By Mariel S. Clark, Shayna Jacobs, Josh Williams and Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporters/Producers
MANHATTAN — Derek Jeter stepped up to the podium on stage outside of City Hall and looked out into the crowd of Yankees fans after participating in his first ticker-tape parade since 2000.
"It's been too long, hasn't it?" Jeter asked.
Jeter and the rest of the world champion Yankees were given keys to the city by Mayor Michael Bloomberg Friday afternoon after an estimated one million fans lined the Canyon of Heroes to celebrate the team's 27th World Series Championship with a ticker-tape parade.
“The thing I love about this club is that it took on the pulse of the city of New York,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.
Tons of white confetti showered the Yankees and their fans as the players made their way up Broadway on floats.
Chelsea resident Artie Gallagher, 57, said he’d been to over 20 parades at the Canyon of Heroes “and this is the best I’ve ever seen.”
He said this one was special because of the way in which the Yankees won.
“They really earned it,” Gallagher said. “They were a team and they played real good team baseball.”
Roberto Reid, a 31-year-old marine from Brooklyn, said he loved the “sheer pandemonium” that erupted when Yankees closer Mariano Rivera went by.
“This is wonderful for New York City,” Reid said. “It brings people together from all different cultural backgrounds.”
Fans burst into chants of "Boston Sucks!" and "I hate cheese steaks!" along the parade route. Others repeatedly yelled "27!" in reference to the Bronx Bomber's record 27 World Series championships.
Ramon Embregilbo, 20, of Washington Heights, was getting taunted by the crowd for wearing a Mets hat.
“I’m representing my team no matter what,” he said. “I’m here to celebrate New York. This is a New York celebration, that’s how I see it.”
Led by the NYPD marching band, a Caprice Classic holding Yankee legend Yogi Berra and a car holding the team's gleaming trophy, the 13-float procession moved up the Canyon of Heroes toward City Hall beginning at 11 a.m.
"This is insane. It's like Thanksgiving, but only for New Yorkers," said Adele Connolly, 23.
The Alphabet City resident arrived downtown at 4:30 a.m. to grab a spot on the parade sidelines.
"Everyone follows them the whole season and for them to pull through in the end is momentous," Connolly added.
Girardi let the mayor catch a lift with him on a float, but it was the players, accompanied by the wives, parents and other friends, who garnered the largest cheers from the crowd.
Wearing sweatshirts and sunglasses, they were greeted as idols as they moved up Broadway.
Just after 11 a.m., World Series MVP Hideki Matsui climbed aboard the first float in a grey overcoat, raising his hands to the crowd.
Fans greeted the Yankees designated hitter with chants of “MVP! MVP! MVP!”
Matsui knocked in five runs to lead the Yankees to a 7-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in Wednesday's series clinching Game 6.
Rapper and Yankees fan Jay-Z hopped aboard a float with slugger Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod put his past postseason failures behind him by knocking in a Yankees record 18 RBIs in the playoffs.
Outfielder Johnny Damon couldn't wait for his float to take off. He was out in the crowd, holding on to his baby daughter, and shaking the hands of their adoring fans.
Pitcher A.J. Burnett and his personal catcher Jose Molina were atop a float together with their wives.
Jeter had his dad Charles and his mother Dorothy next to him. Andy Pettite, accompanied by his four children, filmed the fans with a video camera as he moved down the street.
Pitcher Joba Chamberlain rode on a float with a huge sign that read, “Land of the Free, Home of the Yanks.”
Along the route, late-arriving revelers found themselves stuck on side streets, unable to move through the crowd to watch the Yankees pass.
Some fans scoped out their spots Thursday afternoon and other revelers arrived before sunrise Friday to secure the perfect location to celebrate their favorite Yankees players.
Washington Heights paralegal Juan Alonzo, 32, arrived at 7:30 a.m. to get a spot in the front row near Trinity Church.
He said he’d missed each of the parades celebration Yankee championships since the early 1990s, and was determined not to miss this one.
Alonzo went to his boss and said he wanted a day off: “She said, ‘What day do you want?’ and I said ‘the Yankee parade.’ I said, ‘This year, I have to be there.’”
After the parade ended, people remained packed against police barricades, watching the City Hall ceremony on a jumbo television screen.
Edward Howard, an NYPD detective assigned to Manhattan South, stood ankle-deep in confetti with his son, Miles, 7, near City Hall. Howard pulled his son out of school for the occasion.
“I promised him, I said, ‘If they win, it’ll be his first (parade), Howard said. “He’s been doing well in school so why not reward him?”
