2.2 Million Honor Mets in a Parade of Champions

A estimated crowd of 2.2 million frenzied Met fans, one of the largest throngs in New York City’s history, jammed the streets of Lower Manhattan Tuesday for a tumultuous ticker-tape parade to honor the 1986 World Series champions.

The cheering fans filled entire blocks around Wall Street, crowded on high window ledges, climbed tall trees and perched atop traffic lights and telephone booths. They screamed each player’s name and chanted, “Let’s Go Mets” as waving team members were driven in open cars up the famed Canyon of Heroes.

A blizzard of computer paper, punch cards, confetti, torn telephone books and toilet paper swirled through the bright afternoon sunshine and lay hip-deep on the streets as thousands of office workers appeared to be emptying their desks from skyscraper windows. At times, crowds surged past wooden police barriers and threatened to overwhelm team members and their wives.

“It was great, and scary,” said Mary Robinson, wife of Met coach Bill Robinson. “We were afraid they were going to take us out of our cars.”

At a City Hall ceremony at the parade’s end, the fans happily booed all politicians and chanted adulation to their favorite baseball team as orange and blue balloons filled the blue autumn sky with the Met colors.

“I want to thank you for the wonderful parade,” said Manager Davey Johnson after he and other Mets had been given golden keys to the city. “This was so much fun, I think we ought to try to do it again next year.”

Catcher Gary Carter told the crowd: “Thank you all for making a dream come true.”

Mayor Edward I. Koch was forced to discard most of his prepared speech as the boisterous crowd drowned him out with boos for him and cheers for the team that beat the Boston Red Sox in the seventh game of the Series at Shea Stadium Monday night, 8-5. Koch called the crowd the largest “we have ever had in a parade.”

Dozens of other politicians also crowded the stage to share the glory in a welcome break from municipal scandals, police corruption and election-year politics.

Gov. Mario Cuomo, who is heavily favored to win re-election next week, cut his remarks to a few phrases, saying the Mets’ victory “teaches us lessons about courage and coming from behind.”

U.S. Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R- N.Y.), also heavily favored to regain office, hid his face behind his blue Met cap as he and the other political figures were roundly booed.

The day clearly belonged to the Mets--and to their fans, who had waited 17 years since the team’s last World Series victory.

“These guys, they never quit,” said Joe Dwyer, an electrical apprentice who arrived with two friends at 3 a.m. to get a good view of the City Hall podium. “They went with the old Yogi Berra saying, ‘Never say never.’ ”

Fans wearing everything from three-piece suits to three-color punk haircuts crowded around the U.S. Customs House, packed the elegant Woolworth Building and formed human gridlock at Bowling Green. “Merrill Lynch is bullish on the Mets,” said one sign, as an effigy of a Red Sox player dangled from another window.

Long rolls of computer paper and magnetic tape hung festively from windows and trees, and twirled off the spire at Wall Street’s landmark Trinity Church. “Hey, look at this,” said one well dressed man, picking up a torn stock market report from the blizzard of descending paper. “Nynex is down.”

More than a dozen fans hung tightly to a huge bronze statue of an eagle four stories off the ground at the American Bureau of Shipping building. Others stood on a window washer’s platform.

Emergency medical personnel reported about 100 minor injuries, including four to police officers, and police said they made more than 10 arrests in the pandemonium. Several cars were damaged, and at least one store window was broken by the crush. But with 2,500 police on duty, officials said the huge throng generally was well behaved.

Tens of thousands of fans waited patiently for nearly an hour at City Hall for the ceremonies to begin.