They’ve still got it!
After a nine-year drought, millions of raucous Bomber fans found themselves back in familiar surroundings yesterday — lining the confetti-covered Canyon of Heroes to watch the World Series champion Yankees take their victory ride.
The estimated 2 million fans didn’t show any celebration rust, forming a sea of blue and white as they climbed light poles and street signs and crammed Broadway to cheer on their beloved Bombers.
“It’s been too long, hasn’t it?” team captain Derek Jeter — a member of five championship squads — told the adoring crowd at City Hall.
“It feels good to be back.”
The throngs that braved the chilly temperatures to show their pinstripe pride agreed.
“All is right with the world now that the Yankees are back on top,” said plumber Rob Van Winkle, 27, of Staten Island.
“We should have one of these every year. It feels great to be out here today.”
The team’s 27th championship was a first for many of the team’s younger fans — and many of the team’s current players, including superstar third baseman Alex Rodriguez.
“We waited a long time for this,” A-Rod said. “I’ve never seen so many people collected in one place. Excitement. It just seems like they were as hungry as we were. The fans really wanted this.”
Several players videotaped the crowd from their floats, while many in the crowd were taping them.
Richie Kormanik, 32, of Staten Island, brought his sons Joseph, 12, and Richie, 10, to the parade. Richie spent most of the parade with his mouth agape as his heroes passed. “This is awesome,” he said.
Joseph said, “I feel so good about missing school today. But I don’t know what my teachers will think.”
Missing from the party was team owner George Steinbrenner, who’s been in poor health in recent years.
Manager Joe Girardi said The Boss called him before the parade and told him “the only thing greater than this celebration is doing it two years in a row. So he asked me to remind everyone, pitchers and catchers report in 96 days. Be ready to defend it.”
That led to raucous cheers of “28! 28! 28!”
The day wasn’t without blemishes.
The Staten Island Ferry terminal was briefly out of commission when mobs of parade-goers left at the same time and got into scuffles.
“It was elbow to elbow in there. You couldn’t move,” said Vinny Cerullo, 14, of Staten Island.
One cop, who asked not to be identified, said, “You had a million people trying to get on the ferry at the same time. People were in danger of being crushed. We had no choice but to pull people out of there. It could have gotten bad.”
Additional reporting by Selim Algar, Carolyn Salazar and David Seifman