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Originally Posted by M2
In Cincinnati, it didn't go over well when he kicked a baseball. The reponse in New York would be something like, "Kick it? He should have shot it." And New Yorkers never doubted that, if issued a handgun, Paul O'Neill would have shot a baseball or his bat or a water cooler or whatever other inanimate object on which he chose to vent his righteous anger.
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For me, the ball kicking incident kinda sums up O'Neill's career with the Reds. It's the main thing I think of when I remember him playing here. Well, that and his other fits of anger. I loved the Roberto Kelly trade the day it was made, and it didn't bother me one bit to see O'Neill go. The trade ended up being a bad one for the Reds and an excellent one for the Yankees, but O'Neill's name and the Hall Of Fame would never come up in the same conversation if he had been traded anywhere but to the Yankees. He was in the right place at the right time.