Victory Parade

We got there about two and a half hours before the players were brought out on stage at the San Francisco Civic Center and the whole plaza was already crowded as the pictures above show. Below left is the crowd behind us when we arrived and below right is the crowd about an hour later. Everyone kept pushing forward. In fact, the girl with the orange ribbon in her hair and her boyfriend in eye black were later in front of us. 

Above is the crowd in front of the stage as the time nears. Below left is the statue of Abraham Lincoln when we arrived and, below right, the statue an hour later after the crowds had broken past the barricades. It was about as close to a crowd panic moment as I had ever experienced. I had my escape route planned. There were many people around us who had to be helped over the barricades by paramedics because they were feeling faint.

Above left is Public Defender Jeff Adachi and other city workers watching the festivities. When Mayor Gavin Newsom got up to speak, about half of them went back to work. Similarly, when Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger got up to speak, all the state workers out on the balconies and rooftops of the state office buildings across the plaza also disappeared. Above right is my view of the stage which is why I don’t have many pictures of the players actually speaking. I only saw them in profile.  Below left and right is the crowd when the players were arriving at 1:00 p.m.         

Above left is a lovely lass on someone’s shoulders. Above right is The Dog (with bunny ears) who had gotten as close to his patron Mike Krukow as he could get today. Below left: Everyone gets dressed up in their finest for this rare occassion. Below right: Classic Giants truck. It was probably built in 1954 when the Giants last won the World Series!