Yankees savor raucous celebration

Over three million turn out to salute World Series champs

Bryan Hoch / MLB.com

NEW YORK -- The confetti fell from the sky like snow, roars echoed through the Canyon of Heroes as unintelligible fuzz, and down each street the Yankees were greeted by cheering faces as far as the eye dared to see.

If the gleaming keys to the city waiting to be picked up at City Hall weren't enough of an indication, a raucous parade for the ages should have put the message through in bold-faced type.

The Yankees own New York.

In double-decker buses and parade floats, the Bombers rolled through lower Manhattan celebrating the 27th World Series title the organization has thirsted for, waving wildly through the financial district on a chilly November morning.

"You feel like you're the president, you know?" Derek Jeter said. "You wish you could thank every single fan individually, but you can't. I know they know we appreciate it."

The Yankees carried the World Series trophy over Broadway from Battery Place to Chambers Street, where they were welcomed to the podium at City Hall by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg for what he called "the biggest party in town."

"It's a really awesome spectacle," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "Just to see the amount of people that are out there -- I was trying to explain to my son what three million people were. It's like 60 of our stadiums. It's mind-boggling."

Less than 48 hours after dispatching the Phillies and sending the five boroughs into ecstasy, the Yankees were ready to keep the energy flowing well into the winter.

"It's like nothing I ever saw before," Alex Rodriguez said. "We've waited a long time for this. I've never seen so many people collected in one place. The excitement, it just seemed like they were as hungry as we were. The fans really wanted this."

"Andy [Pettitte] told me that it was going to be a mob scene," CC Sabathia said.