Spring Break
One parade I will never forget
Mike Mazzeo
Issue date: 11/7/08 Section: Sports
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After watching the Phillies World Series Championship Parade Oct. 28 at 15th and Market streets in Center City, my friend Corey Smith and I were ready to head south to Citizens Bank Park to see the grand finale of the festivities.
We had navigated the 25-minute traffic jam of people at City Hall, dropped our subway tokens in the slot, walked through the turnstile and were about to make our way down to the Broad Street platform when we were met with resistance from Philadelphia police.
Wait, the nearest officer said to a group of people including us.
Wait? Corey and I had already been waiting for an eternity and knew that we had to make it to the stadium complex by 1:45 p.m. We had exactly one hour and this was a serious hindrance to our plans.
And if the latter news wasn't bad enough, the worst was yet to come. About 10 minutes later we were struck with a major blow.
All southbound trains are delayed until further notice, the loudspeaker system echoed.
Great. Just great.
Corey and I were four miles from our destination and had no time to spare.
However, after a brief discussion, we had made up our minds. We were going to make the journey to the stadiums regardless.
Our route was simple. Take 13th street which parallels Broad street south and then cross over to Broad in South Philly. From there we would take side streets to Citizens Bank Park.
Unfortunately, a walk that might have taken a little over an hour on a normal day, took almost two on this one, due to the fact that more than 2 million pedestrians had taken over the city streets.
But it was worth it.
The city of Philadelphia had not won a major professional sports championship in 25 years.
25 years! That's the equivalent of 100 sports seasons 98 if you count the baseball strike in 1994 and the NHL lockout in 2004-05.
The fans were still in a state of euphoria, even after taking out all their previous frustrations on a plethora of traffic lights, street signs and potted plants just two nights prior.
Remnants of the destruction were still in plain view and it was likely that many of the perpetrators were amongst us as we walked amongst the throngs.
People were jaywalking in the middle of the streets acting as though they owned the place. Corey and I decided to join in. No cars were going to stop us.
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