The Dominican Republic baseball team have stood out at the World Baseball Classic for their passionate home-run celebrations.
The nation is home to styles of music and dance Bachata and Merengue, and it is no surprise they have become a viral sensation at the competition. Their joyous reactions to home runs have been racking up millions of views on social media.
Their celebrations have gone beyond the norm. Julio Caminero of the Tampa Bay Rays hit 45 MLB home runs in 2025, yet he reacted like it was his first when he hit a homer against Nicaragua in pool play.
He ran around the bases with such enthusiasm that his helmet fell off. He pounded his chest and punched the air as he reached his team-mates at home plate, before embracing them with personalised handshakes, which included shaking the hips.
IT’S GONE 😤
JUNIOR CAMINERO IS AN ELECTRIC FACTORY ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/SCOYIV7yg4
— World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) March 7, 2026
“That’s everything, having fun out there,” his team-mate and the MLB’s highest-earner, Juan Soto, said, as reported by MLB.com. “Definitely, we respect the game, too, but we have to have fun. I think that’s when the best of you comes out.”
Their all-star cast’s celebrations got The Athletic thinking about the most memorable celebrations in sports history, from Kevin Garnett at the NBA Finals to Pat Cash at Wimbledon. Here, we run through them.
Kevin Garnett, 2008 NBA Finals
Garnett had waited 13 seasons to win his first NBA championship. He won every individual accolade under the sun at the Minnesota Timberwolves, including MVP in 2004, before moving to the Boston Celtics.
Forming a big three in Boston with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, they lifted the Larry O’Brien trophy in their first season together after beating the Lakers in the finals.
“Anything is possible,” Garnett muttered before shouting it at the top of his voice in an emotional post-game interview, struggling to contain his excitement. The scene is dramatised by falling confetti.
It was a heartwarming message, although obviously winning an NBA championship becomes much more possible if you are 7ft like Garnett.
Jayson Tatum did his best Garnett impression when the Celtics won the championship in 2024, shouting, “We did it.” Fans accused Tatum of being corny.
“I thought Tatum had his own moment, which was dope,” Garnett told Complex. “I was in that moment with him.”
Garnett spoke incredibly after winning the 2008 NBA Finals (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Desmond Howard, 1997 Super Bowl XXXI
English soccer striker Peter Crouch famously used to celebrate like a robot, and Manchester City striker Erling Haaland is referred to as a robot for his ruthlessness in front of goal.
But Desmond Howard put his own spin on the celebration in the Super Bowl of all games, helping put on a show.
The Green Bay Packers’ return specialist caught a kickoff at the 1-yard line and bobbed and weaved between tacklers for a touchdown. Unlike the agile run he had just completed, he danced like a robot entering the endzone before spiking the ball and pounding his chest.
It extended his team’s lead, and the Packers went on to beat the New England Patriots 35-21. Howard held the longest Super Bowl kick-off return at the time and won MVP, still being the only special teams player to have done so.
#Packers return stud Desmond Howard takes one 99 yards to the house in Super Bowl XXXI.
The fourth kickoff return — and at that time the longest — in Super Bowl history.
MVP
January 26, 1997 pic.twitter.com/77VTcdeZvN
— Kevin Gallagher (@KevG163) January 27, 2024
“When I came across the goal line, I did a little celebration,” Howard said after the game. “It’s called ‘The Robot,’ from the ‘Dancing Machine,’ which Michael Jackson used to do. I mean, I had to do something!”
Maurice Greene, 2004 invitational
Maurice Greene gets full marks for the props he used in his celebration.
The former 100m world-record holder and Olympic gold medalist had just blazed to a first-place finish with a time of 9.86 seconds at a 2004 invitational.
After the race, he took off his spikes, and American hurdler Larry Wade emerged from the side of the track with a fire extinguisher to put them out in a clearly pre-planned routine.
“At that time, there was a lot of bad talking going on about the sport,” Greene told Lope magazine. “So, I just wanted to do something good, get some positive talk about the sport.”
In 2025, Clara Adams, 16, won the California State Championship in the 400 metres, but she was disqualified for “unsportsmanlike conduct” after using Greene’s celebration, despite replicating Greene away from the track and other athletes.
“If it were away from everyone and not interfering with anyone, I would say reinstate her,” Maurice Greene told KSBW-TV.
Adams has offers from Division I schools to continue her promising athletic career and has since signed with Nike.
Alex Morgan, 2019 World Cup semi-final
The most controversial entry on this list is Alex Morgan’s tea celebration. She did it against England after scoring the winning goal in a 2-1 victory.
England as a country is known to be a big tea consumer, drinking 100 million cups a day, according to UK Tea & Infusions Association. The goal also took place on July 3, 2019, a day before the annual U.S. celebration of Independence Day from Britain. A key moment in the American independence movement was the Boston Tea Party in 1773, when chests of tea were dumped into the Boston harbour to protest British tax on tea.
Morgan claimed her celebration was a reference to the phrase ‘that’s the tea’, but using it against England was surely no coincidence.
Morgan’s tea celebration against England (Philippe Desmazes/AFP via Getty Images)
“I wanted to keep it interesting,” Morgan told reporters. “I know Megan Rapinoe has the best celebration. I had to try to step up this game. I feel like this team has had so much thrown at them and us. I feel like we didn’t take an easy route through this tournament and ‘that’s the tea.’”
Believe it or not, this celebration caused outrage. “You can celebrate however you want, but that for me is a bit distasteful,” said former English footballer Lianne Sanderson, working as a pundit on beIN Sports. “I’m a big believer in the Americans and how they celebrate, but for me this was a little bit disrespectful.”
Morgan said she felt “there is some sort of double standard for females in sports,” following the negative reaction to her celebration. “We have to celebrate, but not too much,” Morgan said.
It didn’t end up backfiring as the United States won the competition, and Morgan finished as the joint-top goalscorer. She retired as a legend in 2024.
Pat Cash, 1987 Wimbledon
Wimbledon had not seen a player climb up through the stands to celebrate winning the illustrious tennis tournament with their family until Pat Cash in 1987.
The Australian punched the air and threw a tennis ball into the crowd before climbing through them, as they applauded, to reach his friends and family’s box. To get there, he got a helping hand from a priest onto the roof of the commentators’ booth.
“About six months before, I thought, wouldn’t it be great if I won Wimbledon, if I get up there and hugged my coach and my family. That would be the coolest thing ever,” he told CNN.
“I said (to the crowd), get out of my way. My dad’s going, ‘Come on’, my coach is cheering, my sister’s crying, and my uncle’s roaring.” His girlfriend and one of his closest friends were also there, he said.
Fourteen players have since followed suit, the Wimbledon website says, making it an informal tradition before a gate was introduced in 2014 to give players easier access to their loved ones.
It would turn out to be Cash’s first and only Grand Slam win, losing the Australian Open final twice, so it’s a good job he celebrated in style.
Jessica Ennis-Hill, 2012 Olympics
Ennis-Hill’s celebration after winning the 800m event to secure a gold medal in the Olympic heptathlon was pure emotion.
She crossed the finish line clear of the field after a final burst of speed, spreading her arms to embrace the moment and the deafening cheers from the home crowd of 80,000.
Afterwards, she collapsed to the floor in tears, as any normal person would after going through all the events of a heptathlon. This is as good a depiction of realising a dream as you could ever see.
“In that moment, I had no control. I was finally free,” Ennis-Hill told the BBC. “It was pure relief. It felt like I’d been holding my breath through the whole two days.”
The day, August 4, would later be dubbed Super Saturday as Ennis-Hill, Greg Rutherford (long jump), and Mo Farah (10,000m) all won gold for Great Britain within 44 minutes of each other.
Jose Mourinho, 2004 Champions League
While it is players who are more often than not remembered for their exuberant goal celebrations, Jose Mourinho is a unique football manager whose career is full of headline-making moments.
While he was Porto manager, during the Champions League round of 16 match against Manchester United in 2004, Mourinho ran from his dugout to the corner flag to celebrate with his players after Costinha scored a last-minute equaliser to send the Portuguese side through to the quarter-finals 3-2 on aggregate. He jumped and punched the air before reaching his players.
It is the passion we would come to expect from Mourinho, who led Porto to the Champions League title that season.
“One moment I’m at Porto scoring in the last minute at Old Trafford, a team of kids coached by a kid, realising a dream,” Mourinho told Portuguese channel SIC, as reported by the Daily Mail, in 2017.
“Thirteen years later, I react differently but still go home upset with a defeat and wanting to understand and analyse, and wanting to play again, and win.”
It wouldn’t be his last iconic celebration. During his time at Manchester United, the demands on the manager are high. After a 1-0 Manchester United win over Tottenham Hotspur in October 2017, Mourinho shushed the camera as it panned towards him, a clip that has been the source of many memes since.
“Some people speak too much. Calm down, relax a little bit,” Mourinho told reporters after the game.