Friday, November 4, 2016

The best moments from the Cubs championship parade

Long just the stuff of dreams and fictional commercials, Chicago finally held a World Series parade for its Cubs on Friday. And it looked exactly as big as we might have expected to be.
Held on a cool November morning, the parade attracted hordes of fans dressed both in blue and blue-pinstriped Cubs uniforms. The city estimated that 5 million people lined the parade route and filled Grant Park for a team rally. While that is probably a tad high by, oh, a few million, the footage shows how they might have arrived at that number. There was no end in sight to the fans who were lined up hundreds deep in some of the most congested areas along the route.
Chicago Cubs players and staff boarded buses at Wrigley Field around 10 a.m. and the procession moved south down Lake Shore Drive before going down Michigan Avenue on its way to Grant Park for the party. The four-hour-plus party was filled with memorable moments and images.
Here are a few of them:

The Chicago river was dyed blue

Chicago is known for dying its river green every St. Patrick’s Day, but the city went a different route for the Cubs’ first World Series title in 108 years. The Chicago river looked like something out of a Hawaiian postcard as it was turned a bright shade of blue.
It was a hard job, but somebody had to do it.

Some fans in the big crowd did stupid things

Emboldened by the crowd (and perhaps some morning shots of Malort), these Einsteins trusted that their fellow fans would field as well as this year’s Cubs team. Other people voluntarily jumped into the river. (Do not try any of this at home.)




Fans ditched school and work (some even got permission)

It was all in the wording.

Jon Lester live-tweeted the parade

The Cubs’ ace pitcher kept everyone abreast of the happenings aboard his double-decker bus, which also carried two former fellow Red Sox (David Ross and John Lackey) as well as pitcher Travis Wood.





That was Lester’s point of view, now here’s a slideshow of photos that show another side of things:

Joe Maddon debuted a new T-shirt

The Cubs manager looked perfectly chill, donning a winter hat, sunglasses and what we thought was one of his trademark “Try Not To Suck” T-shirts underneath his Cubs jersey.

But later, it was revealed that the Cubs’ postseason success had allowed Joe to modify his original “Try not to suck” motto. This should only sell about three million shirts by Thanksgiving.

Travis Wood became “that guy”

Whether it’s J.R. Smith or Jonny Gomes, it seems like every sports parade has one down-roster player that brings plenty of attention to himself. For the Cubs, it was Wood. The pitcher double-fisted two solo cups of beer (one of which was accidentally dumped on Ross), wore a sleeveless camo shirt and then later went bare-chested while country star Brett Eldredge did an acoustic version of “Go Cubs Go.”


Anthony Rizzo gave the final out ball to Tom Ricketts

After clutching the final out of the World Series, first baseman Anthony Rizzo quickly put the baseball into his back pocket and refused to divulge his plans for it.
It turns out that he thought the Cubs should have it. Rizzo presented the ball to Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts in a move that was very similar to the one that Paul Konerko pulled with White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf in 2005.
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Theo Epstein thanked fans for their patience

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Theo Epstein holds the Commissioner’s Trophy. (AP)
 
A number of Cubs gave speeches, but the one from team president Theo Epstein stood out for how it not only summed up 108 years of waiting, but also the special bond this team shares with its fans.
“Thank you to the fans. 108 years, ridiculous. 108 years of support, patience, love for this team, waiting for what happened two nights ago in Cleveland. I’ve been here five years in particular. We’ve asked a lot of you. We put you through a lot over the last five years. 101 losses. Trading players you’ve known to come and love for guys you’ve never heard of. Trading 40 percent of the rotation three years in a row. Asking you guys to follow the draft and minor leagues.
Let’s be honest. For awhile there, we forgot the ‘not’ in the ‘try not to suck.’
But you stayed with us … That’s what made it such an emotional month. Our players felt how badly you guys wanted it. Driving around town, seeing all the W flags. Seeing all you guy sharing this with your parents, your grandparents, all those who didn’t quite make it all the way here. Not only how badly you wanted to get there, but win the World Series. Our players dug deep to win it for you.”
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