JUNE 2022 - AudioFile
Paul O’Neill is remembered by baseball fans as a passionate, hard-nosed competitor, and that spirit comes through in Jack Curry’s narration of his memoir. Curry, who was also O’Neill’s coauthor, must have absorbed some of the intensity of the five-time World Series champion. His performance is well paced and delivered with the confidence of a sportscaster, and his familiarity with the game means he never mispronounces a name or sounds like he’s encountering a baseball term for the first time. But there’s also enough warmth in Curry’s voice to capture the emotion O’Neill expresses when he moves away from talking about hitting and reflects on his family, and on his best and worst moments in uniform. D.B. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
I’ve always known how superb and how prepared Paul O’Neill was as a hitter. After reading SWING AND A HIT now I know all of O’Neill’s secrets and sacrifices and everything that helped make him such a splendid hitter. With every page I read, it was evident how Paul obsessed over the art of hitting and how he learned from some of the game’s best hitters. I loved competing with and against Paul. I loved this book just as much.”—David Cone, Five-Time World Series Champion, Cy Young Award Winner and baseball announcer for The Yes Network and ESPN
“Paul O’Neill’s passion to get a hit was obvious every time he stepped in the batter’s box. He was a fierce competitor who never thought he should make an out. And, in SWING AND A HIT, Paul intimately describes the journey that led to him being such a special hitter. This book is as entertaining and illuminating as one of O’Neill’s feisty at bats. Add another hit to O’Neill’s stats.” —Buck Showalter, Manager of The New York Mets, former manager of the N.Y. Yankees and three-time Manager of The Year.
“Paul O’Neill is so much more than “the warrior.” He is a baseball savant and an incredible student of the game. He and Jack Curry peel away the layers of the five-time world champion in this riveting read. I’ve known Paul for 30 years and I came away knowing much more about hitting and about him than before I picked up this fascinating read.” —Michael Kay, Yankees’ Play-By-Play announcer for the Yes Network.
“Paul O’Neill is one of my all-time favorite teammates. I loved his approach to the game, his passion, his commitment, and his relentless competitive spirit. Paul’s work ethic was unmatched. As a hitter, he was never satisfied. If you want insight into one of my favorite players, read SWING AND A HIT. I guarantee it won’t disappoint.”—Don Mattingly, Miami Marlins’ manager and former Yankees' captain
"Paul had an incomparable combination of being the fiercest competitor on the field, and the nicest, most affable guy off the field. It was like there were two completely different people. His success story began long before he became my teammate. SWING AND A HIT tells that story…and, yes – it is a hit! What else would you expect from Paul O’Neill?"—Bernie Williams, Yankees’ center fielder and four-time World Series champion.
"This is a book for baseball fans, many of whom will enjoy O’Neill’s unique insights on some of the greatest hitters of all time.”—Library Journal
Library Journal
04/18/2022
Throughout 17 seasons in Major League Baseball, O'Neill was an immensely talented hitter, even claiming a batting title in 1994 with an electric .359 average. He also had incredible good fortune, having played with Pete Rose, Dave Concepcion, Don Mattingly, and Derek Jeter while winning five World Series Championships, including four titles in nine seasons as a pillar of several iconic Yankees lineups. O'Neill's memoir is full of vibrant anecdotes from his charmed life in baseball, but its singular focus is clear: hitting. Across 10 chapters (framed as a nine-inning game with an extra inning), O'Neill writes about the players, coaches, and managers who most influenced his career as a hitter while dispensing his own hitting advice to young players. Baseball fans who aren't enamored of the modern game's data-driven preference for home run hitters and fireballers will surely find O'Neill's hitting insights from a different era of baseball refreshing. VERDICT This is a book for baseball fans, many of whom will enjoy O'Neill's unique insights on some of the greatest hitters of all time.—Colin Chappell
JUNE 2022 - AudioFile
Paul O’Neill is remembered by baseball fans as a passionate, hard-nosed competitor, and that spirit comes through in Jack Curry’s narration of his memoir. Curry, who was also O’Neill’s coauthor, must have absorbed some of the intensity of the five-time World Series champion. His performance is well paced and delivered with the confidence of a sportscaster, and his familiarity with the game means he never mispronounces a name or sounds like he’s encountering a baseball term for the first time. But there’s also enough warmth in Curry’s voice to capture the emotion O’Neill expresses when he moves away from talking about hitting and reflects on his family, and on his best and worst moments in uniform. D.B. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2022-03-10
The former MLB star and current TV commentator delivers a serviceable homily/memoir.
Readers will quickly learn two of O’Neill’s tightly held convictions. One is that Pete Rose, his erstwhile teammate and coach on the Cincinnati roster, belongs in Cooperstown. “I know someone permanently banned from baseball can’t be inducted into the Hall [of Fame],” he writes. “But I think Pete deserves to be in the Hall for setting the all-time record of 4,256 hits while playing the game with unbridled passion and joy.” The other is that the recent penchant of ball players for going for the big hits is misguided, if understandable. “They are chasing home runs,” he writes, “and I can’t blame them for doing that because, in essence, they’re also chasing the largest paycheck.” O’Neill takes undisguised pride in a batting style that delivered powerful base hits and line drives, taking the ball as it came down the middle of the plate and smacking it from a level plane that slightly elevated when bat connected with ball. That style drove Lou Piniella, who succeeded Rose, bonkers: “Lou wanted me to stay anchored on my back leg, use a weight shift to turn on pitches and elevate them, and knock them out of the ballpark.” In the end, O’Neill was traded to the Yankees just in time for their string of championships in the 1990s, eventually shifting his batting style just a little. In these pages, written with the assistance of veteran sportswriter Curry, O’Neill always returns to his pet cause: Chasing homers is well and good, “but they will also produce their share of infield pop-ups, harmless fly balls, and swings and misses. And here’s my two cents: Not everyone is or should be that kind of hitter.” It’s an argument repeated perhaps one too many times, though the author has a point.
Hardcore fans—and would-be grand slammers—might enjoy O’Neill’s book, but it doesn’t pack much punch.
