;-)NEW YORK HONORS BADMINTON WORLD CHAMPS WITH TICKER TAPE PARADE;-)
by Mike Grossman;-)

;-)October 29, 1996 (NEW SHUTTLENOISE) - The city of New York today honoured America's newest sports heroes, the world champion U.S.A. men's badminton team, with the biggest ticker tape parade in history.

More than 4 million people lined the parade route along Broadway in lower Manhattan to cheer the world champions as they rode slowly by in grandly decorated floats.

Thousands of American flags and thousands of banners painted with badminton shuttles streaming flames, symbolic of badminton's reputation as the 200-mile-per-hour racket sport, waved in the nippy autumn air of New York as office workers in the skyscrapers along the parade route threw confetti into the air.

New York Mayor Rudy Juliani greeted the members of the U.S.A. badminton team at City Hall and presented each player with a golden key to the city.

The U.S.A. men's badminton team had surprised the world with their upset victory over the heavily-favored Indonesian team at the World Series of Badminton - the Thomas Cup Finals.

All the members of the U.S.A. team were present at today's parade: Kevin Han, Tom Reidy, Ben Lee, Andy Chong, Ignatius Rusli, David Shaw, Howard Bach, player-coach Steve Butler and team manager Paisan Rangsikitpho.

The world champions headed for Washington D.C. immediately after the City Hall festivities to play badminton and have dinner at the White House with the U.S.A.'s number one badminton fan, President Bill Clinton.;-)

(TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT, New York City did have a ticker tape parade today to honor the New York Yankees, the winner of the World Series of baseball after an 18-year drought, and Indonesia won this year's Thomas Cup Finals in May. The U.S.A. did not qualify to play in the Finals.

However, this neophyte badminton writer from New York City, proud as I am of the Yankees, and all U.S.A. badminton fans can dream, can't we?

LET'S GO, YANKEES! LET'S GO, YANKEES! LET'S GO, YANKEES!