It was like picnic at the outfield stand of this baseball stadium
On May 30, 2015, my family went to see an NC vs. KIA baseball game at Gwangju KIA Champions Field with some other families I knew of. Half of the outfield stand was covered in grass, so it was like having picnic with a baseball game in view. There was even a sandbox for the kids to play in next to it. I felt that the whole set up was great.
The home run ball
During the bottom of the 2nd inning, which was about 40 minutes into the game that started on 5 PM, Lee Hong-Gu, a batter for KIA, hit a two-run home run to the center of the field. We saw that the ball was heading right towards the sandbox next to us. One of the guys in our group hurried towards it, and successfully fished out the home run ball out of the protective net.
That was the first time I've been able to see someone catch one in the action up close. Also, we got to hold the ball and take some pictures ourselves for fun, as well. It was the next best thing to catching the ball in person. This home run let KIA pull ahead of NC with a score of 1:3. But later in the game NC managed a grand slam that resulted in an upset. NC eventually won the game 11:6. That was all well and good because I'm an NC fan.
The whole family briefly captured in tiny pixels at the moment of home run
After the game, I wondered if we were caught on the broadcast and carefully pored over the highlights. This video in particular contained the scene with the home run in question: [Media Daum Sports]
Full video frame
Because we weren't directly in the line of sight and the camera didn't dwell on the scene after confirming the home run, I wasn't initially sure if we were caught in the camera at all. Then I did a frame-by-frame analysis. Eventually I found my family sitting at the far left end of the scene. I've put some arrows to make it more obvious, but you can also compare this to the first picture in this post as a reference. All in all, it was an experience to remember.