Approximately 1 million fans lined the streets of downtown Boston Wednesday to honor the 2018 World Series champion Red Sox in a raucous celebration. There wasn’t quite as many people as the estimated 3 million fans that showed up for the Sox “rolling rally” in 2004, but that’s what happens when winning it all occurs so frequently.
“It’s been a historic season and the fans made it special,” Sox manager Alex Cora said. “They should enjoy it. Like I’ve been saying since Day 1, this is crazy, this is madness in Boston. It’s 24 hours a day, seven days a week here. [Red Sox] fans expectations are sky high. But one thing’s for sure. The same expectations the fans have, our players have, and that’s why they’re world champs.”
There are always memorable moments that occur in these Boston parades – whether it was Julian Edelman taking his shirt off in freezing temps atop a duck boat a few years back or Manny Ramirez displaying a sign that read,”Jeter is playing golf today … this is better” in 2004.
Cora himself actually created one of those moments Wednesday, boasting, “We scored 16 runs at Yankee Stadium. Suck on it.”
A Sox fan in the sea of humanity also tried to toss a beer to Mookie Betts while he was rolling by on a duck boat but the typically sure-handed right fielder couldn’t handle the adult beverage as it plunged to the street below. Nonetheless, Betts was ecstatic about winning his first ring.
“It’s a great group of guys we have here and winning, this is why we play the game,” Betts said. “The camaraderie is what got us here. Everybody loves each other. We have a great manager. We have a great front office and it all came together.”
Nathan Eovaldi, who turned in an all-time gritty performance in the Marathon Game 3 of the World Series in which he pitched six innings in relief, got some of the biggest cheers of the day.
“I told Eovaldi after the game, when people look back at this World Series, they’re not going to remember who won or lost that game,” Cora said. “They’re going to remember Nate Eovaldi in one of the greatest performances in World Series history.”
It was clear throughout the day Wednesday that winning titles will never get old in this town.
“On behalf of our entire front office we have to salute the best fans in all of baseball,” said Red Sox CEO and President Sam Kennedy. “And we have to salute our ownership group because in 2004 these guys came in, we reversed the curse. In ’07, we showed that it wasn’t a fluke. In 2013 the entire city came together in a way that no one thought was ever possible, and in 2018 this team made history!”
