Parade Day!
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
World Series Victory Parade
After their historic 108-win season was capped off with a World Series Championship, the Red Sox took to the streets of Boston for their victory parade. As a season ticket holder, I was invited to the ceremony at Fenway to kick off the festivities. I didn’t get an invite last time, but I had seen it on TV, and we were excited that we’d get to see the whole team get on the duck boats without having to camp on the street before sunrise just to get a good spot.
The ceremony was fun. Kicked off by Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, we got to hear from and cheer for Red Sox ownership, President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski, manager Alex Cora, World Series MVP Steve Pearce, ALCS MVP Jackie Bradley Jr., J.D. Martinez, Nathan Eovaldi, Joe Kelly, and Brock Holt. It ended with a surprise visit from Jerry Remy, who missed the end of the season after undergoing cancer treatments.
We thought we’d get to see everyone board the duck boats inside the park like they’ve done in years past, but they didn’t; the ceremony ended and they went to board the boats in a roped off area outside the park. From there it was a scramble to find a place where we could see the actual parade. We ended up dashing up several flights of stairs (and around a barrier that may or may not have been meant to keep us out) to the top level behind the right field roof deck. That turned out to be a good vantage point to see them all, though we were too far away for them to hear our cheers and acknowledge.
When the last duck boat passed, we got the brilliant idea to hop on the T and go a few stops up to the Arlington/Boylston area ahead of the parade, and experience it again that way. (Let the record show that if they had driven all the duck boats inside Fenway so that we didn’t have to go outside to watch the parade, this plan would have worked.)
But unfortunately the T was so packed it was going very slowly. At both the Copley and Arlington stops, people dressed in Red Sox gear were packing the train because the parade had already passed them. Not so at Boylston (yet), so we hopped off, ran up more flights of stairs, and saw the last duck boats were just coming through. Not wanting to give up, we started rushing through Boston Common, dodging food trucks, skateboarders, and dogs in Halloween costumes along the way, trying to overtake the parade.
We did end up catching the last few players as their duck boats passed the Park Street station, albeit with my telephoto lens. But hey, no one ever said Championships come easy!
on August 28, 2022 at 10:08 am
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