O'Neill will double his airtime on YES

It has been 10 years since Paul O'Neill played for the Yankees, so long that when young autograph-seekers are sent over by excited parents, they sometimes ask who the old guy is.

But even after all these years, O'Neill feels connected. It starts on the field, where -- improbably -- some of the late-1990s gang still is at it.

"It brings back a lot of memories," he said. "I can still see myself talking to [Derek] Jeter, talking to Jorge [Posada] after a tough loss or a good win."

And it extends into the television booth, where O'Neill keeps up with the Yankees by analyzing games for YES.

All good, right? Yes, but only to a point. O'Neill has been popular among viewers since he started broadcasting soon after retiring. But he has determinedly refused to make it a full-time second career.

There was too much catching up to do on family time back home near Cincinnati and too little taste for returning to the long baseball grind.

But with his second son heading off to college and only a high school-age daughter left at home, O'Neill budged this season. After years of limiting himself to about 20 games, he will roughly double that, with 14 games in June alone, including the Yankees' visit to Cincinnati.

Might that number grow even more when he becomes an empty-nester in a few years?

"Not to the point of making it an everyday job," he said before last Wednesday's game against the Blue Jays. "I don't ever see myself doing 162 games. But I could see myself doing 80 or something."

Until then, the arrangement works perfectly for O'Neill, 48. He regularly gets to visit New York, where he remains among the most popular former Yankees alive, but he leaves time for family and for Right Field Charities, the umbrella for a variety of fundraising activities.

Rob O'Neill, Paul's brother and agent, said much of the charitable work revolves around golf, which takes him to events large and small. (Rob said Paul once hit a 375-yard drive in a long-drive contest.)

That and YES keep him as busy as he cares to be.

O'Neill's vibe on YES is similar to that of SNY's Keith Hernandez. Each was regarded as the heart and soul of his team and each has a relaxed, unpredictable sense of humor that belies his on-field demeanor.

"I believe he is our generation's Phil Rizzuto," play-by-play man Michael Kay said. "He is so funny on the air. He has stream of consciousness that comes out of his mouth.

"I've told him, 'Paul, if you did 75 games, you'd be a superstar. You'd be on national TV.' They would hire him on Fox."

O'Neill, who credits Kay with drawing him out, said, "When you watch a baseball game, you can only go over the stats and numbers so many times before it becomes like you're going to school."

During that day game last week, O'Neill and Kay kibitzed about everything from O'Neill's credentials for "Dancing With the Stars" to an invitation he once had to appear on "Celebrity Apprentice."

"He's a total babe in the woods when it comes to the business, which I think makes him good; he's not beholden to any structure," Kay said. "Paul has an air of goofiness to him but he's never going to go off the rails. He could really be one of the best, but I don't think he'll ever work that much."

Probably not. "You get out of baseball because of the everyday grind, and if you're going to do full-time announcing, you're right back into it," O'Neill said.

A busy June will test whether he wants to expand his schedule further. "We'll see how I do," he said. "I might get overexposed."