Pete Abe chimes with a bit of news that will likely irk some fans who want their Yankees to harbor lifelong enmity towards Red Sox players:
Kevin Youkilis mentioned on Monday that he did not start hitting until Feb. 1 — at the advice of former Yankees player Paul O’Neill.
“He told me the older he got, the later he hit,” Youkilis said. “He believed — and I believe it, too — to get your body physically ready and get as strong as you can and then you go hit. The hitting will come, you have six weeks of spring training.
“You have so much time to get ready. He believed that physically he wanted to get strong and get away from the game. You don’t want to beat yourself up all the time.”
The connection? Youkilis and O’Neill are from the northeast section of Cincinnati. O’Neill, in fact, lives close to where Kevin went to high school and they share an agent, Joe Bick.
“He lives in the same town I grew up in,” Youkilis said. “Great guy. Awesome guy.”
My favorite player giving advice to one of my least favorite is not the most exciting news I could have heard this week. It is funny that these two players are being linked, seeing as fans of the other 28 teams frequently compare them and find both of them fairly irritating. I will note, in Paulie’s defense, that most of his complaining was about his own performance, while Youkilis loves to shout at umpires and apparently has never been thrown a strike. O’Neill’s actions were simply those of a passionate player, while Youkilis is more of a malcontent. That’s my story and I am sticking to it.
While on the topic of Youkilis and his general abhorrent nature, I wanted to point out the results of an informal poll that I took on Twitter last week. I asked my tweeps to name their least favorite baseball player, expecting to see a large number of names. Although some other names came up, such as Youkilis, Papelbon, and Randy Johnson, the one name that was mentioned by practically everyone was Curt Schilling. With his annoying bluster and outsized personality, Schilling seems to have engendered an enormous amount of hatred from Yankees fans.
Which former or current MLB players do you love to hate? Is Schilling on that list? What about Youkilis?
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23 Responses to O'Neill Giving Advice To….Youkilis?
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TIQ IQ
O’neill should have said to Youk not to hit until opening day so the Yankees won’t have to worry him.
But it’s okay, cause I know the Yanks will still sweep the Red Sox in their first series but not a blow out. :D
Paulie …u broka my heart
O’Neill is Youkilis. Loved by fans of the team he’s on, absolutely hated by the other 29.
This doesn’t bother me as much as Kevin Long working with Travis Buck a couple of weeks after saying he didn’t have enough time to work with Robinson Cano. This is just two guys from Cincinnati telling another guy that 6 weeks shld be plenty of time to work on your hitting.
whoa, that’s some gritty do-do. Where’d you say we go for that? Not that I like do-do, but…
no, no butts, but …
i’d say Manny and Youkilis are two of the palyers i hate the most in Baseball.
Manny is an ignorant clown and Youkilis very obnoxious kinda guy.
Both great hitters though.
Lefty, I’m right with you on Manny, who’s my own personal unfavorite, a traitor to the game, who would sell a city out for his own benefit, and whose swing was sped by sPEDs. Shit, give a man twice as much time to read the pitch, hell, you could put a perfect swing on it. Maybe even me minus, say, twenty years.
Youkilis, no. Not being bred a Yankee, I reckon different, that here’s a rough, tough, bring it on hero for his team. They just happen to be the enemy, but what would this season be without a good fight, or this league.
I hate Kevin Brown.
John Rocker is #1 and probably will be forever.
Papelbon and Schilling are on the next tier. Varitek is a half-step below them. Beckett are a half-step below him, though I have a friend who met Beckett and said he was actually quite a nice guy (this friend is a Met fan, so she is unbiased).
Also on the list: Farnsworthless, Randy Johnson (though people overstate how bad he was with the Yankees when he was actually really good one of the years, it’s mostly personality stuff, plus the 01 Series), Youk, Kevin Millar, Luis Gonzalez (YOU BROKE MY THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD HEART, ASSHOLE!), Josh Beckett, Trot Nixon, Jacoby Ellsbury (I was indifferent until he stole home against Andy. Now, it’s PERSONAL. HATE.), Carl Everett, Tony Womack, Craig Counsell, Vicente Padilla.
I have a love-hate relationship with Pedro. Jimmy Rollins is getting up there after his frankly stupid comments during/after the World Series (“we figured out Mariano,” saying that Pettitte was underwhelming after the Phillies had lost Game 6, etc.).
I love Manny. Always did. Hated him HITTING against the Yankees, but I love the guy. He is so dumb and hilarious. I don’t have anything personal against David Ortiz.
holy crap. “Beckett are a half-step below him”? Grammar fail. Also I mentioned Beckett twice.
Becca, you’re awful funny for hating the guy who stole home, and he did that to ANDY!
I also hate Aaron Hill for stealing home against Andy and… someone else did it in like 2002. I hate those guys too! Boooo they all suck.
As a stat dork note, is there some reason why Andy has had three guys steal home against him? I know he’s been pitching a long time so that’s gotta be part of it, but has anyone ever stolen home against Wakefield etc? I know he’s got the good pickoff move, but maybe he has a long windup?
The first thing I’d note is that he’s lefthanded and presents a blind period in his windup, if he is taking a full windup as some righties do with a man on third. That never happens, anyway – the presumption is that he won’t try because it’s so hard to do. Andy famously shuts down runners at first, and a scamp like your unfavorite may be motivated to git ‘im.
Boy, girl, you’ve seen a lot of steals of home. I suppose I’ve seen a few, but there’s just one I remember, starring my hero, Greg Maddux. He was brought up at nineteen, and the Cubs used him as a pinch runner, fast, and the bug stole home, savvy. One reason he is my hero.
Maddux rules. I didn’t know he ever did that. Makes him rule more.
he is an anti yankee, he played us before he signed with atl.. never wanted any thing to do with us..he don’t like NYers.
a met fan talking nice about a red sox to a yankee fan? hmmmm…sleep with one eye open..
Put that gun away. More like a former Mets loather who has learned to watch good b’ball and laff at the little stuff.
Yeah, I know the Yankees resented Greg’s rejection, but that was when George loomed large and smelly. Have a bad day? Here’s a big dollop of shit fer ya. Went to what turned into home. That was when this diehard died, along with Sandberg and Grace.
Players I hate:
Everyone on the Red Sox, minus Mike Cameron, Mike Lowell, and Jeremy Hermida.
Hey, i admire You-kill-us, a lot, I just hate his guts though.Kills Yankees and he looks smug out there and very pleased with himself when he does.Just can’t stand the guy but I do admire his skills, work ethic and success.Great player, i can’t stand him.
You know who else has great skills, work ethic, and success? Manny Ramirez. And every other Major Leaguer. Ever. They wouldn’t be Major Leaguers if they didn’t have the perfect combination of work ethic and skills.
Yes, I thought that was a great question on twitter. The Big Unit (or the Big Junk when he was on the Yankees) is my #1 most hated. Killed us in ’95 and ’01, beaned the aforementioned O’Niell and then stunk for us in the postseason. The usual Red Sox (Schilling, Ortiz, Manny, Youk) and Yankees I hated off the top of my head were Ed Whitson (killed us in ’85), Eric “Ker”-Plunk, Farnsworth, and Jesse Barfield (stance was so far off the plate he never could reach the outside corner and had a gun for an arm but would airmail several throws to 3B and home).
Can’t agree there, some work harder than others.Manny is a clown, a disgrace, looks like a slob out there, wouldn’t work on his fielding for years (and finally did) and quit on his teamates over a few dollars when he was already crazy rich.
another player that hated New York a lot, so much so that he tried to get out of pitching in YS during the 1996 ALCS: Michael Cole Mussina.