The 29th plaque added Saturday by the Yankees to their Monument Park honored Paul O’Neill as “an intense competitor.”
If ever understatement existed, there it is. Calling O’Neill “intense” is akin to calling Kate Upton “kind of attractive.”
And it was that fire, that passion, that bite-you-to-death competitiveness that made O’Neill such a fan favorite — and also a five-time World Series champ and the Yankees’ latest plaque honoree.
“That’s the only way I knew how to play, no matter what it was,” O’Neill said following a ceremony before the Yankees’ 3-0 loss to the Indians at Yankee Stadium, where his plaque was unveiled and he received a diamond-studded ring while joined by family and former teammates.
“I grew up with older brothers who at the time were older and better because they were older,” said O’Neill, nicknamed “The Warrior.” “They’re competitive. You want to win. It’s just something that’s part of your makeup. Did it hurt me at times? Maybe. Did it help me at times? I think it certainly did because you put pressure on yourself every single day to succeed.
“Every single day meant something to me. Every single at bat.”
It’s why Yankees fans loved him. O’Neill won four of his World Series rings during his 1993-2001 stay in New York following a trade from Cincinnati. He won a batting title and made four of his five All-Star appearances as a Yankee.
So the Yankees brought O’Neill’s mom, Virginia, wife, Nevalee, and the couple’s children, Andy, Aaron and Allie, daughter-in-law Courtney onto the field. O’Neill was joined by Yankees greats of all occupations from his nine-season stay — including Mariano Rivera, David Cone, Jorge Posada, Joe Torre, Tino Martinez, ex-trainer Gene Monahan and team exec Gene Michael. Derek Jeter presented O’Neill with a framed replica of his plaque. O’Neill was humble and repeatedly thanked the fans.
“I hope it came across how big of an honor it is,” O’Neill said.
It did. And it came across again in the chants why fans adored him. He treated making a simple out like an IRS audit.
“If I had to do it all over again would I get out of the camera’s view? Absolutely. But at that point in time I wasn’t smart enough to wait and do that,” O’Neill said. “That’s the neat thing about retiring, you look up at the video, there’s no strikeouts. There’s no errors. It’s all good stuff.”