Jacksonville, Farstriders Rejoice

[KenH]

The festivities began early in downtown Jacksonville and indeed throughout all of Florida. Notices of parades from the Keys all the way to Pensacola as the beloved Farstriders were on. Bars are reported to have opened as early as 7 am in Pensacola Beach (a whole two hours sooner than usual).

Prior to the parade, Mayor Daniels and Governor Lyle gave speeches to the assembled crowd and, at the culmination of Lyle’s words, presented the key of the city to MVP Gordon Knopp, the youngest recipient ever of such an honor in Jacksonville. (Streets and Hannahs had already been gifted keys to the city in the last two championships, so they opted for a different route this time around) “Y’all are going to have to stop winning,” quipped Governor Lyle, “or we’re going to run out of giant commemorative keys!”

The Farstrider’s packed into several large vehicles and took to the streets, starting at city hall, the parade went on for several hours, up Main St and past the Jacksonville Zoo before hanging right and ending at Streets Casino and Holdings Park along where the St Johns and Trout Rivers connected.

An estimated 1.25 million people lined the streets to catch glimpses of the most recent PEBA champions. Loud, thumping hip hop blasted along the route. Everyone was decked out in their jerseys, running the gamut of Florida baseball history. Danny Burton, Yoshino Miyata and Chris York jerseys were in full display, and worn proudly. No one was quite sure where all the streamers came from, but this was a Streets party -- things didn’t have to make sense.

Word was that the billionaire philanthropist and all-around humanitarian had injected enough cash into the right pockets to let them take up the main roadway during rush hour on a week day. The mayor and governor did seem to be wearing some sort of Italian cut suit that would look more home on Marco, the Calzones GM.

At the front of the procession were the stars of the Farstriders: Gordon Knopp and Luppe van Dam rode on a sort of palanquin being hoisted by four Streets Technology drones, the newest prototype, these behemoths are said to be able to carry over 250 lbs each with over 10 hours of air time without the need to recharge.

Next on the back of a giant flatbed trailer, kitted out with a mobile wet bar emblazoned with “Streetz Distillery” logo was most of the rest of the rotation, including hero of the playoffs Juan Acosta, Joe Arnold, and Tony Cuellar -- all of which wore shutter shades and smoked gigantic cuban cigars. Also present on the “party deck” were Bob Burns, Pedro Coronado and Bartolo Mora.

Finally, the rest of the players were on any other number of vehicles -- some incredibly expensive sport cars, or sat on the hood of big pickup trucks.

It was a feeling of bedlam throughout the city. A sort of joyous release that can only come from seeing the pinnacle of success and it being as great as you could imagine it. There was no forgetting this for those who attended, except, of course, one of the pitchers overfilled your solo cup.