Yankees Knee-Deep in Fans’ Love

Punctuated by the cheers of thousands upon thousands of fans, the pride of the Yankees rode through a blizzard of paper up New York’s “canyon of heroes” to City Hall Friday, where they were hailed as a team of history.

Some in the throng, which swelled to scores deep behind police barricades, arrived as early as 4 a.m. to catch a glimpse of the players, who returned the compliment by taking pictures of their admirers.

The parade came complete with poignant subplots: the appearance of Darryl Strawberry in a red convertible just weeks after his colon cancer surgery, the predawn reunion of World Series hero Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez with his family after they were granted permission from Fidel Castro to leave Cuba.

There was extraordinary security spawned by the U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Trials in that tragedy will take place in federal court only a few blocks from the parade route.

But most of all, it was a celebration of an extraordinary baseball achievement: 125 victories, more than any other team capturing the World Series.

“You know, they are going to question where this ballclub belongs in the history of baseball,” Yankee manager Joe Torre told several thousand invited guests seated in the plaza in front of City Hall.

“I can only say one thing. In my opinion, 125 and 50, these are the best guys that have ever played the game,” he said, citing their win-loss record.

“For as long as baseball is played, the 1998 New York Yankees will set the standard,” said Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. “Every team from now on that has a good season is going to be compared to this team.”

Along the parade route, things were somewhat less philosophical.

“Jeter! Jeter!” teenage girls shouted, holding up signs proposing marriage to the handsome Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter.

Some spectators carried brooms in honor of the team’s four-game World Series sweep of the San Diego Padres.

“Right now, it’s a dream come true. I’ve been a Yankee fan for 12 years,” said Socrates Palmer, 20, who, like many in the crowd, wore blue-and-white team caps. “They have done a lot for the city. It’s times like this when you feel proud to be a New Yorker.”

“This is awesome. We were all the way up front,” said Patrick Frino, 25, who wore a Yankees sweatshirt. “We got here at 7:30 a.m., 4 1/2 hours before the parade started. It was definitely worth it. We got to see all the players we wanted to see. I’m ecstatic.”

Clouds of confetti and streams of paper coated trees along the parade route. So much paper was tossed--50 tons of it--that some blocks were knee- and ankle-deep in paper after the parade passed.

Even though ticker-tape parades are a New York tradition (in 1910, President Theodore Roosevelt was welcomed back from a 15-month hunting trip in Africa by a parade with ticker tape), each celebration carries a unique signature.

Friday’s march celebrated momentous achievement and spotlighted some of life’s challenges.

Strawberry, who will undergo chemotherapy, rode in the parade but was unable to attend the City Hall ceremony, where an empty chair marked his absence.

Hernandez, who fled Cuba aboard a raft, met his mother, two daughters and his former wife at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey only hours before the parade started, after the Castro government granted them a temporary visa.

“I speak no English,” Hernandez said to cheers and laughter at City Hall.

“I don’t speak English either,” his translator joked before expressing how proud the pitcher was to be a Yankee.

Police estimated the crowd at what some said was an overly generous 3.5 million. But a day of Yankee glory, clearly, was not the time to quibble about numbers.

“I think New York fans are really coming together today--not just for the Yankees but for the city,” said Adam L’Esperance, 21, as he stood behind the barricades. “There is a whole love for the city today.”

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Times staff writer Josh Getlin, special correspondent Lisa Meyer and researcher Lynette Ferdinand contributed to this story.