Paul O'Neill - An Appreciation

2014 Topps Archives

For the fans who followed any portion of his career (or even the two teams upon which he played), Paul O'Neill stands out in a way that few other athletes have ever been viewed because he approached each and every baseball game with a level of intensity rarely seen in baseball. In a way, his approach was akin to him being a football player going out on the baseball diamond ready for battle. You could see in his eyes that he was ready to take his best shot at whatever the other team had to offer. Typically, O'Neill was by no means the most-talented or athletically-gifted player on the field. But if I had to choose a player I would rather have in the trenches on my side as opposed to being in the other team's dugout, I simply cannot think of a different player who I would rather have in my fox hole.

In his brilliant career, O'Neill played in the World Series six times, prevailing as a champion in five of them and on the losing end in the sixth and final appearance where a championship slipped away in the bottom of the 9th of Game 7 versus Arizona ( Thank You Luis Gonzalez :( ). In the first two World Series appearances (1990, 1996) of his career, O'Neill's team was the heavy underdog matching up against the defending World Champion in both instances (1989 A's, 1995 Braves). But O'Neill made important and frankly critical contributions to assist his team in pulling off historic upsets of historical proportion.

As a die-hard baseball follower, when the Yankees initially acquired O'Neill, this transaction with the Reds was not something with which I gave much consideration. After all, in his years in Cincinnati, he had been a .250 or .260 hitter and his overall power and OBP statistics were nothing of note. In his years with New York however, he transformed into a .300+ hitter.
 
However, the intangibles were what stood out to fans more than any statistical accomplishments. O'Neill played like each game meant something and he wore his emotions on his sleeve (even in a somewhat hilarious manner if he got mad enough at something or someone in the dugout). In his fits of rage, no baseball equipment was safe. But his tantrums seemed to generate a positive result because his elevated emotions could be channeled in a way that he was going to make the other team pay the price for the perceived indignity he suffered.

1987 Fleer

In terms of collecting his baseball cards, I didn't start creating a Paul O'Neill collection until 1996. Oh sure. I had cards of O'Neill all the way back into the 1980s when he first came up with Cincinnati. But to me like most fans, he was just another common card during his years with the Reds. With the Yankees, he quickly changed that perception of being a run-of-the-mill player and forced me to dig back to see what cards of him I already possessed. One of those cards I own is his 1987 Fleer offering. The 1987 Fleer is not a rookie but this card is the first one made by Fleer with just him on the card (as opposed to those teammate cards Topps routinely made as well as Fleer).
 

1986 Donruss

If O'Neill has a true rookie card worth owning, I would say that his 1986 Donruss is the best rookie card of the options. The card itself offers a very nice action shot of him at-bat wearing a number not traditionally associated with O'Neill. Through much of his career, he was known for wearing #21. But as rookies, many times, the new ballplayer simply takes the number he is assigned until given a chance to trade in that number to a more-preferential digit or digits. Personally, I have quite a number of copies of this card as well as his other rookie cards. I consider any O'Neill card to be a gem worth owning.
  
As a fan of O'Neill, his cards carry a more sentimental value to me than they have as far as market value over time. O'Neill cards are most often ascribed the status of being semi-star cards or just one level above a common but certainly not as superstar cards ala McGwire, Puckett, Ripken or Gwynn (to name a few). That's fine. Yankees and Reds fans both know what they had with O'Neill and what made him an all-time fan favorite. Without O'Neill, I cannot imagine either of those teams being as dominant and winning what at the clip they did during the 1990s and early 2000s.
 

1990 Fleer

In 1990, the Reds pulled off the biggest World Series upset of my lifetime. As good as the Reds were that year, Oakland represented a dynasty, a team for the ages. Canseco and McGwire were to be the new generation's Mantle and Maris or Ruth and Gehrig. The pitching staff included Welch, Stewart and the Eck. There simply was no stopping the A's Machine. In fact, after 1989, I fully expected Oakland to win 6, 7 or 8 World Series championships in the 1990s. The players were young and had a boundless future. As a manager, LaRussa was great. What would ever derail that express?
  
Ironically, Cincinnati pulled off a feat of epic proportions in the world of professional sports. The Reds were a team united as one. The A's were a team of individuals each with a personal agenda. With a sweep, Cincinnati exposed once-mighty Oakland. The A's never recovered from this deep embarrassment and in 1991 began falling apart. As of 2015, 25 years later, the A's have not returned to the World Series. Almost impossible to imagine in hindsight given the strength of the A's organization to overcome and win. Oakland's reign in 1989 came to an inglorious and abrupt conclusion in Game 4 of the World Series in Oakland. O'Neill was a meaningful part of that win and to this day, he often does not receive the type of recognition he definitely would deserve.