Monument Park

 

(MLB)

The Yankees announced the retirement of Paul O'Neill's number 21 today.

Look, I love Paulie. In my lifetime, he's in my "holy trinity" with Bobby Murcer and Don Mattingly. I loved his fire, his clutch play, and literally everything about him. When he looked done in 2000, he worked out a walk in Game 1 of the World Series against Armando Benitez after fouling off 20 pitches*.

*An exaggeration, though Benitez deserved to make the Hall of Fame just for allowing that walk.

When the Yankees were down to their last out in the 1997 ALDS, it was Paulie who basically dragged his face through the Jacobs Field dirt for a double to keep any hope alive.

I revere him. I'm happy for him.

But I still have reservations about the Yankees retiring numbers. They've really overdone it (in my opinion). Paulie's will be the 23rd to be taken out of circulation.

That being said, the Bombers have basically kept number 21 aside for 20 years*.

*OK, LaTroy Hawkins -- a fine pitcher and man -- tried to wear 21 with the Yankees in 2008. It didn't go well. He was booed. Horrifically booed. I didn't love seeing that number either but felt it was time to move forward. Hawkins eventually changed his number and soon left New York.

But the bigger issue to me -- past the ridiculous, Oprah-esque retiring of numbers ("Everbody gets a retired number!")  -- is how little the Yankees are truly acknowledging their history anymore.

Retired numbers aside, Monument Park is supposed to be a place of reverence where the Yankees can have their own form of a Hall of Fame. Still, as a business, they know millennials will come out to cheer O'Neill and the 90s Yankees.

Past that? Meh.

But there's a lot of history being left aside.

Look, I'll show my hand here. I don't think Bobby Murcer is a Hall of Famer. At best, I'd love to see him considered for the Ford Frick Award for broadcasting. But I do -- without hesitation -- think he should be in Monument Park. I don't want his number retired (though I think he, Earl Combs, and Bobby Richardson certainly honored the number one as much as Billy Martin did) but I do want to see a plaque go up to recognize his years as a player, coach (briefly), and broadcaster. Bobby spent over 40 years in MLB as a player and "voice" with most of those years with the Yankees. He played his heart out in San Francisco and Chicago between 1975 and July, 1979 but his heart was truly in New York all along (with apologies to Tony Bennett). He means a ton to those of us who grew up with him. He represented the team with total grace.

But the thinking is putting a Bobby Murcer plaque in Monument Park won't draw ticket buyers. The same goes for basically anyone prior to 1990 at this point. I mean, where's "Sweet" Lou Piniella? Where's the aforementioned Bobby Richardson? Where's Dave Winfield (that's actually embarrassing)? Where's "Steady" Eddie Lopat or Vic Raschi? Where's "Poosh-em-up" Tony Lazzeri or Waite Hoyt or Urban Shocker or (Spencer Pierce's favorite) "Wee" Willie Keeler? Where's Tony Kubek? 

Mel Allen is in Monument Park. Where are Red Barber and Jerry Coleman and Frank Messer and Bill White?

All should be considered.

But this doesn't sell tickets. Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte and Derek Sanderson Jeter sell tickets.

Red Rolfe and Joe Gordon and Frankie Crosetti don't.

But, in my mind, Monument Park is supposed to be the Yankees' version of a Hall of Fame. They're the true giants -- Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Ford, Yogi, Mo, Jeets -- and the players who we all loved and respected.

That would be Donnie Baseball and Mel Stottlemyre and Bobby friggin Ray Murcer.

And Paul O'Neill.

So, take nothing away from Paulie O' on today's announcement but it triggered my brain that the Yankees could do much better.

Much, much better.

The Yankees are about history. They're about greatness. They're about 27 World Championships and the drive for more.

They're about excellence. 

Much like I want to walk loved ones around Cooperstown and explain to them who certain players are, I very much want to do the same in the Bronx. This is how we keep the history of "our game" alive, by passing the stories down through generations.

Few things would make me prouder than to see Sean or literally anyone that knows me walk through Monument Park one day and say, "Ah, Bobby Murcer. That was my dad's favorite player. He told me all about the time he drove in all five runs on the night of Thurman Munson's funeral, how he hit for the cycle and homered four times in a doubleheader, and how he wanted to be a broadcaster because of him, and..."

THAT'S what a place like Monument Park is supposed to be about.