Fans gathered at the Civic Center Plaza leap to catch one of hundred of orange flags distributed to the crowd before the parade began Wednesday morning.
If there was ever a city to celebrate breaking a 52 year curse, it’s the city of San Francisco.
In case you missed the third straight day of mayhem over the Giants winning the World Series, you might have been one of the lucky ones that caught more of the action at home on your TV.
Reports estimated over a million people, and BART saw an extra 72,000 riders on the morning commute trying to get to the Parade Wednesday morning. People working downtown were seen scrambling through the crowd, which was unswayed by one woman’s plea, “I’m just trying to get to work!”, shouting her down chanting, “Keep her here!”
The realization that the ill-placed speakers made hearing anything impossible for people who got closer than 200 yards, made the people waiting in front of city hall since 7a.m. less than satisfied. Two girls began a fight and the crowd again rising up to eject the offending party singing in unison the classic Steam song: “hey, hey, heyyyy, goodbye!”
The crowd was more than restless by 12p.m. It wasn’t surprising that some were tired, after all most were fighting for one of millions of orange towels passed out to the crowd as if it were free pot. And after an hour of straining to watch the parade floats on two projectors and at least four hours of Coors light and, “the smell of Prop 19 in the air,” as Giants closer Brian Wilson put it, there was a definite funk in the air as the crowd began to demand the Giants come out. It didn’t help that fans kept jumping the barricades, delaying their arrival on stage even longer.
Prop 19 was indeed in the air, as this gentleman smoked a blunt tucked into a water bottle.
By the time the Parade arrived at Civic Center, a wave of excitement rushed from the corner of Larkin and McAllister toward city hall where people raged like it was the new millennium. Yet, many put-off by the lack of sound cut out before most of the players even made their speeches.
Grown men cried, children in strollers looked more bewildered than the parents who made the choice to push double-wides through a crowd, and a deaf woman with a sign reading, “Marry Me Buster Posey!” made it an eclectic San Francisco event.
If you were one of the many people unable to get a copy of the Chronicle, like myself, you can get the World Series Package on SFGate. It includes the three extra editions and the Nov. 2 paper.
The Examiner distributed a special “Souvenir Edition” on the day of the Parade in which they matched each player up with a neighborhood in SF. Our Giants rep for the TL (and my personal favorite Giant) is Freddie Sanchez. The paper said, “Have you seen his batting stance? He can barely stand still, so he will fit right in with the tweakers.” Funny, but I’d like to think he’d fit right in with the rest of us too.
In case you were one of the people at the parade, and missed everything, you can catch it here on SFGate’s culmination of fan footage. Look below for the photos I was able to capture while I was squished like a sardine in the crowd from 8 a.m.
GOOOO GIANTS!!!!
Loin Life 