Swing and a Hit: Nine Innings of What Baseball Taught Me by Paul O’Neill and Jack Curry (review)

Paul O’Neill’s book is a clear, concise retelling of his baseball-player career. He played for Cincinnati from 1985 to 1992 and the Yankees from 1993 to 2001. He begins by describing the influence of his father “for every at bat” (2) of his major league career. He credits his drive and focus for playing well to his competition with his four older brothers for any playing time at all. While the book is purportedly a story in nine innings, the information quickly becomes rather repetitious across all the chapters. The authors thoroughly dissect the art and science of hitting as O’Neill understands and deployed it.

Additionally, O’Neill discusses the impact of his personality in the dugout and on the team. Pete Rose describes O’Neill as “one of the most competitive guys I ever managed” (20), while Paul describes himself as playing with intensity and obsessive about being prepared (75).

He is enthusiastic about his idols in baseball and spends a lot of time describing their approaches to the game. He singles out Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Randy Johnson, and Joe Torre. In his encounters with these heroes as well as teammates he describes his takeaway from his analysis of the player. He offers his opinions of other players’ skills, approaches to playing, and personalities.

The “Extra Innings” final chapter covers O’Neill’s seven pieces of advice for young hitters. This is the most rewarding part of the book as he clearly describes his approach to his career in the form of advice for ballplayers. It is a rather humanizing aspect of his personality and impacts the value for the reader. This chapter is where we learn best what baseball taught Paul O’Neill.

The book is a detailed retelling of his playing career. The nine plus one innings/chapters of the book could benefit from some larger context information about the world of baseball and how it has morphed over the seventeen years that he played. His only reference to events happening outside baseball is a brief discussion of the impact of the 9/11 attacks on the New York fans, the schedule, and a short statement about being a “changed person” (211). In spite of his acknowledged tight focus and disciplined approach to playing as well as his outbursts on the field, O’Neill describes himself as a reserved person (198).

He was genuinely surprised when the Yankees honored him with a plaque in their Monument Park in 2014. The last pages of his story where he describes his emotions on the day of the plaque presentation are the warmest and most human in the entire book. His stated reserved personality prevents his story from being as compelling as it could be. The book could be a richer story and have greater impact with more personal and worldview details about O’Neill’s larger world of baseball as a sport and the times during which he played; however, it does provide insight from one of the game’s more consistent players from the 1990s.