Quote:
Originally Posted by Boomcoach
As a Reds fan, my only enjoyment of that Yankees dynasty was watching O'Neill. Loved his intensity when he was with the Reds, sorry he left, but understood the reasons. Seeing him play with cracked ribs, but still running into the wall and making a diving catch helped my daughter understand the level of commitment involved in playing sports at the highest level.
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And you definitely could not have provided her with a better example.
As embarrassing as it is to admit today, I actually disliked the trade that brought O'Neill to the Yanks in 1992. For all the pouting he did after being moved from CF to LF after the Yankees called up Bernie Williams from the minors for good following the All-Star break in '92, I thought Roberto Kelly had the potential to be a star.
Paul O'Neill, on the other hand, I viewed as being damaged goods. He had a bad reputation coming to the Yanks for being a selfish hothead who couldn't hit lefthanded pitching to save his own life. Plus, after hitting 28 hrs with 91 RBI in 1991, his numbers had dropped off quite a bit in '92. The trade reeked of exchanging one headache for another.
In retrospect, it literally seems comical today that O'Neill would've been viewed in such a light by anyone, even in a roundabout way. None of what was written about him at the time was true. Yeah, he had a temper, but far from being distracting or self-destructive, his perfectionism was definitely more inspirational than anything else.
Those dynasty Yanks of the 1990's hardly ever threw outs away, no matter how big their lead was or how many runs they were behind,, or how many games ahead they were in the standings. That was precisely Paul O'Neill's approach to every AB, every single game, no matter what the circumstances...balls to the wall.
The Yankees were a very different team before they acquired Paul O'Neill and were never the same after he retired. His individual personality as a player practically became the personality of the entire team from 1993- 2001. If that's not a core player, I don't know what is.
Anyway, I didn't mean for this to be such a long post. What a wind bag I am.
