Thousands line streets as Boston celebrates another Red Sox championship
20 hours ago
BOSTON - When the Red Sox needed a closer - even for their World Series championship parade - Jonathan Papelbon was their man.
Papelbon donned a kilt and danced his trademark Irish jig to the roars of tens of thousands of fans Tuesday as the city celebrated Boston's second World Series title in four years with a five-kilometre long rolling rally from Fenway Park to City Hall Plaza.
"The fans connect to Papelbon because he cuts loose, he's passionate," said Red Sox fan Ryan McCarty, who was carrying "Mobile Papelbon," a giant cardboard likeness with its legs on hinges.
Players and their families boarded 20 amphibious, World War II-era duck boats outside the stadium for a journey through the city. Manny Ramirez grabbed a microphone and yelled to fans along the route. "You guys are No. 1." "There's a party at my house tonight." "We did it for you guys." "We're gonna do it again next year." "You guys are the best fans in the whole world."
Fans showed their love back for the team, chanting "M-V-P!" to Mike Lowell and waving signs with wedding proposals to rookie Jacoby Ellsbury.
The two-hour parade paused three times for Papelbon to dance on a flatbed truck, accompanied by the Dropkick Murphys, a Boston-based punk rock band with heavy Irish folk music influence.
Before the parade, the band presented Papelbon with his own kilt plus one for ace Josh Beckett and general manager Theo Epstein, who had promised to dance with him. They also made a kilt for slugger David Ortiz, whom they hoped to coax into the jig.
At the first two stops at Copley Plaza and Boston Common, Papelbon danced alone, wearing jeans, a red championship T-shirt and dark sunglasses and waving a large cigar in his hand. Along the route, he played air guitar on a broom - a reference to Boston's sweep of the Colorado Rockies.
But he saved his best dancing - and wardrobe change, putting the kilt over his jeans - for the largest crowd which packed City Hall Plaza, the end of the parade. Papelbon was joined by relievers Hideki Okajima and Mike Timlin, who earlier had tied the bullpen mascot, a stuffed parrot, onto one of the speakers on the Dropkick Murphys' flatbed. On another boat, six members of Boston's bullpen recreated their post-season jam sessions.
Ortiz and Epstein never got the chance to don their kilts, as their duck boats continued on the route.
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Originally Posted by Nighthawk
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