Paul O'Neill to return to YES Network's booth
Retired New York Yankees player Paul O'Neill speaks to fans during a number retirement ceremony last August at Yankee Stadium. Credit: AP/Corey Sipkin
Paul O’Neill will be back in the YES Network broadcast booth in person this season, Newsday learned and YES confirmed on Monday.
The former Yankees star spent last season analyzing games from his home in the Cincinnati area because of a YES Network policy requiring on-site employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
YES did not say whether the change in his status is because he got vaccinated or because of a change in its protocols, but an industry source confirmed that employees were informed via email that the company has relaxed its vaccine requirements.
O’Neill, who played for the Yankees from 1993 to 2001, joined YES in 2002.
The arrangement last season was awkward, with other announcers working games in person and O’Neill being looped in from Ohio. He did appear at Yankee Stadium when he had his No. 21 retired in August, but he did not visit the YES booth.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
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