{"id":311119,"date":"2025-11-27T01:14:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T01:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/311119\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T01:14:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T01:14:13","slug":"yankees-network-emphatically-responds-to-paul-oneill-cancer-rumor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/311119\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees network emphatically responds to Paul O\u2019Neill cancer rumor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The YES Network refuted errant social media posts that claimed Yankees legend and YES analyst Paul O\u2019Neill has cancer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are some fake Facebook posts (and who knows what else) circulating, stating that Paul O\u2019Neill has cancer,\u201d Yes Network\u2019s vice president of communications Eric Handler told The Post and other outlets in a statement. \u201cI just spoke with Paul.\u00a0He DOES NOT have cancer!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A Facebook post from a Yankees-centric accounted posted Wednesday that O\u2019Neill had cancer and even included a fabricated quote from the 62-year-old, among other posts amplifying the same false claim.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.47550432;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37774525\" width=\"871\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/paul-oneill-speaks-steve-serby-22495085.jpg\" alt=\"Paul O'Neill speaking with a monitor showing a baseball game and New York Yankees and YES Network logos in the background.\" class=\"wp-image-37774525\"  \/>Paul O\u2019Neill in the YES booth in 2018. for the NY POST<\/p>\n<p>Said account has plenty of fake posts regarding the team, yet has 13,000 followers.<\/p>\n<p>The O\u2019Neill fabricated report had more than 900 likes, over 275 likes and 40-plus shares as of Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Neill is a beloved figure among Yankees fans for his role in the team\u2019s dynastic run that netted four World Series titles from 1996-2000.<\/p>\n<p>Known as \u201cThe Warrior,\u201d O\u2019Neill played nine years in The Bronx from 1993-2001 and won championships in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000.<\/p>\n<p>He hit .303 with a .377 on-base percentage, .492 slugging percentage and .869 OPS with the team, hitting 185 homers and tallying at least 100 RBIs in four straight years from 1997-2000.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37774521\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/paul-oneill-waves-fans-monument-17621289.jpg\" alt=\"Paul O'Neill waves to fans while standing near his retired number &quot;21&quot; and Derek Jeter's retired number &quot;2&quot; in Monument Park.\" class=\"wp-image-37774521\"  \/>Paul O\u2019Neill during his number retirement in 2022. for the NY POST<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Neill won the AL batting crown after hitting .359 in 1994, and the franchise retired his No. 21 jersey in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>He also earned a reputation for a fiery personality, often taking out his frustrations at the plate and in the field on unsuspecting water coolers.<\/p>\n<p>During his 17-year career, which included eight years with his home state Reds, he tallied 2,105 hits and batted .288 with an .833 OPS.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The Yankees acquired him in a trade that sent Roberto Kelly to the Reds.<\/p>\n<p>This past season marked O\u2019Neill\u2019s 24th with YES Network and he has won five Emmys during his time with the network, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yesnetwork.com\/talent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to his bio<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The YES Network refuted errant social media posts that claimed Yankees legend and YES analyst Paul O\u2019Neill has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,2704,176283,85,9274,5999,176284],"class_list":{"0":"post-311119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york-yankees","12":"tag-paul-oneill","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-sports-entertainment","15":"tag-sports-media","16":"tag-yes-network"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}