The world-champion Boston Red Sox on Wednesday held a Beantown parade to celebrate their recent World Series triumph. As is the case with most parades, a general sense of merriment prevailed. As is also the case with most parades, however, day drinking abetted misrule.
As the duck boats of the parade made their way past Boston Common, some parade-goers -- presumably out of a sense of generosity -- began tossing cans of beer to the players, coaches and team officials on those duck boats. This was done so said players and officials could themselves imbibe as opposed to, you know, trying to hit them with full cans of beer. For example ...
Sox fans doing Sox fan things at the #RedSoxParade. Live video: https://t.co/Os3N7Nh1F5 pic.twitter.com/s6rSMoB9zn
— Christina Prignano Deering (@CPrignano) October 31, 2018
When undertaking such attempts at civic uplift, however, hazards abound. Speaking of which ...
The Boston Globe reports that Sox manager Alex Cora was struck by one of the cans of beer, which led to the arrest of a parade-goer. The following excerpt from the Globe story may be described as Maximum Boston ...
Patrick Connolly, 19, of East Sandwich, faces several charges in the Cora incident. A law enforcement official said Cora wasn't seriously hurt when he was struck.
A police report said Connolly told the arresting officers, "I love Cora. I didn't mean to hit him." He later allegedly said at booking, "That was stupid. I wasn't trying to hit Cora."
Connolly was holding a can of Natural Light beer when police confronted him, and several witnesses fingered him as the culprit, records show.
Video surfaced on Twitter that appears to be the incident described in the Globe's report.
Someone also threw an opened beer on Alex Cora and daughter. 🙄 pic.twitter.com/TbqDwFjOs1
— Bo Tilly ✌🏽 (@BoTilly) October 31, 2018
As well, another hurled beer wound up, per WCVB.com, damaging the World Series trophy. Here's the action-sports footage ...
WATCH: Video showing the moment a beer can breaks off some of the flags of the Red Sox World Series trophy during today's parade. #RedSox #DoDamage #NotThatKindOfDamage
— Korey O'Brien (@koreyobrienTV) October 31, 2018
(🎥: Luis Morales) pic.twitter.com/712AP74qB6
According to the WCVB story, the trophy wound up with a few bent gold flags and will likely require some repairs.
The Stanley Cup, with its notable absence of spindly flag poles, is better designed for this kind of organized chaos. So look for a fake trophy to be on hand the next time the Red Sox win it all.