Giants Parade 2014: Route, Live Stream and Expectations

The city of San Francisco will be decked out in black and orange this Friday—but for baseball, not for Halloween. 

The San Francisco Giants tightroped their way to the 2014 World Series title, defeating the Kansas City Royals 3-2 in Game 7. It's the franchise's third such title in the last five years.

Marvelous Madison Bumgarner closed out the decisive game, pitching five shutout innings in relief on just two days' rest. The performance earned him the save, and in a decision that should surprise absolutely no one, he earned the World Series MVP Award for his legendary effort.

Major League Baseball tweeted out that, yes, the season was now over:

Yes, the season is indeed a thing of the past, but the celebrations are just getting started. There will be legions of fans waiting to welcome back the champagne-soaked Giants to the Bay Area. The entire city of San Francisco will once again bask in the reflected glory of yet another championship. Mayor Ed Lee said there will indeed be a parade on Friday, per NBCBayArea.com: 

"San Francisco waits with giant anticipation for the return of our hometown team so we can celebrate as one city with a parade down Market Street to welcome them home."

Here is all the pertinent info for those looking to get involved in the city-sanctioned block party.

Giants Parade 2014 Info

Date: Friday, October 31

Start Time: 12 p.m. PT

Route: Starts at Market and Steuart Streets, continues down Market toward Civic Center Plaza (per NBCBayArea.com)

Live Stream: CSNBayArea.com, KPIX

Expectations

Eric Risberg/Associated Press

Fans should keep an eye on the barometer heading into Friday. There is a 90 percent chance of rain on Halloween in San Francisco, per Weather.com (as of October 30).

According to CBS San Francisco, the 2012 victory parade drew an estimated 1 million-plus revelers to downtown San Fran. Sure, this city should be used to the success by now, but this celebration could still draw a large crowd considering how unlikely a championship might've seemed just before the postseason began.

The Giants finished the season with an 88-74 record and came into the playoffs as one of the National League wild-card teams. Starting pitcher Matt Cain was injured, Tim Lincecum had another down season, and the NL bracket was stacked with teams like the Washington Nationals, big-budget Los Angeles Dodgers and the uber-consistent St. Louis Cardinals.

Marcio J. Sanchez/Associated Press

The Giants would indeed outlast all of them thanks to a slew of unlikely star turns from unheralded players and, of course, the usual stellar contributions from the likes of third baseman Pablo Sandoval and Bumgarner.

In fact, these two could very well be the main attractions for fans considering their playoff performances. Sandoval turned in a record-setting hitting display this year, per ESPN Stats & Info:

While Bumgarner put in a performance for the ages, especially during the World Series. MLB tweeted out his impressive resume:

Manager Bruce Bochy will also get plenty of love from the hometown support. He made deft managerial decisions day in and day out. ESPN's Buster Olney noted he was right on the money right up until the very end:

Bochy had such a masterful command of his bullpen that lights-out closer Santiago Casilla only needed to throw four pitches in the World Series.

For players like Sandoval, Lincecum and Buster Posey—who will be participating in their third parade as members of the Giants, among others—it's the culmination of all the great work that's been put in over over the last half-decade. The first parade sounded like destiny. The third, a dynasty. Of course, it doesn't have to end here. I'm sure all involved wouldn't mind a fourth parade in the near future.