Saluting the Yankees and Thoughts from the Parade

Today was my first time watching in person as my team was draped with ticker-tape floating down in the Canyon of Heroes. I missed the Giants in 1990 and 2008, the Rangers in 1994, and the Yankees previous four. In 2001, I had made plans to head down to the parade if the Yankees had closed it out. Unfortunately, they did not and I've been waiting to go back. I was there today to witness the madness and I can report it was an amazing experience.

I will post some pictures later that I took (had to head back into work once the parade passed by), but it was awesome. I got down there a little before 9 AM and it was already packed. I found a spot right at the edge of the sidewalk on Broadway between Rector and Exchange. The crowd was great and was buzzing from the second I got there. I took a few pictures on my Blackberry and have posted them here. The first one is of the crowd at about 9:15. Yes, that is a roll of toilet paper flying across the air--there were a ton of them.

Everyone seemed to have a good time, there were some great chants from the crowd, and some great signs (two best was a Pedro RIP coffin with the Post cover inside and a sign that says "Hey Rollins, Predict This"). People were hanging out of windows, some were climbed on on street signs, some were perched on scaffolding, but everyone just seemed to be in a good mood. We debated whether Mike Mussina had the same "Ewing Effect" that Don Mattingly did and we talked about all the random guys from this season who would be getting rings (hello Anthony Claggett!). We had chants about one side being better than the other and a lot of camaraderie among the throng. No one pushed or shoved, no one tried to get ahead of other people, and no one was disrespectful. It was chaos, it was crowded, but it was controlled (at least in my area, I heard some others did not feel the same way).

The scene was perfect. The weather was perfect as well.

And then the recycled paper started flowing from the sky, the floats started moving down Broadway and the parade really got going. Biggest hands were for the floats of CC Sabathia/Mark Teixeria, Derek Jeter/Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte (who my picture is of on the right) and Mariano Rivera (whose float zoomed down Broadway too fast for anyone's liking).

The biggest boo was for Michael Kay in the back of a convertible (okay, maybe it was mostly just me booing, but it sounded pretty loud). Some of the pairings were great especially A.J. Burnett and Jose Molina after the whole catching controversy and Sabathia/Teixeira who were loving every minute of it. Of course, Nick Swisher was awesome as well. But for the most part, we cheered everyone. It must have been a thrill for all those players who have never been there before, but you could also see it was a thrill for the "Core Four" who accomplished it one more time together.

The best part about it: being among friends and total strangers and laughing and realizing that after all that disappointment, the New York Yankees had finally won another World Series. And, I have to say, the ticker-tape parade down the Canyon of Heroes for the New York Yankees was just as I imagined it would be: simply amazing.