Paul O’Neill holds a special place in the hearts of Yankees fans.
Many years ago, when O’Neill was still active, my nephew, a die-hard Yankees fan who writes a blog on the team, told me something which I found incredible at the time.
He said that the Yankees would honor O’Neill by giving him space in their famed Monument Park.
Now, for those of you who don’t know, Monument Park is a collection of monuments, plaques and retired numbers, pertaining to the Yankees and other events to take place at the stadium and in the city.
The Yankees team that won four championships in five seasons has no shortage of players to honor. Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera will certainly end up with their uniform numbers retired. Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada have strong cases as well.
But Paul O’Neill?
From an outsider’s point of view, O’Neill was a nice contributing member of those great Yankees teams. You could count on him to give you 20 homers and 100 RBIs. He hit for a good average, didn’t strike out too much and was quite willing to take a walk. He was also a good defender.
On the flip side, he had a tendency to pop balls up in key spots, he was a below-average player against southpaws and was a known hot-head, at least as famous for throwing tantrums in the dugout as for anything he did with the bat.
I guess I could see the case with O’Neill if he was a homegrown player or one who spent the great majority of his career with the Yankees. But he was drafted by the Reds and played the first eight seasons of his 17-year career with Cincinnati.
Here’s what my nephew recently had to say about him:
“I don’t know if you remember how much I liked Lou Piniella when I was a kid, but I always viewed O’Neill as Piniella with more talent. Since he has retired, the Reds have made several offers for O’Neill to work for them and he has turned them down every time saying that he considers himself a Yankee now. That’s pretty impressive from a guy who grew up and still lives in Cincinnati and worshipped the Big Red Machine.
“In fact O’Neill wouldn’t even agree to throw out a pitch at Great American Ballpark until the Yankees came in for an inter-league series. Then he wore a Yankees hat when he did it. I think O’Neill is right up there with Mariano Rivera, Thurman Munson and Don Mattingly as the most important Yankees of my lifetime. His number will be retired eventually; it’s just a matter of when.”
The world at large got to see the special place O’Neill holds when the Yankees issued his number 21 to another player for the first time since O’Neill retired following the World Series in 2001. Relief pitcher LaTroy Hawkins wore number 21 and Yankees fans booed him mercilessly on Opening Day.
If you are a long-time fantasy player, you might think the booing came from people who had Hawkins at any point in his career when he was promoted to closer and promptly imploded. But the reality is that the fans simply did not like another player, especially a journeyman like Hawkins, wearing a number they associated with O’Neill.
What makes the case even more bizarre is that Hawkins asked for the number after Morgan Ensberg was released in Spring Training. Ensberg was assigned number 21 randomly in Spring Training. And Ensberg was booed for wearing the number during Grapefruit League play. Hawkins wanted the number to honor Roberto Clemente – never dreaming the reaction he would get in the Bronx.
The reaction was so severe that Hawkins switched uniform numbers. Hawkins now wears number 22, which you might recall was Roger Clemens’ number with the Yankees. Think about that for a second. It’s better for Hawkins to wear the uniform number of (depending on how you look at it) the greatest right-handed pitcher since Walter Johnson or the two-timing, smug, steroid abuser and liar than it is to wear O’Neill’s number.
The whole thing strikes me as very odd. But one thing to keep in mind is that it’s never a good idea to trifle with fans’ emotions. Fandom is a tricky thing for outsiders to understand completely. If fans feel strongly about the adoration of a particular player and his uniform number, it’s really not up to outsiders to pass judgment on the action.
As for me, I’ll keep wondering how Endy Chavez has the gall to wear Duffy Dyer’s number 10. But I know I’m the only one who feels this way.
