Sunday, October 25, 2009

Game 7, KIA Wins!

UPDATE: Now (finally) includes some video I shot at the game. Not much game action, but a good feel for what it's lke to be at the game. Scroll down a little.

Well, I have come full circle with the Korean baseball season. Along with Nick and Andy, I was at Jamsil on Opening Day back in April, and I was there for Game 7 of the championship series on Saturday. With Andy and Nick, and my co-teacher Jerry:


The game had a 2:00 start, and even though we entered the stadium at 12:30, the only seats we could find were deep center field, where we were stuck under one of the KIA banners:


Just kidding, they only hauled that out during the middle first inning warm up. Which is a good thing, because it was a really good game, a suitable ending to a hard-fought series. SK went ahead by three runs by the top of the fifth; KIA struggled back with one run in the bottom, only to give up two more in the next inning. The Wyverns now led 5 - 1.


The Wyverns, who were the league champs the last two years, finished one game out of first to the KIA Tigers thanks to an amazing 17-game winning streak to end the regular season. However, KIA showed the stuff that put them in first by fighting back with consecutive two-run innings in the sixth and seventh that evened things out. I have footage of one of the key hits in my video below.


Both teams have enthusiastic fans, thus making the game all the more exciting. But this game ended in the most inherently exciting fashion possible, a home run to score the win in the bottom of the ninth, sometimes called a walk-off homer, by Na Ji-wan. On the way out of the stadium, I snapped this photo of discarded SK Wyverns noisemakers, piled up like so many broken dreams:

No comments: