ATLANTA – The Atlanta Braves were cheered by hundreds of thousands of baseball fans in a two-stage parade Friday celebrating the team’s first World Series championship since 1995.
Some area schools closed, and students seized the opportunity to attend the event.
“That’s what the fun part of this is,” said Terry McGuirk, the team’s chairman. “Every block it was just kids, and it was all kids. Never, never did I expect to see that many little guys.”
The parade started in downtown Atlanta, near the team’s former home at Turner Field. The route took the buses, floats and pickup trucks past a memorial to Braves legend Hank Aaron, the Hall of Fame slugger who died this past January, at the site where Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium once stood and Atlanta clinched its 1995 championship. The procession then headed to Peachtree Street, where fans packed sidewalks several rows deep.
Atlanta police estimated 300,000 to 400,000 fans attended the downtown portion of the parade.