No.

Not another [undeserved] number retired. Reggie did not deserve it, amongst a few others.

Very, very, very few do.

Monument Park? No way.

Favorite O’Neill moment…. Going postal on that Gatorade jug. Can anyone thing of a play when O’Neill didn’t go hard? Same with DJ and a handfull of others. The guys that inspired me to play and love the game are the guys like O’Neill, Rose, Dykstra, Ripken, Puckett, and Jeter; Damon is working into the list. Some of these guys had off-field issue that are undesirable, but they loved to play, loved to compete, and never pissed on their team mates.

Raf,
I don’t feel lucky to have had Winfield on the Yankees. Reggie produced some rings, but that was just about wiped out by the way he polluted the club with his ego. Sheff didn’t have ego problems per say, just greed and an unlikeable habit of telling us that he’s so smart he didn’t need an agent, then screaming like a teenage girl when he didn’t like his deal after the fact. Between the lines, he played harder than Windbad or Mr. Candy(ass) Bar. Remember, I was one of the few on WW.com that wanted to keep Sheff, though I didn’t like the shot he took at Abreu.

The thing that separates a guy like O’Neill from guys like Sheff, and Reggie, and Winfield is that O’Neill understood and played like it was a privilege to put on the pinstripes and stand on the field in Yankee Stadium. The other guys felt that we were lucky to have a chance to watch them.
==================
That’s because we were. Reggie and Winnie and Sheff were established stars when they came here. O’Neill came here with the expectation level that he’d be a platoon-OF’er.

I loved gm 5 of the ’01 Series. Gave me chills. While I normally don’t get too caught up in fan-player interaction, it’s always good to see genuine love and affection to a player.

My favorite O’Neill moment? Well, I have two. Busting out a double in gm 5 of the ALDS in Cleveland (remember the hammy), and catching the last out (Luis Polonia flyball) in gm 5 of the 1996 WS.

HOF’er? No. Monument Park’er? Definately.

Bernie wears #51 and has worn it well, so I don’t think higher numbers aren’t bad. Just wait til spring training one year, when they start breaking out triple digits.
Mattingly, Mo, Jeter, Posada, Bernie, Paul — yup, he’s right up there; I can’t really pull any one of them apart as my favorite.
Stat-wise, O’Neil is a class “D” HoFer, but he was a middle of the lineup guy on 5 World Series Championship teams.
Probably my favorite memory is Paul playing in the clinching game the day his dad died, that was a great tribute to his father.

I am a Yankee fan born in 1975 which is pretty much right in the middle of that little cross-section you begin with. Paul O’Neil is my favorite Yankee of all time, ahead of Don Mattingly, Derek Jeter, or anyone else. As far as I’m concerned, he WAS the Yankees for me.

I don’t think he’s Hall-worthy but I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to retire his #21. When Bernie, Jeter, Torre, and Mo all move on, I’d retire all of their numbers too. Even if you push the list of retired numbers up to 20, you still have 79 double-digit uniform numbers available. Sure, it’s not “sexy” to wear #77 in baseball but, on Pinstripes, any number is a little bit cooler.

The thing that separates a guy like O’Neill from guys like Sheff, and Reggie, and Winfield is that O’Neill understood and played like it was a privilege to put on the pinstripes and stand on the field in Yankee Stadium. The other guys felt that we were lucky to have a chance to watch them. There was nothing wrong with Hideki Irabu that Paul O’Neill’s brain couldn’t have fixed. Tough, tough, double tough, and a child-like (not childish) desire to win. Retire the number. It took 75+ years to retire the first 16-20 numbers. If we have as good a run over the next 75+ years, well still have ~ 60 numbers to work with beginning in 2082. Not something to worry about. As to the HOF question…. Consideration sure, but he needed 3 or 4 more solid seasons to get over he hump in my mind. Would have put him in spitting distance of 3000 hits and 1500+ RBI’s. I think he knew he was coming to the end and did the right thing for both him and the club by not trying to squeeze in a couple of sub par seasons just to pad his stats.