Vince Bucci / AFP/ Seinfeld / NBC
New York Yankees legend and YES Network announcer Paul O’Neill guest starred in Season 7, episode 4 of Seinfeld in an episode titled ‘The Wink’ which revolves around George (Jason Alexander) getting grapefruit juice in his eye causing him to wink involuntarily and leading to hijinx.
Paul O’Neill appears in the episode as himself. This was in 1995 and O’Neill was named to the MLB All-Star game that year and the Yankees would go on to win the World Series the following season. It was really in the meat and potatoes of Paul O’Neill’s incredible career and he was making $2.85M in salary that year but took the time out of his schedule to appear on Seinfeld.
In the ‘The Wink‘, there’s a birthday card for George Steinbrenner that Costanza’s getting all the Yankees to sign. Kramer wants to sell it to a memorabilia store and asks George who involuntarily winks back and Kramer misinterprets it as a ‘yes’ to go ahead and sell it. Upon realizing, Costanza goes to buy it back but the store’s already sold it to a kid in a hospital who will return the card of Paul O’Neill hits two home runs in the following game. He goes yard in the first inning and then has a in-the-park HR in the 8th that’s later ruled as a triple + fielding error.
Anyway, on Thursday’s New York Yankees broadcast on the YES Network, David Cone asked his boothmate Paul O’Neill if he still gets those Seinfeld residual checks from 30 years ago and as it turns out, he does:
"Do you still get residual checks for being on [Seinfeld]?" – David Cone
"Yeah, you know what they are? They're like 57 bucks. It's not big time. It's a good reminder, though, that you were on the show. It's kinda cool." – Paul O'Neill ⚾️📺🎙️💰 pic.twitter.com/mHPTKoAlll
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 9, 2024
There’s something hilarious about a millionaire getting periodic $57 checks for a one-episode appearance in a TV show way back in 1995, a year he was being paid millions and was one of the most famous players in baseball.
I’m sitting here contemplating what I’d spend that $57 on every time a Seinfeld check shows up if I was Paul O’Neill. A bottle of wine? A wedge of truffled gouda? Box of Pro V1’s? Cash it and leave the cash somewhere in Central Park for someone to find?