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It’s a day for celebration in New York, at least for the Yankees and their fans. The Yankees returned to the Canyon of Heroes for a victory parade for the first time since 2000, celebrating their 27th World Series championship.
The New York Times provided live updates throughout the parade. Jack Curry was at City Hall, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg honored the team, while reporters Joshua Robinson, Daniel E. Slotnik and Ravi Somaiya were out along the parade route, talking to fans and taking in the scene. Richard Sandomir watched the broadcast.
The fortunes of those along the parade route are much changed from nine years ago, and it remains to be seen if that affects the mood of the festivities at all. The early indications, at least according to Joshua Robinson, are that it won’t:

People are already packing in front of windows in the office buildings along Broadway and throwing everything from toilet paper to newspaper to copier paper out onto the street. You can’t take a step without walking in makeshift confetti.

Update | 2:08 p.m. From a present-day music superstar to a past one. The ceremony ends with streamers in the air and Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” playing over the speakers.
Update | 2:03 p.m. Mayor Bloomberg wraps up the key portion of the ceremony by inviting Hal Steinbrenner back up and presenting him with a key for his father, “the biggest Yankee of them all.” Then he announces a special performance by Jazy-Z, whose song “Empire State of Mind” became an anthem of sorts during the Yankees season.
Update | 1:45 p.m. Jack Curry spoke to Alex Rodriguez before the ceremony began. Rodriguez called Joe Girardi the M.V.P. of the season for the Yankees. He also thanked Jason Zillo, the Yankees’ P.R. man, for reminding him “more baseball, less talking” this season. Rodriguez said he was “proud of the fact that we stayed with the program.”
Rodriguez just got a big cheer from the crowd when he got his key.
Update | 1:56 p.m. Big roars from the crowd from Hideki Matsui, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera and A.J. Burnett, who, with his hat and sunglasses, is bearing a strong resemblance to Kid Rock, minus the long hair.
Update | 1:44 p.m. A big cheer from the crowd when Nick Swisher is given his key to the city. Swisher is sporting a faux hawk and Michael Kay described him as “Swish-alicious.”
Update | 1:40 p.m. Mayor Bloomberg gets in on the Jimmy Rollins bashing, saying he’s giving Rollins a “brand-new crystal ball” as a gift. Rollins, of course, told Jay Leno that the Phillies would beat the Yankees in six games, “but I’m thinking five.”
Update | 1:35 p.m. A very excited Suzyn Waldman has taken on the m.c. duties. She introduced Hal Steinbrenner and Joe Girardi, before Derek Jeter came up to speak.
“It’s been too long, hasn’t it?” Jeter said to loud cheers.
Girardi said he had spoken to George Steinbrenner this morning, who told him “The only thing greater than this celebration is doing it two years in a row.” The crowd answered that with chants of “28! 28!”
Update | 1:29 p.m. The Yankees take the stage to Queen’s “We Are the Champions.” Derek Jeter is the last one up, carrying the World Series trophy.
Update | 1:22 p.m. Mayor Bloomberg is up at the microphone now and getting big cheers every time he mentions a player name. He turns it over to the broadcasters Michael Kay and John Sterling. Before the ceremony gets too far along, here’s some more information from Jack Curry:

Mark Teixeira, C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett were the three free agents who the Yankees invested $423.5 million in. They were instrumental in delivering a title. After the parade, Teixeira, who had a rocky postseason, said “we were brought here for this.”
Sabathia is ready for 2010. “Expectations are high, huh?” He added, “Hopefully we can get it done again.”

Update | 1:12 p.m. Some baseball news from Jack Curry:

Mariano Rivera acknowledged that he had a rib injury while pitching in the postseason. He said the pain was manageable. Rivera said he hurt himself in A.L.C.S. Girardi said it happened in Game 2 of the World Series. When Rivera was asked if he could have pitched in Game 7 of the World Series, he said “I don’t want to talk about it now,” meaning there was no Game 7.
Several Yankees said they were told there were 3 million people here. The players talked about how they realized this could be their last time together. Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui are both free agents. Damon wants to return. “Why wouldn’t I want to come back?” he said.

Update | 1:09 p.m. An interesting scene on a relatively empty stage at City Hall before the ceremony. The former mayors Koch, Dinkins and Giuliani, along with Sen. Schumer, stood together (Koch was seated) and had what appeared to be a very cordial conversation for several moments.
Update | 12:49 p.m. The first World Series parade to be held in New York since the Yankees and Mets started their own networks shows one difference between YES and SNY.
SNY, the Mets’ network, is covering the Yankee parade, with Jonas Schwartz, Jon Heyman and Marty Appel, a former Yankees public relations director and the author of the recent Thurman Munson biography, in its Manhattan studio. But it is doubtful that YES would do the same if the Mets ever celebrated along the Canyon of Heroes.

YES doesn’t even show past Yankee losses when it replays classic Yankee games. Televise a Mets parade? Nah. A YES spokesman had no comment.
SNY has indeed defined itself as the team-run regional sports network that covers all local sports through its news-gathering operation. But YES has no nightly news shows, preferring to focus on the Yankees (and Nets) with pre- and postgame shows. Richard Sandomir

Update | 12:29 p.m. This is the fifth victory parade for Derek Jeter. Does it ever get old?
“You could do this every day and never get tired,” he told Jack Curry.
Update | 12:22 p.m. Jack Curry caught up with C.C. Sabathia, who said he should have invited LeBron James along to show him what the parade was like. James, of course, will be a free agent after this season and the Knicks have made it known that they are very interested in signing him, and taking him away from the Cleveland Cavaliers. Sabathia knows James from his days in Cleveland, when he was pitching for the Indians.

Update | 12:11 p.m. While the mood seems overwhelmingly celebratory, there was some frustration in the crowd. Daniel E. Slotnik explains:
The crowd grew angrier with each passing bus and truck that went by without a Yankee. The chant of “Who are you?” was repeated regularly, and one spectator shouted “Thanks for raising ticket prices” as one rolled by. But once the players started passing by, the fervor of the crowd returned.
Update | 12:01 p.m. Reggie Jackson has quite a history with the Yankees and George Steinbrenner, so it should not come as a surprise that Jackson’s thoughts turned to the man he calls the Boss on a day like today. Steinbrenner is in ill health and did not travel to New York for the parade. Jack Curry caught up with Jackson.
“You think about the Boss,” Jackson said. “I wish he was here.”
Update | 11:36 a.m. More public official sightings: Sen. Charles Schumer, Gov. David Paterson, former mayor Ed Koch.
Update | 11:31 a.m. Is Alex Rodriguez’s hat a fedora or more in the porkpie style? Discuss.
Update | 11:26 a.m. Jack Curry tells us that the cast of the Broadway hit “Jersey Boys” will be performing at City Hall later.
Update | 11:20 a.m. Among the non-players with featured spots in the parade so far are Yogi Berra, Reggie Jackson, Rudolph Giuliani, Jay-Z and the broadcasters Michael Kay, John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman.
But most of the fans, especially the younger ones, were their to see the team. Hideki Matsui, not surprisingly given his M.V.P. performance in the World Series, was getting plenty of cheers from the crowd. Ravi Somaiya ran into a couple of fans with some history with the this year’s Yankees:

Assad Kumantan, 11, and his older brother, Ashfi, from Brooklyn, have been to more than 50 games, and have pictures with Derek Jeter on a phone. Assad has a hat autographed by the whole team in a case in his bedroom.
“I got offered $7,000 for it,” he said, “but I didn’t take it.”
He talks to A.J. Burnett before every game he attends — most recently to recommend the song “Voodoo” by the band Godsmack.

Update | 9:58 a.m. Ravi Somaiya has found a fan who planned his attendance at the parade far in advance:

The crowd, 20 deep or more on the sidewalk and crammed into every corner is cheering every vehicle that goes past — including some confused kids on a school bus. By 9:30, there were already streamers in the trees and covering the base of the Woolworth building. Air horns were going off. Because of the chilly temperatures, everyone was in hats and scarves and hoods. All blue and white of course.
Ray Gambino, 27, who works at a car dealership in New Jersey and was wearing a Jeter shirt, took this week off of work a few weeks ago because he “knew they were going to win. I could feel it.”
If the Yankees had lost, and there was no celebration, he had no backup plan. “I would have stayed at home and drank,” he said.

Update | 9:56 a.m. Daniel E. Slotnik has been downtown mingling with the crowd this morning:

Hundreds of people were lined up on Broadway near Chambers Street before 9 a.m. Cheers of “Let’s Go Yankees!” echoed over the crowd, growing louder when passing trucks or buses honked in support. Occasionally, rolls of toilet paper arced over Broadway, caught by people on the east side of the street or tossed on the wind.
Cindy Calca, Marilyn Corona and Daniela Reynoso were standing on the corner of Broadway and Chambers wearing Army uniforms. They said they returned from a tour of duty with the national guard in Southern Iraq in the spring, and were currently stationed at the base in Teaneck, N.J.
“We left New Jersey at 6 a.m.,” Calcano said. “New Jersey’s running an extra 16 trains for this, it’s crazy. I was born and raised in the Bronx, so I’ve been a Yankee fan since birth.”
Corona, who wore a flat-brimmed Yankee cap over her service hat, said she was a fan of Jorge Posada.
“People think I’m playing, but I love him,” she said.
Calcano said she loved Mark Teixeira, while Reynoso said she was a Derek Jeter fan.
“We’re veterans, we spent many late nights watching games over there,” Corona said, drawing nods from the other women. She described getting up at 3 or 4 in the morning to catch a game before going out on patrol.
“I told them ‘Let’s come in uniform, maybe it will get us through some barricades,’” Corona said.