Photos 08 Nov 2009 08:47 am
YankeeCanyon
- The “Canyon of Heroes” is what they call Broadway in the Wall Street area. It was there that they had the big ticker-tape parades for the returning soldiers of WWI and WWII. Lately, such events honor athletes who have succeeded for the City.
On Friday, there was a ticker-tape Parade for the Yankees who had won the World Series. I’d never gone to one of these things before and thought this would be a good time to see what it was like (though, actually, I knew.)
My brother who always heads downtown for these events said, of course, that he was going, so I went in tow. It was a very bright, very cold, sunny day. The crowds started large and grew much larger as we got closer to our target, City Hall, where the big ceremony was going to take place. We knew we’d never get there, but it was worth seeing how close we could get.
For the record, there is no ticker-tape anymore, but the city had offered a lot of paper to the Wall Street offices for throwing. I don’t remember seeing much of any snowing paper, especially given the swirling wind that day. It just seemed like random litter going past the floats. More a snow shower than a snowfall. Where we ended up, people had brought rolls of toilet paper and were decorating the trees.
1(Click any image if you want to enlarge it.)
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We headed down Broadway from Houston Street walking
as near City Hall as we could get. As you can see from this
picture, the street was crowded at the get go.
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2The cops started moving us in different directions off Broadway until
we ended up at a small park about 2 blocks north of City Hall. There
was a large TV monitor to watch the Parade feed but no sound.
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3To the left of us was a statue, more a marker than
anything that represented anything to me.
I was surprised no one had climbed it.
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4Whenever a Yankee appeared on the big screen there was a wild
applause with shouts and hoots. Yogi Berra was one of the first
to appear on screen. Actually, Matsui was the first we saw, and his
applause was enormous. After all, he had singlehandedly won that last game.
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5Johnny Damon also got a lot of love from the crowd. We could hear
cheers from a few blocks away before we actually go the feed, so
we always knew someone was going to show up soon.
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6To the right of us was an enormous throng of people. By the
time we got situated we were tightly surrounded. They counted
over a million people, and I believe it since we were disconnected
from the principal part of the Parade.
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7This video screen showed sub Yankee catcher Cervelli (I figured
this out later in the day from his clothes) and Alex Rodriguez in hat.
Kate Hudson was nowhere in sight, though she may have been there.
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8It didn’t take too long for people to start climbing lamp poles.
We expected the cops to show up and pull people down, but
no problems. Everyone was light and happy. Just a bit of jostling
as people kept trying to get to the front (closer to the TV.)\
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9There was a group to the left that made a lot of noise.
I think they could see up the road to City Hall. After they
cheered the empty float (truck) drove past.
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10C.C.Sabathia, rightfully so, got a huge applause when he appeared.
He pitched his heart out in a couple of those final games.
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11Behind us there was a group of kids that were pretty loud laughing it up
and seemed to be unsupervised. (Playing hooky – like me -no doubt.)
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12Jeter appeared and the crowd went beserk. Shrieking, screaming,
shouting for an endless time. I kept trying to recognize the older
guy who was behind him – until I realized it was his father.
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13If you look pretty hard, you’ll see a bunch of kids in the tree.
They had climbed there and had good viewing seats, though
I think we all did, actually.
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14By now, the kids behind us had joined hands in a circle and
were singing some kind of play animal song. I didn’t recognize it.
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15Finally the Yankee Closer, Mariano Rivera. This was the cue to
tell us that it was all over and time to split. We’d watch the
ceremony at City Hall on a tv (computer) back at my studio.
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16We came across some Scottish pipers that had marched at
the beginning of the Parade. They had dispersed and looked as
though they were heading for a drink somewhere.
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17Finally, the last banner I saw.
In New York, we smoke Phillies.
Hilarious. It was fun (and exhausting.)
