Los Angeles prepares for parade to celebrate Dodgers’ 8th World Series title
By Jamie Barton, CNN
(CNN) — “Who wants a parade?!” shouted Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts on the field at Yankee Stadium, after his team clinched the World Series in Game 5 thanks to a 7-6 comeback win.
Well, Los Angeles will have one, starting at City Hall on Friday at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. ET).
“I don’t know how you are feeling, but I am feeling like victory!” Mayor Karen Bass, who will officially open the parade, told a press conference on Thursday.
From City Hall, which was lit up in Dodger blue on Thursday night, the team will continue atop double-decker buses on a 45-minute route along 1st Street, turning south on Grand Avenue and then west on 5th Street, before finishing the parade at the intersection of 5th and Flower Street.
Afterwards, a ticketed event will take place at Dodger Stadium at 12:15 p.m. PDT (3:15 p.m. ET). Due to logistics, traffic and timing, fans will not be able to attend both events, the Dodgers said Wednesday.
The celebrations will take place on what would have been Fernando Valenzuela’s 64th birthday. The legendary Dodgers pitcher died last month and was honored with a uniform patch displaying his name and number during the World Series.
This year’s Fall Classic averaged 15.81 million viewers across five games, the most since an average of 18.93 million watched the Houston Astros beat the Dodgers in seven games in 2017.
Wednesday’s Game 5 was watched by 18.6 million people, the most since 2019 when 23.22 million tuned in to see the Washington Nationals’ victory over the Astros in Game 7.
The numbers represent a substantial turnaround from last year, when a record-low 9.11 million people on average watched the Texas Rangers win in five games over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The vast majority of this year’s viewers will have known that 2024 World Series MVP Freddie Freeman, who set a major league record for most consecutive World Series games with a home run with six, was playing with an ankle injury.
What they did not know, however, is that the first baseman had also broken the costal cartilage in one of his ribs, according to ESPN.
Freeman sustained the injury, which typically leaves players on the sidelines for months, in a simulated game two days before the start of postseason. He later aggravated it in the batting cage at Dodger Stadium, so much so that he collapsed to the floor and had to be helped into the X-ray room.
“It only hurts when I miss,” Freeman, determined to carry on, reportedly told his father. “So I’m just going to have to stop missing.”
The 35-year-old was true to his word, and will stand atop the parade bus on Friday knowing that he is one of the main reasons why he and his teammates are there.
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