Collecting Bucket List #3 Warrior come out and play-ee-yay

I was very fortunate to be born at the tail end of the Yankees worst decade in their history. In 1992 the Yankees traded Roberto Kelly for the man we would come to know as "The Warrior," Paul O'Neill.

He was a big part of "my" Yankees. He was there in 1993 with a team that featured Mattingly, Boggs, both Williams (Bernie and Gerald), Danny Tartabull and Paul Abbott threw is famous no-hitter. I really liked the 1993, 1994 and 1995 Yankees. Obviously 1996 was a changing of the guards so to speak. But O'Neill was there, much like myself, for a disappointing 1993 season. A 1994 season of amazing promise but foiled by MLB baseball players and owners. And the 1995 season which saw the first postseason with the new team alignment and Yankees as the first ever AL Wildcard winners. Then a golden age for the Yankees which saw them win 4 World Series in 5 years until that heartbreaking night in Arizona. The night we last saw O'Neill playing as a Yankee.


There isn't much I can say about Paul O'Neill that most don't already know. He was passionate and pissed. He had this swing that he could just stroke the ball into the outfield for a base hit. His passion for the game earned him the "The Warrior" nickname from the Boss. He had that catch deep in the Atlanta outfield during the 1996 World Series in Game 5 that ended the game. He played in the clinching Game 4 of the 1999 World Series, hours after his father passed away.

He's an important part of my baseball memories. I thought it would be fitting to get a reasonably priced auto of him as part of my bucket list. I found this great on-card auto for a little over $20. I was lucky because there really aren't many of his autos out on eBay and they tend to go for closer to $40 for the more basic autos (not short print or from high end product).

So if you're in the market for one good luck, they're out there you just have to find them.