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This day in history: Player crawls home and kisses home plate in celebration

If you thought bat flips were bad, wait until you hear about Lou Novikoff.

Novikoff hit a walk-off homer for the Seattle Rainiers on June 22, 1947, and ended his home run trot with flair.

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"He's the only player I've ever seen kiss home plate after hitting a home run," former Seattle Times baseball writer Emmett Watson wrote of Novikoff. The column later described Novikoff's game-ending homer, when he fell "to his knees halfway between third and home on his scoring trot, crawling the rest of the way to the plate to plant a smacker on it.