought he should have made the team coming out of spring, and that’s the mindset we want, but things don’t always go your way.

“We want all our guys to do well, but it was pretty special to see a guy who’s walked a long road to get here. Everybody was really happy for him, and he certainly deserves it.”

Meanwhile, in the stands, his dad Terry, mom Stephanie and sister Brylee celebrated as he sprinted around the bases. They had gotten the call from Kameron on Wednesday that he was back in the big leagues and they left at 3 p.m. on Thursday to make the 900-something-mile drive. They stopped in Tallahassee at 2:45 a.m. and then resumed the drive on Friday, arriving just before game time.

They didn’t get a chance to see Kameron prior to the game, and didn’t have field passes to see him afterward.

“MLB is a little different than Triple A,” Terry joked. “Usually we can just walk right on down, but they don’t allow that here.”

The Rays’ Kameron Misner is the only player to hit a walk-off for his first homer on opening day. That deserves a celebratory dousing from third baseman Junior Caminero, right. [ JEFFEREE WOO | Times ]

Rays senior director for team security Jim Previtera spotted the Misners and got them on the field, but they still didn’t get much time with Kameron, who was being mobbed by teammates and pulled away for interviews.

“I kind of dodged my parents out there so I feel bad,” Misner said later in the clubhouse. “I’m just glad they got to (see it) because I’m here because of them.”

Minutes before Kameron walked out the clubhouse doors in his cowboy hat and ostrich boots, Terry, Stephanie and Brylee talked about the mix of nervousness and confidence they felt as he stepped to the plate.

“I just wanted him to be proud,” Stephanie said. “Because he’s worked so hard, I wanted him to be proud of how he did.

“But I didn’t expect that.”

John Romano can be reached at [email protected]. Follow @romano_tbtimes.

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