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Traded to New York by Cincinnati in November 1992, Paul O'Neill walked out to Monument Park at old Yankee Stadium.
"The first thing you look is for Babe Ruth and then you see Lou Gehrig," O'Neill recalled, "and then all of a sudden you kind of graduate to the people that you have just met in Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle and these iconic names."
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On Aug. 21, O'Neill's No. 21 will be added to the greats in the Bronx, the 23rd player or manager to have his number retired by the Yankees.
"Just to have that, your number kind of mixed in with some of the greats that ever played the game," he said Wednesday, "it’s the highest honor that I think I’ve ever been given in baseball."
New York Yankees' Paul O'Neill waits to be introduced at the Yankees Old Timers' Day baseball game Sunday, June 17, 2018, at Yankee Stadium in New York. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun, File)
O'Neill says he chuckles with pride whenever he sees a fan with his No. 21 jersey at the ballpark.
A four-time World Series champion for the Yankees, O'Neill was nicknamed "The Warrior" by late owner George Steinbrenner.
"It was almost embarrassing at the time because you’re still playing. You embrace it much more when you don’t have to prove anything on the field anymore," O’Neill said. "I think certain people are just wired certain ways. Every at-bat, every game, every World Series meant a lot to me. Ever since I started playing sports against my older brothers, it was about winning and losing. It wasn’t about how you played. It’s who won and who lost. And that is basically how I played my career."
O’Neill hit .303 with 185 homers and 858
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