Thursday, 4:30 PM
Red Sox rolling rally will be similar to 2004
By Donovan Slack and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
Boston is planning a victory celebration Tuesday for the world champion Red Sox that will be similar to the "rolling rally" in 2004, with a duck boat parade starting at noon that will carry the team from Fenway Park through the streets of the Back Bay and past the Boston Common and City Hall Plaza.
The parade will pass three jumbo television screens and include a flatbed truck carrying the Dropkick Murphys, the Irish-style punk band whose music has become the soundtrack for the spirited Sox closer -- and step-dancer - Jonathan Papelbon.
"He promised the people he would do the dance," Mayor Thomas M. Menino said today at a press conference at City Hall, "and he will do the dance."
The duck boats will not take to the Charles River as they did in 2004. Instead the parade will end at New Chardon Street near City Hall Plaza.
"The players didn't want to go into the water," Menino said. "There were a lot of folks who came into the water who weren’t part of the parade. It was dangerous for them to be in the water while the ducks were going down the river."
Planning for the festivities began late last week, but city officials said nothing was finalized so as not to jinx the World Series. That left a flurry of planning for this morning. The Red Sox clinched the Series at 12:05 a.m.
Menino declined to estimate how many people are expected to attend the rally. Police are in the process of posting road closure signs along the route. City schools will remain in session Tuesday during the parade. “The kids are in school, that’s the toughest part for me,” Menino said.
In 2004, throngs of fans packed the 7-mile parade route, which began near Fenway Park and traveled on Boylston Street past Boston Common to City Hall Plaza. The day before the celebration, Menino added an amphibious leg to the parade that took the team up the Charles River aboard duck boats, past the Esplanade and the Cambridge bank of the river. Menino added the river portion after Boston police and some crowd-control specialists expressed concerns the original street route could create a safety hazard for paradegoers and leave thousands without a clear vantage point to see the players.
Unlike the cold rain that dampened the parade in 2004, the weather forecast for Tuesday’s victory celebration is encouraging. The forecast calls for temperatures near 60 degrees, ample sunshine, and only a 10 percent chance of precipitation.
The parade will begin at Fenway Park and take Boylston Street to Boston Common. It will go left on Tremont Street and follow Cambridge Street until the intersection of New Chardon Street, where the parade will stop near City Hall Plaza. The jumbo television screens will be set up at Boston Common, Copley Square, and City Hall Plaza.
"Come down, enjoy the day," Menino said. "It will be a fun day in the city of Boston."
(Jim Davis/Globe Staff/file)
