Joe Girardi Joins Downtown Alliance to Unveil Canyon of Heroes Marker for the 2009 Yankees

New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi joined the Alliance for Downtown New York on Tuesday to unveil a new granite sidewalk marker in the Canyon of Heroes commemorating the November 2009 ticker-tape parade honoring the team’s unprecedented 27th World Series championship.

“The iconic corridor of lower Broadway has provided a dramatic setting for 204 parades, and we’re thrilled to count the 2009 world champion Yankees among the heroes who have been showered with ticker tape and confetti,” said Downtown Alliance President Elizabeth H. Berger. “This marker will remind New Yorkers for generations to come of the Yankees’ magical run in 2009—their first world championship in the new Yankee
Stadium.”

“Last year was an incredible year for our team and I’m proud to be here today to commemorate our 2009 World Series championship,” Girardi said. “There are almost no words to describe the energy and excitement that was in the air on that special day we all shared last November up the Canyon of Heroes. We are so grateful that each and every member of our team was able to share that feeling with our fans and the great people of the City of New York.”

Girardi and Berger were joined at the ceremony by members of the Downtown Little League Yankees.

For nearly a century and a quarter, some of history’s most notable individuals and sports teams have been honored with ticker-tape parades up Broadway’s Canyon of Heroes— from Battery Park to City Hall. The first parade, on October 28, 1886, celebrated the dedication of the Statue of Liberty. Nine parades have been held for Yankees and Mets World Series wins, and one was held before the 1954 World Series for the New York Giants, who went on to sweep the Cleveland Indians.

The Downtown Alliance launched New York City’s version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003 to commemorate the Canyon of Heroes’ parades with a series of black granite strips set into the sidewalks of lower Broadway.

The strips commemorate the parades for every ticker-tape honoree—a group that includes pioneers of air and space travel, soldiers, sailors and sea captains, heads of state, politicians, firefighters, journalists, athletes and even a virtuoso pianist. The Yankees’ latest marker will join 178 plaques currently embedded along lower Broadway. An additional 25 markers will be re-installed following completion of the Fulton Street Transit Center.

The strips are part of the Downtown Alliance’s Streetscape Program to redesign and update the look of Downtown's streets. The Downtown Alliance’s streetscape plan received an award from the City's Art Commission for its uniqueness and elegance. The plan has resulted in the reconstruction of sidewalks and curbs along lower Broadway, installation of new trash baskets, a user-friendly wayfinding and street-sign system and new light poles and bollards.