I couldn’t sleep and got up early this morning because I was going to my first Yankees World Series, ticker-tape parade. Being a diehard Yankee fan, and feeling like a kid going to my first parade, what could be more exciting? Oh, it was a Yankee parade and had all the Yankee players in it!
We bought our ferry tickets from Hoboken to the World Financial Center, and all boarded the boat, to take us across. Yankee shirts, jackets, and hats, of course, worn by all, and if you needed a shirt or hat, everything including blow up bats were for sale, once on the streets in lower Manhattan. You know I bought another Yankees 27th World Series t-shirt!
Fans watching the Yankees World Series Parade 2009
The sea of people moved along slowly toward the Parade route and we all looked up the streets continuing on, to see if there would be any room to get close enough, to see anything. We walked a few blocks and finally just chose a street. Inching, bit by bit, we made it within a fair distance to the Parade route, but couldn’t see very much. I’d never been so tightly squished and for the most part everyone was orderly and patient. Cheering rose up every time someone saw something. The parade seemed to go a bit slow and fans were getting restless and claustrophobic, including myself.
Fans were doing all they could like climbing trees and buildings, anything to get high enough to catch a glimpse. I took some photographs (see my gallery) of the fans, crowds and tried to get the floats, but it wasn’t easy. You’ll see in one photo I did catch Hideki Matsui, just barely! Whoo Hoo! Even though it was hard to see most of the Parade, it was thrilling to be among the million fans that came out to show the Yankees how much we love them. The Yankee players and the Yankee fans are the greatest!
Below is a little video I found on YouTube.com, from the New York Post, which shows the Yankee players on floats in the parade, comments from Yogi Berra, Jaba Chamberlain, Reggie Jackson, Phil Coke, Derek Jeter, Melky Cabrera, Nick Swisher and Mayor Bloomberg handing out keys to the city and of course the millions of fans. I’m in there somewhere!