Boston Red Sox Duck Boat Parade Will Travel Past Marathon Bombing Site
The Red Sox have planned a Duck Boat parade to honor the team’s third World Series title in the last nine years; a celebration that will travel past the site of April’s Boston Marathon terrorist attack.
The city of Boston has announced that the Red Sox parade will take place on Saturday, with the players climbing aboard the city’s famous amphibious vehicles at Fenway Park at 10 am to travel along the same route that the team took while celebrating its 2004 World Series championship.
That means that the parade will travel down Boylston Street, where in April two bombs were set off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and leaving more than 260 injured.
After finishing off the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 6 at Fenway Park, many Red Sox players and team officials praised the fans and the city of Boston for the strength they showed after the bombing.
David Ortiz, who won World Series MVP, addressed the Boston faithful after the game, just as he did in the team’s first game after the Boston Marathon bombing.
“This is for you, Boston. You guys deserve it,” Ortiz said. “We’ve been through a lot this year, and this is for all of you and all those families who struggled.”
In announcing the parade, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino praised the team for making the most dramatic turnaround in MLB history. The Red Sox finished in last place in the AL East in the 2012 season, and now have set the mark as the team with the worst winning percentage one year to win the World Series the next.
”What a year,” Menino said at Boston City Hall, where plans for the Red Sox parade were announced. ”From worst to first.”
Organizers said the Red Sox parade will likely draw hundreds of thousands of fans.