CHICAGO _ Downtown Chicago transformed into a sea _ and a river _ of Cubbie blue Friday, as the city threw a parade 108 years in the making.
Fans stood as much as a dozen deep along the six-mile parade route, which traveled from Wrigley Field to Grant Park for a rally unlike anything North Siders have seen. The crowds chanted "Let's Go, Cubs!" as the team rolled down the streets in open-top buses and the players waved their arms to stoke the already wild enthusiasm.
"This is the biggest sports event in Chicago," said Jim Murphy, of Glenview. "This is the one we've been waiting on."
The procession was delayed about 50 minutes as some of the players were late arriving at the ballpark because of the snarled traffic in Wrigleyville. Before boarding the buses, the players _ some of whom arrived at the stadium with police escorts _ took a group picture on the pitcher's mound with the World Series trophy.
"This is going to be a lot of fun," Kyle Schwarber, the Cubs designated hitter during the series, told reporters before the parade. "The fans deserve it, and we're happy to celebrate with them."
Left fielder Ben Zobrist boarded the bus with his family, including his father, who carried his son's World Series MVP trophy.
"I'm still in shock," Ben Zobrist said. "I feel like I dreamed it."
The Cubs rode about a dozen double-decker buses as they work their way south toward downtown for the rally, which started significantly later than planned. En route to the park, the team buses crossed over the Chicago River, which was dyed blue in tribute to the Cubs historic championship.
The city estimates about 5 million people will attend the World Series celebration, which would mean nearly twice the city's population plans to attend.
Fans packed public transit before dawn in an effort to make their way downtown for the celebration. Metra trains faced delays as they tried to accommodate suburban passengers on what the commuter rail service predicted will be the busiest day in its history.
They arrived downtown to find an area crammed with fans dressed in bright blue. The Grant Park gates opened at 8:30 a.m., with a tide of Cubbie blue rolling into the rally site. Fans who waited for hours ran toward the staging area, where radio highlights from the Cubs' historic championship run played over the public address system.
But Peter Torres, 28, and Colin Hines, 27, both from Elk Grove Village, were able to bypass the rush and secure themselves a spot in the front row.
The two woke up at 4:30 a.m. and caught the first train they could to the Loop. Their dedication ultimately paid off as they walked into Grant Park before the barricades were set up and found themselves chatting with media members beforehand.
"This is the next best thing than going to the World Series," Torres said. "I don't have the money for that."
"We're not in that tax bracket," Hines joked.
Police were not letting people through on Monroe Street, making Jackson Street so crowded as to be impassable. At one point, pulled down a fence to get through to Columbus on Congress. Police near Michigan Avenue did not try to stop them.
The city opened few paths to the parade route to fans _ some frustrated _ who came downtown early. People eventually started trickling through at Congress Expressway, some pushing aside fences as police looked on without serious concern. Teenagers, who composed much of the crowd, climbed signposts and decorative concrete walls. Selfie sticks were popular accessories, and the air carried the tang of marijuana smoke.
A few fans stopped at Balbo Drive to watch though a fence as hulking Clydesdales clomped off Budweiser trucks toward the parade route.
Dave Forgue, 56, of Wheeling, was biding his time a few dozen yards from the bottleneck at Congress. He had no plausible way to get to the people he was trying to meet near the parade route, but Forgue _ in Cubs gear from head to toe _ was philosophical.
"We'll just ... see what happens," he said in good humor.
Despite the size, the crowds have been mostly well-behaved and orderly as they jockeyed for spots from which to see the North Side team, which won its first World Series since 1908 this week. Perhaps that's because more than one fan confessed to still being in shock over Wednesday's Game 7, in which the Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in extra innings.
"I have had so many emotions," said Allie Kutrubis, of Chicago's Noble Square neighborhood. "Most of the time it doesn't feel real. It feels like I'm being punked."
Fans started staking their spots on Addison before sunrise, draping "W" flags over the route's metal barricades and waiting patiently for the team to pass. Families and young people dominated the crowd, in large part because of a previously scheduled day off for Chicago Public Schools.
A police officer waved a massive "W" banner in the middle of the street, while the crowd chanted "Let's Go, Cubbies." Other officers complied with requests to take pictures of families who lined the route.
Michelle Carr and her two sons, Ryan and Connor, decorated their cheering section along Addison near Broadway with streamers in Cubs colors. Her husband had set up chairs at 5 a.m., and she and her sons arrived at 6:45 a.m. with blankets, snacks and an iPad to keep busy.
"This is better than the crowds in Grant Park," she said. "We've got a nice front row seat."
City Hall had been planning to hold a parade Monday if the Cubs won Game 7, but the team asked to move it up to Friday, a City Hall source said. Baseball general managers will gather Monday in Scottsdale, Ariz., for four days of meetings. And many of the players have offseason homes in other cities and in countries in Latin America, and would prefer not to wait around until next week before getting out of town.
