Photos
Team Zoo takes on the Phillies!

Beloved Team Zoo captain Chris Oberlin was hijacked and kidnapped and forced to attend the Phillies-Mets game on August 26, 2008. It was a tough sell. The Phils started the game a half game behind the Mets for the division lead and the game started poorly, with the Fightin' Phils nursing some wounds and a 7-0 deficit after 4 innings. But then Bridget finally showed up. And so did the Phillies. They rallied for 5 runs off of Mets' starter Pedro Martinez, tied it up in the bottom of the ninth and finally won it in the 13th after an elapsed time of 5 hours and 17 minutes. Leave it to Bridget to be 3 hours late to a game and still see 2 hours of it. It was exhausting and vocally painful but oh, so good. Best game ever! Not only did I get a free ticket (courtesy of everybody), a free ride to and fro (courtesy of Chris Law), free pizza and dog and helmet sundae (courtesy of my lovely wife), but I got the Phillies in first place and a great memory (courtesy of Bridget and Bill). I took some pictures because I just happened to bring my camera, though I honestly didn't know I was going until about 2 minutes before we left for the ballpark.

Arrival. Mets take BP. BOO. Nice seats, though close to the top, with great sightlines.

Zoom. While I still think they should have tried a little harder to put the park closer to downtown, this is a pretty damn good view.

Super Zoom. A great view, except for that big ass awful Phillies sign right smack in the middle. What up with that?!

I do love the Phanatic. Not sure what he was doing, but he got the attention of at least one Met, and the umpires are totally distracted by some hot chick down the right field line.

Upon closer inspection, the Phanatic appears to have lost his riding helmet.

And the Mets are still confused as to how they could have possibly choked so horribly last year.

"You see what I mean? The brunette? Yeah, the pink tank top. Yeah!"

Zoom back out, getting ready to start, filling up nicely.

Action shot of Jamie Moyer pitching, and that little white speck is the ball.

I actually overheard someone behind me talking about the color of the sky to our left, and I was also duly impressed enough to take a photo.

Top of the 3rd, Phillies are almost down 7-zip.

We're a little bummed out about the score... and I can make out Sam (Ken & Donna's daughter), some of Ken, Jenna (peeking), some of Amy, Emily, parts of Liz, a bit of Bill, and Chris Law. I was on the end. Not pictured, but in there somewhere: Donna, Todd, Dana & Doug - Bridget not there yet.

A re-shoot, and you can now see Doug partially bent over, all of Ken & Amy, more of Bill and still just a bit of Liz.

They totally put my name on the freakin' message board! How awesome is that?! I apparently MISSED it the first time, as I was out getting snacks - but thankfully it re-cycled through the names and I totally got this kickass picture. Of course, they didn't have room for the rest, as it should have said "SPECIAL WELCOME CHRIS AND THE PHILADELPHIA ZOO'S TOTALLY KICKASS SOFTBALL TEAM". Gotta keep it short, I guess. I was told Bill used his wise and wily PR skills to get that done. Right the fuck on!

Bottom of the eighth, Phils have rallied to within one, people are standing up and gettin' pumped!!

Hey, there's Todd on the end with the white hat, and finally, there's Little Red Riding Liz! Looking thrilled. It was very late.

She made it! Bridget exists! And curses like a freakin' sailor when there's a game going on.

We were kinda sorta secretly hoping this kid might hurt himself, as he repeatedly swung by his shirt on the railing just in front of us. Shame he's ok.

Only a handful of us who began the game actually saw the end, but it was well worth the shredded vocal chords and bloodshot eyes and lack of sleep. Best game ever!