Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Cheering fans greet Astros
HOUSTON » World Series MVP George Springer planted the Houston Astros’ championship trophy at the front of a fire truck to a cheering crowd as the team began their victory parade Friday, with orange and blue confetti raining down as they passed tens of thousands of fans in downtown Houston.
Four military jets soared above a sea of orange and blue T-shirts, jerseys, pennants and banners along the 20-block parade route, which was quickly extended to accommodate the larger-than-expected crowd. Fans stood more than 10 rows deep, with chants of “Let’s go Astros” echoing off skyscrapers, while some claimed bird’seye views from the upper floors of parking structures, draping banners down the walls.
“This is amazing. This is awesome,” general manager Jeff Luhnow said from atop a float that carried a giant baseball. “Everybody is smiling. We’ve been excited all day.”
Several Astros players and manager A.J. Hinch waved at fans from the top of a double-decker bus as the parade started. Some fans threw caps and jerseys in their direction. Players autographed the items and tossed them back.
Scores of fans gathered downtown hours ahead of the parade’s start. “We needed this win real bad for the city of Houston,” said 47-yearold LaShawn Harris, who lives in the suburb of Baytown. “Harvey is gone. Harvey is smashed. Harvey is no more. It is all about today.”
Harris, dressed in an orange Astros T-shirt and cap, and a fanny pack with gold-colored sequins, said she got up at 5 a.m. so she, her two nieces and her granddaughter could get to the site of the parade and rally in front of City Hall and get “a good spot.”
The parade is the first championship for professional sports team in the city since the Houston Rockets Rockets won back-toback NBA titles in the mid-1990s. The 1995 Rockets parade attracted an estimated 500,000 people. HOUSTON » The Astros have not made the decision yet on whether they will visit the White House to meet with President Donald Trump if an invitation is extended.
“We just won the first world championship in Houston Astros history,” Hinch said. “We’re also in one of the most divided countries, polarizing countries in politics. I don’t know that this is the best stage for everybody to declare one way or the other and try to comment on the moment and be too much of a political statement.”