300,000 Turn Out to Honor the Royals as Kansas City Celebrates Its Victory

About 300,000 baseball fans lined streets, hung out of windows or perched in treetops to greet the Kansas City Royals Monday in a two-hour ticker-tape parade that covered the downtown with a snowstorm of confetti.

The area remained jammed with traffic following the parade and accompanying rally as a steady procession of cars decorated with streamers, balloons and bows sounded their horns to celebrate the city’s first World Series victory.

“Who wants to work when you can be here?” said Duff James, a Kansas City native. “This is the greatest day in history for Kansas City. I own my own business, so I can do whatever I want. And today, I want to be a little boy.”

Players and team officials rode the two-mile parade route, beaming and waving as an estimated 40,000 pounds of shredded paper drifted from downtown office buildings.

Fans along the route, still celebrating Sunday’s 11-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7, hoisted themselves on bus-stop shelters, billboards, light poles and each others’ shoulders to catch a glimpse of the players.

Nearly every fan wore blue, the team color, while some sprayed their hair or painted their faces the royal color.