LOS ANGELES – The city of Los Angeles has been waiting for a Dodgers championship parade for 36 years. That wait finally came to an end on Friday.

After winning their eighth World Series championship on Wednesday against the Yankees, eight buses full of players, families, staff and front office members took to the streets of Downtown L.A. to celebrate the occasion.

About 250,000 people filled the streets with another 42,000 packing Dodger Stadium, where the celebration culminated with a pep rally in center field.

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“This was the coolest thing I’ve ever been a part of,” said Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw, the longest-tenured player on the team. “I’m just so thankful to every single fan that came out. So thankful how well they’ve treated me and my family for all these years. I mean, we’ve been through it, you know, we’ve been through some stuff, so to be able to see them as happy as they were, being able to celebrate with us. It means the world to me. It really does.”

The celebration inside the stadium started at around 8:30 a.m. Once the floats made their way back to Dodger Stadium nearly four hours later, the festivities continued with Ice Cube performing on the field, just as he did before Game 2 of the World Series. Manager Dave Roberts got up on stage and started to dance next to the rapper.

“It’s one thing to celebrate with your coaches, the organization, the players, but I’m telling you, the game is about the players and the fans,” Roberts said. “And in 2020, we just didn’t have that opportunity. Everyone was wearing masks. This right now, it really put a bow on the season where there was some unfinished business in 2020. … The city needed this parade. And we got our parade.”

Players each took turns sending their message to the crowd on stage. For those who weren’t able to celebrate after the 2020 World Series championship, this parade was all the more special.

“2020 FanFest we got asked some really tough questions,” said Dodgers utilityman Kiké Hernández. “I said the 2020 decade is going to be the L.A. Dodger decade and guess what? Who has more championships than us in the 2020s? Absolutely nobody. Absolutely nobody.”

It’s hard to argue that this decade is off to a great start for the Dodgers. That’s in large part thanks to the heroics of Freddie Freeman, who battled a badly sprained right ankle and broken rib cartilage earlier in the postseason, en route to winning the World Series MVP. His historic walk-off grand slam to win Game 1 will go down as one of the best moments in Dodger history.

“From the bottom of my heart,” Freeman told the crowd. “Three months ago, when I came back after my son got sick, you guys showed out for my family and I. That was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had on a field. I did everything I could to be on this field for you guys and I’m glad I did because we have a championship now. I can’t wait to run this back next year.”

Tears were part of the celebration as Kershaw and Teoscar Hernández each got emotional before opening their speeches. There was also some humor, which was provided by Max Muncy and Mookie Betts.

“Mook, what did I tell you every time they walked Shohei to get to you?” Muncy asked Betts.

“I got 400 [million, too],” Betts responded.

Without Betts, the Dodgers likely don’t have two championships in the past five seasons. In ‘24, he took on the challenge to play shortstop for the first time in his professional career. Then, after the team acquired Tommy Edman at the Trade Deadline, Betts went back to right field, the position where he has won six Gold Glove Awards.

“We got like 8-9 years left. I gotta get to at least five or six, right?” Betts said, referring to championships. “To my teammates, y’all don’t know how much you mean to me. I love you guys. I got three [championships]. I’m trying to fill this hand up, L.A.”

Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto also took the mic and shared some words in English. Walker Buehler, the Game 5 hero, delivered a quick message before going back to a celebration that has been a long time coming.

“It means more,” Roberts said. “It’s different, but it means more because you just have your hands in a lot of different arms, and hands on a lot of different people. So for it all to come together like this, in that sense, it means more.”