R.I. woman gets to skipper the (duck) boat that carries Sox skipper Alex Cora

BOSTON — Pawtuxet Village resident Leah Reynolds got up at 3 a.m. Wednesday to get to work, and her job this day was a big one: driving Red Sox manager Alex Cora around on a duck boat as thousands of people cheered them on at the World Series victory parade.

The duck boat went 5 miles per hour. The crowd went wild.

“Everybody’s texting, Can I come? Can I come on the duck?” Reynolds said before the parade kicked off.

They could not. It [...]

BOSTON — Pawtuxet Village resident Leah Reynolds got up at 3 a.m. Wednesday to get to work, and her job this day was a big one: driving Red Sox manager Alex Cora around on a duck boat as thousands of people cheered them on at the World Series victory parade.

The duck boat went 5 miles per hour. The crowd went wild.

“Everybody’s texting, Can I come? Can I come on the duck?” Reynolds said before the parade kicked off.

They could not. It was a privilege reserved for one of the luckiest fans in all of Red Sox nation. From behind the wheel of the World War II-era amphibious vehicle that has become synonymous with Boston’s recent run of sports success, duck boat conductor Reynolds had better seats for the parade than any other Rhode Islander.

But she was far from the only one who came out in chilly weather, on a Wednesday, for the fourth time since 2004, to see the Sox parade through Boston as champions.  

Skipping work and school, taking crowded trains from Wickford Junction and South Attleboro, dealing with worse-than-usual traffic on I-95 — it was all part of celebrating the team that defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday night to claim their ninth title overall and their fourth this century.

Gary Demers left his home in Woonsocket at about 5 a.m. to line up outside Gate A on Jersey Street to get in for the pre-parade festivities in the park.

Demers hasn’t had a favorite player since Carl Yastrzemski, but he has a favorite moment of the 2018 season: When he brought a few of his Yankees-fan friends to see a game. It was Aug. 2, he recalls.

“Then we end up beating their [rear ends],” Demers said. “Fifteen to seven, I think.” (He was dead on: World Series MVP Steve Pearce hit three homers in that game.)

Smithfield resident Steven Mancini was among the dozens of people waiting on Lansdowne Street to see the duck boats lining up Wednesday morning. Asked if Boston sports fans were spoiled, Mancini said no; the other fans who were with him practically booed a reporter who asked the question.

“People are still excited,” Mancini said.

Mancini said he also hopes to catch some games in Pawtucket this year, before the Triple-A Red Sox affiliate moves to Worcester, Massachusetts. Winning the World Series helped soften the blow of losing the PawSox.

“If they blew it against the Yankees, it would be like, you blew it against the Yankees, AND you’re leaving town — to heck with all this,” Mancini said.

Inside Fenway, there were signs of Pawtucket if you looked close enough: PawSox team president Charles Steinberg said that 17 of 25 players on the World Series winning team had experience with the PawSox.

Rick Medeiros, the director of security and fan services for the PawSox, was wearing a PawSox hoodie at Fenway as he scanned the crowd. What stuck out to him was the way the team played as a team — and for the majority of players, whether on a rehab assignment or working their way up through the minors, that team was the PawSox.

Ryan Brasier was a shutdown reliever for the PawSox before he got the call-up and some big October outs. Jackie Bradley Jr. patrolled the outfield at McCoy Stadium before winning the most valuable player award of the league championship series against the Houston Astros.

“It’s such a great team, to see them gel together,” Medeiros said.

That team lingered on the field for a bit, giving interviews and playing with their kids. Then they headed out to the duck boats waiting for them outside. Those boats crawled through the city, down Boylston Street and past the Boston Common.

Fans screamed, cheered, took pictures, jostled for position. They professed their undying love; some showed it by trying to toss the players beers, reportedly hitting a World Series trophy, and also Cora.

Reynolds’ truck, carrying Cora, got some of the loudest cheers. Pitcher David Price also got a big hand, too. Red, white and blue confetti was fired out of a confetti cannon and people rushed to grab handfuls to bring back home.

The Dubuque family — George, Susan and Mike, of South Kingstown — took the train up from Wickford Junction Wednesday morning to see their team. They’re hoping to see them again here next year, at the same place; they’ve come to a lot of these parades in a city that has won a truckload of titles these past two decades.

“It was really great,” George Dubuque said. “It was a lot of fun and it was worth the long ride up.”

Johnston resident Anthony Amaral and his 8-year-old son, Parker, logged 17,000 steps in their travels around Boston, watching their team go by on the duck boats on Boylston Street. Amaral’s son has been a fan only in the good years. He didn't experience the devastation of 1986, or the doldrums of the 1990s; his only experience with Aaron Boone is as a Yankees manager who got ripped for his moves in the divisional series, not Aaron Boone who ripped the hearts out of Sox fans in 2003.

When he got home, before trick-or-treating, Parker started watching Red Sox highlights. Superfan Parker might be spoiled by Red Sox success, but from his father, who coaches him in his youth baseball league, he knows that it won’t always be that way.

“He understands you’re not going to win every one,” Anthony said.