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Originally Posted by Johnny Footstool
Paul O'Neill's problem was the Cincinnati Reds organization. They wanted him to be a 40 HR basher, and they kept messing with his swing and his head until he didn't know what to do. The Yankees basically plugged him into the linup and told him to do what he feels comfortable doing, and he responded with some very impressive numbers for the Bombers.
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I agree. I always thought O'Neill would explode under the microscope of New York - but he thrived and I think it was that he had managers who just let him play. I remember seeing towards the end of his career that he had some Yankee career stat which was the 2nd highest for any right handed Yankee player (I'm thinking it was Batting Average - I'm guessing behind DiMaggio). His BA with the Yankees was .303 (if I've done the math right - couldn't find it isolated).
When I look at the Baseball Reference HOF comparison, none of those players who compare to O'Neill are in the HOF, that I saw, but the majority of them were very good ballplayers for a period of time - Freddie Lynn, Ken Boyer, Bobby Bonilla, to name a few. Here's the list:
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Bobby Bonilla (925)
Del Ennis (922)
Fred Lynn (914)
Bernie Williams (907)
Reggie Smith (904)
Luis Gonzalez (899)
Ruben Sierra (893)
George Hendrick (890)
Ken Boyer (888)
Bob Johnson (887)