Champions on Parade

The 2007 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox will take part in their much deserved victory parade in Boston. The Boston Globe reports:

At noon today, the Boston Red Sox will take to the streets in yet another victory parade, their second in four seasons, to celebrate a World Series sweep of the Colorado Rockies that marks the team not as a fluke, but a perennial powerhouse.

A now familiar caravan of duck boats will carry the Sox through the city on what is expected to be a raucous ride. Giant video screens in Copley Square, on Boston Common, and at City Hall will show the festivities from start to finish. Jonathan Papelbon is expected to reprise his Irish stepdance to the music of the Dropkick Murphys, who will join him on a flatbed truck in the procession.

“He promised the people he would do the dance, and he will do the dance,” Mayor Thomas M. Menino said yesterday.

As a bleary-eyed city adjusted to its baseball club’s championship habit, it was all Red Sox all the time yesterday. At Logan Airport, world-weary cargo employees openly shrieked upon the players’ arrival. Around Fenway Park, hundreds upon hundreds of fans filled souvenir shops and snapped up championship memorabilia. In staid Back Bay, businesses along Boylston Street prepared for the onslaught of the parade.

On Yawkey Way, well more than a thousand fans gathered to catch a glimpse of their returning heroes and the glittering World Series trophy. While they waited for the buses to arrive they chanted “Let’s Go Red Sox,” sang “Sweet Caroline”, and bounced around beach balls as if it were the bleachers. Many fans said that while 2004 erased years of frustration, this championship was every bit as sweet.

“Last time, it was for our parents, this time it’s for us and our kids” said Maureen Fredette, 53, of Stoneham, who waited to greet the players at Fenway yesterday.

Like many other unlucky ones, I’ll be stuck at work instead of where I’d rather be–watching the parade wearing my Red Sox gear with other members of Red Sox Nation.

Click here for the Boston Globe’s graphic of the parade route.

Today is also Free Taco day courtesy of Taco Bell, thanks to the stolen base by Jacoby Ellsbury. For those unable (or perhaps, unwilling) to get a free taco, visit donateyourtaco.com, a site that is asking the question, “do we all really need a free taco?” Visitors can sign a petition asking Taco Bell to “donate the equivalent value of unclaimed tacos” to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund to help the victims of the California wildfires.

Aaron Margolis is a life long resident of the Bay State, and works at an architectural firm north of Boston. Aaron has a Master of Architecture Degree from Boston Architectural College and is currently in the process of becoming of a Registered Architect.