World Series Champs Get Ticker-Tape Parade
N E W Y O R K, Oct. 30 -- Thousands of fans gathered today for what is becoming a familiar sight in New York in October — a ticker-tape parade through the famed Canyon of Heroes by the World Series champion Yankees.
Today’s parade in lower Manhattan was the fourth in five years, and the third consecutive for the Bronx Bombers. It was the team’s 26th World Series title. In the city’s first Subway Series since 1956, the Yankees last week defeated the crosstown rival Mets four games to one in the best-of-seven series.
Yogi Berra served as grand marshal, and manager Joe Torre and boss George Steinbrenner rode on the float that carried the series trophy. Even some celebrities — such as the cast of the HBO hit show The Sopranos and Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker and her husband, actor Matthew Broderick — showed up to honor the pinstripes.
The streets were jammed with millions of fans who braved the cold to watch their heroes wave from floats as an estimated 40 million tons of confetti rained down.
The parade featured 19 floats, 11 double-decker buses and 22 bands. It began at Battery Park and ended at City Hall, where a rally hosted by New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, himself a lifelong Yankees fan, was held and where each player received a key to the city.
After asking for a moment of silence in rememberance for the victims of the USS Cole tragedy, standing in front of City Hall, Giuliani declared this Yankees team one of the best in the franchise’s history.
“The New York Yankees have brought us great teams going back to Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra,” he said. “But this team is the very best for consistency, teamwork and fighting adversity and overcoming it.”
New York Gov. George Pataki unveiled three specially designed license plates. One plate read 3PEAT and that one went to Torre. Another, for Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, read MVP. And finally, the mayor received his own plate which read No. 1 Fan.
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