New York celebrates title with parade

NEW YORK - Crowds roared and church bells pealed in lower Manhattan on Friday as the the city feted the Yankees with a ticker-tape parade for their World Series championship.

As the baseball players on floats made their way through Wall Street toward City Hall Plaza, a loud roar rose above Broadway as confetti rained down on the parade.

At a subway station near the parade route, fans packed the staircase chanting, "Let's go Yankees!" They also sang "New York, New York."

Vincent Rogner, an 18-year-old senior at a Catholic high school in Queens, skipped classes Friday with some friends to attend the parade.

"I'm a die-hard Yankees fan," he said. "I love the intensity."

Rogner said his favorite part of the last game of the series against the Philadelphia Phillies was when Hideki Matsui hit a home run and tied the World Series record with six runs batted in for a single game. Matsui became the first Japanese-born player to win the World Series Most Valuable Player award that started in 1955.

Revelers arrived early Friday to get a good spot along the route though many were forced to pack surrounding streets.

New York Gov. David Paterson and rapper Jay-Z were among those in the parade.

After the jubilant players ride on parade floats to City Hall Plaza, Mayor Michael Bloomberg was to give them the keys to the city.

Bells rang out at historic Trinity Church, but the roar of the crowds drowned out the sound.

Lower Broadway is known as the Canyon of Heroes. Some 200 ticker-tape parades have been held there, for heroes ranging from astronauts to sports champions to five-star generals.

Even Kennedy International Airport got into the act — lighting its control tower with the Yankees' signature blue.

The victory gave Yankees fans further ammunition to their boast that the Bronx Bombers are the greatest franchise in baseball history with an unprecedented 27 world championships in 40 trips to the World Series.

Some Yankees fans also were quick to note that Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins had predicted a Philadelphia victory in five games; as it turns out, the Yankees were the ones to win the Series four games to two.

The title was their first since beating the crosstown rival Mets in the 2000 "Subway Series." That Series evoked memories of the glory days of New York baseball in the 1940s and '50s, when the Giants played in upper Manhattan, the Yankees in the Bronx and the Dodgers in Brooklyn. Nearly every October saw at least one New York team vying for the world title.

Mets fans had conflicted loyalties during this year's Series, as well, being forced to choose between the despised American League champion Yankees and their National League East Division rival, Phillies.