Fans at championship parade: 'We want Houston!'

The City of Houston hosted a victory parade on Monday for the newly crowned World Series champion Houston Astros. 

The Astros were barely two days removed from defeating the Philadelphia Phillies for their second overall Major League Baseball (MLB) crown when players and other members of the organization found themselves waving to thousands of enthusiastic fans in Downtown Houston.

The last time the central business district (CBD) of Texas’ largest city hosted a parade of such magnitude was on Nov. 3, 2017, when the Astros won their first Fall Classic. 

Five players from that team – Jose Altuve, Yuli Gurriel, Alex Bregman, Justin Verlander and Lance McCullers Jr. – once again took their places atop Houston Fire Department (HFD) engines with the coveted Commissioner’s Trophy, joined by their newer teammates, including series Most Valuable Player (MVP) Jeremy Peña. 

Manager Dusty Baker, who until Saturday had a lengthy, storied career minus a title, literally and figuratively led his squad in the navy and orange-tinged celebration.

Per the Astros’ Twitter account, the team was serenaded with “WE WANT HOUSTON!” chants as the parade crawled along a three-mile stretch of Smith Street. 

The chant became a rallying cry for the Astros and their fans after the American League Championship Series (ALCS) triumph over the New York Yankees, whose fans were reported to have started it after their team ousted the Cleveland Guardians from the postseason. 

Phillies fans chanted the same before the just-concluded World Series to unfavorable results.

According to a report on the Astros’ website, the parade route was double the length of that in 2017. 

The report said that the Houston, Fort Bend and Aldine Independent School Districts gave students and faculty the day off to attend the festivities, which could return a figure higher than the close to one million people at the parade five years ago. 

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and other officials had urged fans beforehand to use Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO) services or ridesharing to downtown.