Phillies parade through success-starved city

By Jessica Hall

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Success-starved Philadelphia celebrated its first professional sports championship in a quarter-century on Friday, showering the Phillies World Series baseball champs with confetti, brotherly love and screaming cheers.

Philadelphia police estimated hundreds of thousands lined the four-mile parade route through Center City to the Citizens Bank Park baseball stadium in South Philadelphia. Fans watched from office buildings, jammed the streets and climbed light posts and fences to catch a glimpse of their baseball heroes.

"You are the best fans in the world. There was no city that deserved this like you," said Phillies pitcher Brad Lidge, who threw the series' final strike.

Another hundred thousand fans tailgated outside the stadium on a mild, sunny day, and revelers filled the baseball park and neighboring football stadium to watch the parade on giant TV screens. Fans flooded from Center City down to the stadium area, following the caravan of players.

"This is the best day of my life," said Joe, 10, who declined to give his last name because he didn't want to get in trouble for missing school.

The Phillies on Wednesday grabbed their first World Series title since 1980, and only their second ever in their 100-plus year history, after a rain delay had suspended Monday's Game 5 for two days.

The Phillies won the best-of-seven series four games to one over the Tampa Bay Rays with a 4-3 victory. The last time a Philadelphia team won a major championship was in 1983, when the 76ers won the NBA basketball title.

Phillies left-fielder Pat Burrell, the team's longest-tenured and highest-paid player, led the parade through the "City of Brotherly Love" on a wagon pulled by a team of Clydesdale horses, with his bulldog, Elvis, by his side.

CHRISTMAS IN OCTOBER

Other players followed in open-air buses and flatbed trucks, riding with their families, Phillies Chairman Bill Giles and the World Series trophy. The team, which wore red championship sweatshirts, took photos and videos of the crowds as the fans, in turn, took pictures of them.

"Christmas came two months early," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel told fans after the parade. "We're going to win next year, too."

Friday's upbeat mood countered some unruly celebrations on Wednesday night, when more than 75 arrests were made as some revelers vandalized marble planters, bus-stop shelters and store windows near City Hall. Officials warned fans to be more careful on Friday's Halloween night.

"You can be joyous; you cannot be a jackass," warned Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. "That kind of idiotic, destructive behavior will not be accepted in the city of Philadelphia."

Fans traveling to the parade overwhelmed the city's local transportation system, forcing the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority to suspend commuter service into the city for more than three hours, and stop certain subway lines due to overcrowding.

"I grew up here in this area. I lived and died for the Phillies just like you have," said Jamie Moyer, 45, a Phillies pitcher who skipped school in 1980 to attend that team's championship parade. "Today, you guys dwarfed that parade."

(Editing by Eric Beech)