The Community You Find at the World Series Parade
Reflecting on my experience celebrating the Los Angeles Dodgers last week
Hi!
I hope you are staying nice and cozy as we fully transition into fall - just submitted my SoCal Gas maintenance request to turn the heater on, ‘tis the szn !
Last Friday, 200K Angelenos gathered downtown to celebrate the Los Angeles Dodgers, our 2024 World Series champs! I was very lucky to be one of them, and although I knew it was going to be a special experience - I truly wasn’t prepared for how the day would impact me.
If you’re new here, Ticket to Sarahdise is most often comprised of things to do in the greater Los Angeles / SoCal areas or city travel guides. However, I also love to highlight moments of community & people coming together in LA - something that can often feel hard to come by in a massive, sprawling city like this. You can find my other posts about “The Community You Find” below -
Okok self promo moment complete - let’s talk about those Doyers!
ICYMI, the Dodgers won the World Series with a 4-1 lead against the Yankees last Wednesday, October 30th. Though everyone had already been speculating as to when we’d get our parade - the city promptly reacted to the win and confirmed Friday, November 1st would be our moment of celebration. To add even more anticipation into the mix, Dodgers fans would argue they’ve been waiting for this parade for 4+ years - as the team also won the championship back in 2020 and didn’t get a proper celebration due to the pandemic.
The biggest point I need to emphasize from this experience is that it was not just about baseball - this was about Los Angeles. And personally, why I felt the need to attend. I’ll openly admit that I’m a Phillies fan before I’m a Dodgers fan. But this is where city culture & community takes precedent over team pride for me - I wanted to attend Friday so I could celebrate my city and witness history.
I grew up going to Dodgers games with my family, and as Florida transplants - those experiences helped shape us into true Angelenos throughout the years. Attending a Dodgers game is a cultural experience from start to finish. Walking into the stadium on the hill with 360 views of the city, surrounded by thousands of Dodgers fans that are a representation of the diverse, lively culture of LA. Grabbing Dodger Dogs, beers from Golden Road, and micheladas before we head to our seats. The soundtrack that plays throughout the game, a love letter to the city - “I Love LA” by Randy Newman has been on repeat all week!
The parade was set to start at 11 AM downtown, with the route starting at City Hall and ending at 5th & Flower Streets. Just like the fans flow from all sides of the city to enter the stadium for a game, hordes of people dressed in blue & white covered every street of DTLA as we all walked towards the parade route. This instantly created a buzz and started giving me that tingly feeling of community - a moment of union + bringing people together to celebrate.
We settled on a corner of 1st & Spring, landing ourselves behind a barricade with a partial view of the first major intersection of the parade. As we snapped a couple photos, we instantly befriended a father & son duo in our section. They were noshing on burritos, and I naturally had to ask for every detail - Al pastor & carne asada burritos from King Taco.
As the time drew closer to 11, the crowd started to become a little restless - several fans starting cheers & chants just to give us something to do. A couple more *bold* fans opted to climb the streetlights, one bravely hanging on by a single hand so he could use the other to chug a beer. We do not condone this behavior here at TTS wink wink but I had to mention! Happy to report both dudes made it back down to the ground safely.
Due to my friend and I both being vertically challenged, we leaned on cues from the crowd to tell us what was going on with the parade. A few minutes after 11, a sea of phones went UP and the crowd went wild - we followed suit and haphazardly pointed our cameras towards the intersection at 5x zoom, hoping for the best.
Craning our necks and standing on our tippy toes, we caught glimpses of coach Dave Roberts showing off the trophy, along with Dodgers players + their families waving & popping champagne. The moment was quick as the double decker buses careened down the street, so we made a game time decision to sprint to the end of the route for the chance of seeing a little more action. This is where the real fun began.
Running through the streets of DTLA in our Dodger blue with loads of fans by our side was EPIC, save for the couple stoplights that nearly made us miss the end of the parade. We landed at Hope Pl & Grand Ave, just below the route as the buses passed by. Even more fans crowded these streets, with people pouring out of every corner. A full sea of Dodger blue.
As fun as it was to see the players on the double deckers, the real spectacle was the pure volume of fans covering the streets. Call it the COVID effect, but I really can’t remember the last time I was around THAT many people. It was exhilarating. We really took over the city for this moment in time. It took us an hour just to get out of the crowd and walk on a sidewalk at a normal pace (versus constantly stopping to let others get through).
Eager to keep the good vibes going, my friend and I brainstormed where we could fuel up & rest our legs. We opted for Pine & Crane - I was dreaming of housing some scallion pancakes. Though the Dodgers crowd had thinned out, we weren’t surprised to see dozens of fans joining us for lunch. We exchanged knowing looks and smirks, keeping that good community vibe going. As we waited in line, biker gangs sailed past us on Grand, waving their Dodgers flags & cheering.
After a nice long sit & as much Taiwanese food as our stomachs could handle, we started our journey back west via Metro - where we were met with more fans calling it a day. We chit chatted about our experiences and everything we saw, comparing photos and videos from our respective limited views.
Overall, I am so grateful to live in LA, a city rich with culture and beautiful people. With a city as big as Los Angeles, arguably 60+ small cities in one - this place can feel very overwhelming and isolating, and moments of community can feel rare. For that, I am grateful for the Los Angeles Dodgers for taking us to victory & bringing the city together for one helluva celebration! I’ll never forget this day, and I’ll be looking back at my pictures for years and years to come (and probably telling my kids about it one day too)
Thanks for reading, and go Dodgers! I <3 LA