When the New York Yankees locked down their 27th World Championship Wednesday night, plans were already under way for a victory parade through lower Manhattan's Canyon of Heroes. Unfortunately, traders can't just lean out the windows and toss ticker tape, as they did when Mickey Mantle was leading the Bronx Bombers.
So, while Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez were dousing themselves in champagne, the Alliance for Downtown New York, lower Manhattan's business improvement district, snapped into action. Workers received, bagged and began distributing more than half a ton of recycled shredded paper.
As the parade begins today, everything is in place to give the hometown heroes the party they deserve.
"It's a harder job than it used to be," says James Yolles, the alliance's director of public affairs. "Ticker tape has gone the way of the typewriter. And there's just fewer places to launch confetti."
In modern, temperature-controlled office buildings, windows don't typically open. And with insurance regulations and security concerns, many buildings stopped letting people up on the roof.
But the parade will go on, and Wall Street will see an avalanche of paper worthy of the ones that blanketed Charles Lindbergh, Theodore Roosevelt, Pope John Paul II, Olympic heroes, astronauts, and nearly every victorious New York sports team since 1960.
It's a tradition that began in 1886, with the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty. Adm. George Dewey, Albert Einstein, Amelia Earhart and Jesse Owens were among those honored in the first half of the 20th century.
The end of World War II gave rise to the largest parades, and Gen. Douglas MacArthur got his own confetti celebration when he returned home from the Korean War.
"You can't nearly throw as much paper as you did in the old days," Yolles says. "But we'll make sure it's a party the Yankees and the city deserve."
"The important thing is that people don't throw anything but confetti from the window. You can't get carried away."
The Downtown Alliance established a Walk of Fame in lower Manhattan in 2003 to preserve the tradition, with plaques commemorating each of the 205 previous parades.
And then, when everyone goes home, and Yankee manager Joe Girardi starts stressing about how to win another World Series, the recycled paper will be swept up -- and recycled again.
