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Who is Paul O Neill?
American former right fielder Paul Andrew O’Neill (born February 25, 1963) spent 17 seasons in Major League Baseball. He was a member of the New York Yankees and Cincinnati Reds between 1985 and 1992.
O’Neill had a lifetime batting average of.288 with 281 home runs, 1,269 runs batted in, 2,107 hits, and those stats. With a.359 average, he captured the American League hitting the crown in 1994. He won the World Series five times and was an All-Star five times.
The only player to have participated on the winning team in three flawless games is O’Neill. For the Reds, he played right field during Tom Browning’s perfect game in 1988. In 1998, he caught the final out (a fly ball) in David Wells’ perfect game for the Yankees, and in 1999, he doubled and made a leaping catch in right field to help the Yankees beat David Cone’s perfect game.
O’Neill started working as a Yankees broadcaster on the YES Network after he stopped playing baseball. As of right now, he serves as the network’s primary game analyst and color commentator.
Paul O Neill Early LIFE
O’Neill, a native of Columbus, Ohio,[4] and his family were Cincinnati Reds supporters. Molly O’Neill, a chef, cookbook author, and culinary critic for The New York Times, was his older sister.
O’Neill was a student at Brookhaven High. He was a basketball and baseball player. In his senior year of basketball in 1981, O’Neill received all-state recognition and was named the Central District Player of the Year.
Paul O Neill DRAFT
In the fourth round of the 1981 Major League Baseball draft, the Reds selected O’Neill.
Paul O Neill Baseball Career
On September 3, 1985, O’Neill made his major league debut and singled in his first at-bat. O’Neill participated in five games for the remainder of the 1985 campaign, recording four hits and one RBI. [8] He was in the minors for most of the 1986 season.
In 1986, he appeared in just three games for the Major League squad and failed to get a hit. In 1987, O’Neill divided his time between the Major League squad and the minor leagues. For the Reds that season, he played in 84 games while hitting.256 with seven home runs and 28 RBI.O’Neill batted in 145 games during the 1990 season.
78 RBI and 16 home homers put you at 270. O’Neill made a pitch. With a home run and five RBI during the 1990 postseason, 277 helped the Reds defeat the Oakland Athletics to win the World Series.
O’Neill and Red’s manager Lou Piniella had a disagreement because Piniella wanted O’Neill to alter his swing to hit more home runs. O’Neill responded to the conflict by playing 152 games in 1991 and setting a career-high with 28 home runs.
O’Neill batted in 148 games during his final season with the Reds. 246 with 66 RBI and 14 home homers.
The Reds dealt O’Neill to the Yankees on November 3, 1992, in exchange for Roberto Kelly. O’Neill batted in 141 games in his debut year as a Yankee. 20 home runs and 75 RBIs for a 311 total. O’Neill batted in 142 games throughout the year 2000.
283 with 100 RBIs and 18 home homers. He once more guided the Yankees into the postseason, where they defeated the New York Mets to win the World Series. O’Neill batted in 137 games throughout the year 2001. 21 home runs and 70 RBIs total 267.
Fans from New York gave O’Neill a sendoff during Game 5 of the 2001 World Series. The entire stadium cheered his name as he stood in right field in the ninth inning with the Yankees behind 2-0. O’Neill was still receiving applause when the inning came to a finish.
He tipped his cap with tears in his eyes, and the Yankee Stadium crowd erupted in another roar. The Yankees prevailed 3-2 but fell behind 3-2 in the series.
Paul O Neill Legacy
The “heart and soul” of the Yankees’ success in the 1990s, according to Yankee supporters, was O’Neill. He was referred to as a “Warrior” by George Steinbrenner, the owner of the Yankees. [19] Due of his enthusiasm and love for the game, he was given this moniker.
His number 21 has only been worn once since his retirement following the 2001 World Series, by bullpen pitcher LaTroy Hawkins to open the 2008 season. In reaction to the criticism he received from numerous Yankee fans, Hawkins switched to number 22 on April 16, 2008.
The Yankees retired O’Neill’s number 21 on August 21, 2022, at Yankee Stadium, following a statement on February 22, 2022.
The team had to alter the retirement ceremony to adhere to its health protocols because O’Neill is not immunized against COVID-19. For instance, no current Yankees were allowed to accompany O’Neill onto the field, and it was unclear whether he was allowed to visit any of the broadcast booths during the game.
On August 9, 2014, the Yankees erected a plaque in Monument Park to pay tribute to O’Neill.
Swing and a Hit: Nine Innings of What Baseball Taught Me, co-authored by O’Neill and Jack Curry, was published in 2022.
Paul O Neill Television
O’Neill appeared in a cameo on the NBC series Seinfeld in 1995 while still a member of the Yankees. In the episode “The Wink,” Cosmo Kramer approaches O’Neill in the Yankees’ locker room and tells him that in order to grant the wish of a sick young boy, he needs to score two home runs in the following game.
O’Neill hits one home run in the following game, which is fully off-screen and also manages an inside-the-park home run, which is scored as a triple because of the other team’s error.
O’Neill’s sequence was the first one to be shot for Seinfeld’s seventh season, even though “The Wink” was the fourth episode to be televised. In the Friends episode “The One with Rachel’s Big Kiss,” he is also mentioned.
Paul O Neill Job in Broadcasting
O’Neill has worked as a color commentator for the YES Network since 2001 when he announced his retirement from baseball. He also works as an analyst on the New York Yankees pre-game show and post-game show. O’Neill moved back with his family to Ohio.
On July 7, 2009, O’Neill, longtime Los Angeles Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, announcer Vin Scully, retired player Steve Garvey, umpire Jim Joyce, and blind sports reporter Ed Lucas were all inducted into the Irish-American Baseball Hall of Fame in New York City.
Since the 2020 season, O’Neill has taken part in Yankees broadcasts remotely from a basement studio in his Ohio house known as “Studio 21” due to social distance requirements associated with the COVID-19 epidemic.
O’Neill continued to broadcast games remotely throughout the 2022 season; according to the New York Post, this is because he has not received the COVID-19 vaccination.
