When Lin Guanglai, in front of more than 40,000 SoftBank fans and tens of millions of television viewers, hit what could be said to be the most important home run of his life so far, time inside the Yahoo Dome seemed to come to a complete standstill.
The middle-aged man sitting in the stands behind home plate was almost the first to realize the incredibility of this ball. The bright yellow towel in his hand had just been waved over his head, his eyes widened like copper bells, and his mouth formed a perfect "O" shape, as if the muscles of his whole body were about to burst apart in the next second.
