Transcripts

TOM FUDGE: In 1987, the Minnesota Twins victory parade had a few problems. To name a couple of things, the parade route was very congested and it was hard to see the players. One of the people involved in planning this year's parade is John Locke's chief of the Minneapolis Police Department.

JOHN LOCKE'S: We learned a lot from 1987. We learned we had inadequate staff, the wrong kinds of vehicles, and a parade route that didn't lend itself to what we wanted to accomplish. So learning from that, we have vehicles that will bring all of the participants in the parade at a level that people can see far back into the crowd, as opposed to only the people in front. We are doubling our staff of reserves and on duty officers so that the crowd will be maintained properly, but also in a way that everybody will be able to see and participate in the parade.

TOM FUDGE: This year, the players will ride the parade route in the back of pickup trucks. Parade planners say the trucks may not be as glamorous as the Corvette convertibles they used in 87, but the truck beds will raise the players to a level where they're a bit easier to see. The parade routes in both Minneapolis and Saint Paul will be a bit longer this year, in hopes that will reduce crowd congestion. Kevin Foley with Ridgeway associates, the company mainly responsible for planning the victory celebration, says unlike in 1987, police will work hard to keep parade watchers out of the streets.

KEVIN FOLEY: Crowd will be allowed on the sidewalks. The sidewalks will be taped to try to maintain the crowd on the sidewalks. We will try to have a tight parade unit going through, and we are not anticipating similar problems that they had in 87.

TOM FUDGE: Another thing about those Corvettes they used in 1987, the cars had a tendency to set fire to confetti underneath them. Chevrolet dealer John Lenzen says the low riding sports cars touched off confetti on several occasions when the cars catalytic converters got too close to the paper.

JOHN LENZEN: The heat of the converter is about 210 degrees, so of course, when the confetti gets stuck underneath there, it will create the problem. When it got oxygen, it can get ignited. So with the trucks being off the ground higher, being full size trucks instead of small trucks, it should eliminate a lot of that problem. And with the firemen driving in a truck with an extinguisher, plus something to loosen up the confetti underneath the catalytic converter, I think we'll eliminate most of the problems.

TOM FUDGE: This year's victory parade will end at the Metrodome in Minneapolis at about 2:00 o'clock. From 11:00 o'clock until 2:00, a variety of bands will perform in the dome, while the people there can watch the parade on the stadium's big video screen. Parade planners say the dome events are another way to draw some congestion away from the actual parade route. At 2:00 o'clock, a one-hour program featuring the ball players will take place in the Metrodome. This is Tom fudge.