NEW YORK -- Paul O'Neill has heard the whispers.
At 37, they said he'd lost a step in the field and the quickness in his bat.
Manager Joe Torre dropped him from his customary third spot in the batting
order to No. 7, an attempt to get him out of the spotlight. The word around
Yankee Stadium was that the right fielder was done.
If he's finished, he's going out with a flourish.
There was a huge 10-pitch at-bat in Game 1 of the World Series when he
coaxed a walk out of Armando Benitez to build the tying-run rally in the
Yankees' 4-3 victory.
Then he had three hits Sunday night, driving in one run and setting up
another as the Yankees beat the Mets 6-5 for a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven
series. He extended his postseason hitting streak to six games.
This has been O'Neill's toughest season in New York. Even though he batted
.283 with 18 home runs and 100 runs batted in, he had been easy pickings for
left-handers, especially after a hip pointer limited him for the final two
months.
Typical of his troubles was the rally killing double play he hit into in
extra innings of Game 1. He slammed his helmet down in disgust.
"He was so discouraged - or disappointed, I guess is a better word, when he
hit into the double play," Torre said. "I just told him he never would have
had a chance to hit if he didn't have that at-bat the previous time.
"You look at his record. He's done a lot of first-ball swinging. He's
gotten a lot of hits on first pitches. He had the right approach."
O'Neill is often an anxious hitter and he's been a productive one for the
Yankees. He had his fourth straight 100 RBI season and finished with 1,969
hits, 31 short of 2,000. But there were questions about whether he would have a
chance to get those hits with the Yankees.
The rumors were that New York would begin looking for replacement parts for
a team that has won three World Series in the last four years and that right
field might be the place to start.
Also on the potential hit list was Tino Martinez. The Yankees exercised
their option on the first baseman's contract for 2001, but there were
suspicions that after a .258 season and just 16 homers and 91 RBI, the team
would send him elsewhere.
Martinez has responded to that talk with a big postseason that included an
RBI single with two outs in the first inning Sunday night and then a double in
front of O'Neill's RBI single in the sixth. Martinez added an RBI single in the
eighth.
If the rumors are true, Game 2 might have been the last appearances at
Yankee Stadium for O'Neill and Martinez. If that was the case, they left
something to remember them by.
AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service
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