Victory dance? Pap hops to it
By Jessica Van Sack
Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - Updated 18m ago
He used an array of thunderbolts to knock out various Angels and Indians and Rockies as he helped the Red Sox [team stats] record their second World Series triumph in four seasons. And yesterday, Jonathan Papelbon [stats] knocked the crowd’s socks off with a manic Irish victory jig that’s become a signature of this year’s championship team.
Flanked by the Boston-born Dropkick Murphys band on a flatbed truck, Papelbon, sporting shades, jeans and a red World Series T-shirt, broke into his boogie as the Red Sox love train neared Copley Plaza.
“He’s got beat, he’s got rhythm and he’s right on time,” said Joan Forbes-Dunn of the Quincy-based Forbes School of Irish Step Dancing. “He just needs to learn to put his arms by his side.”
Papelbon’s punk jig drew the loudest roars from the revelers along the parade route yesterday, and it’s also triggered a trend, boosting the business of the Forbes school, according to Forbes-Dunn, and prompting one Boston pol to try to mimic his moves.
City Councilor Sal LaMattina took a lesson last week and performed at a forum Friday in Hyde Park. “He’s really very good,” said LaMattina, who was still recovering from soreness two days after his performance last week. “He must’ve taken lessons.”
Before reaching the end of the parade route at City Hall Plaza yesterday, Papelbon donned a kilt, keeping his jeans on underneath to the dismay of several swooning coeds who were hoping for some leg).
But at City Hall, some fans were disappointed that Papelbon abandoned the jig in favor of an old-fashioned square dance as he creatively added a prop to his routine: a broom that he used as both paddling oar and a guitar.
“He’s tired at this point,” said fan Heather McDonald, 24, of Gloucester. “But he has the moves.”
