How big was that sea of Dodger blue Friday in downtown Los Angeles?
About 200,000 people attended the championship parade late Friday morning that featured the World Series champs on open top double-decker buses, the city of Los Angeles said in a news release. The parade started at City Hall and headed south on Spring Street, west on First Street, south on Grand Avenue and west on Fifth Street, ending in the area of Fifth and Flower streets.
As the buses turned onto the parade route, a roar swelled in the canyon of fans that lined both sides of the street. Some waved giant blue LA flags as team members passed and showed off the World Series trophy sparkling in the Southern California sun.
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Some fans staked out a spot along the route well before dawn.
"An estimated more than 200,000 people attended the Dodgers Championship Parade in Downtown Los Angeles, with many heeding local leaders’ calls to take Metro and alleviate vehicle traffic," the city said in its news release. "The parade was conducted without interruptions. All Downtown streets have reopened."
The LAPD said Saturday morning that 12 arrests were reported in connection with the celebration. Six involving commercial burglary, four were for receiving stolen property and two were due to failure to disperse, the agency said.
Photos: Thousands gather in Downtown Los Angeles for Dodgers World Series parade
The parade was followed by a ticketed celebration with players and fans at Dodger Stadium.
"Look at that. It's incredible," an emotional Clayton Kershaw said. "I've never gotten to experience anything like this, and it makes everything worth it."
Adding to an emotional day, the parade is on what would have been the 64th birthday of legendary Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, who died Oct. 22.
The scene in downtown Los Angeles and at Dodger Stadium was much different than the last time the Dodgers ascended to the pinnacle of Major League Baseball during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. There was no parade to celebrate that championship.
