CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira never had been part of anything like this.
Two of the Yankees’ prized additions — and key forces in their 27th world championship — had just seen confetti rain down on the Canyon of Heroes on TV before yesterday.
Sabathia and Teixeira, who shared the same float during the morning celebration down Broadway, could be excused for their awe at the sight of 2 million mostly pinstriped fans chanting their names and screaming deliriously despite the windy chill.
After all, they didn’t have any baseball parades in Cleveland, Milwaukee, Arlington, Atlanta or Anaheim — the previous combined major-league stops for Sabathia and Teixeira before they found championship gold this season in The Bronx.
“You guys are amazing!” Teixeira screamed at the crowd as the decorated float began its journey to City Hall near Wall Street and his wife, Leigh, snapped pictures.
Teixeira then held up a white cardboard banner with “World Champions” in blue and chanted “Let’s go, Yankees!” along with the throngs packed tightly on the sidewalks.
Teixeira was reacting to the thousands of fans at the start of the parade breaking into a chant of “Mark Teix-eir-a!” as soon as they could make out that he was in the float alongside Sabathia.
“Derek told me to be ready for the most incredible parade that I’ve ever seen in my life, and I’m definitely ready for it,” Teixeira had said as he loaded into the float near Battery Park.
The Sabathia-Teixeira float didn’t have the added entertainment star power of floats occupied by Alex Rodriguez (rap star Jay-Z) and Derek Jeter (actress Minka Kelly), but the fans didn’t seem to mind.
“CC! CC!” came the screams as Sabathia, minus the flat-brimmed cap pulled slightly sideways that is his trademark on the diamond, waved and smiled widely while accompanied by his family.
“Wow, man,” Sabathia said, shaking his head as he basked in the flying confetti, toilet-paper rolls and Silly String that accompanied the festivities.
Sabathia appeared to get slightly more of the adulation than Teixeira, which was understandable after he went 4-1 with a 1.98 ERA in five postseason starts in his Yankees debut.
That followed a terrific regular season in which Sabathia firmly asserted himself as the Bombers’ ace, going 19-8 with a 3.37 ERA in 34 starts.
Teixeira probably will want to remember the World Series ring and yesterday’s parade more than his own performance in the Fall Classic, an effort that saw the All-Star first baseman hit just .136 with eight strikeouts in the six games against Philadelphia.
But mention of Teixeira’s meager World Series performance and Sabathia’s loss in Game 1 to the Phillies were nowhere to be found in downtown yesterday.
Only cheers.
“This is what you play for,” Sabathia said. “There’s never been anything like this for me.”