New York Times

April 2, 2001

By BUSTER OLNEY

Paul O'Neill can choose between many diamonds. Big diamonds, small diamonds, diamonds set in an oval pattern, diamonds laid out in a interlocking "NY". He already has four championship rings and another on the way, along with a platinum ring made for the 1999 Yankees.

What ring does he like to wear? "None of them," he said. "I lose stuff pretty easily. I'm afraid I'd lose it."

O'Neill is typical of most of the Yankees' players, who will get their rings from last season in May or June. They spend months working for rings, they talk about the rings as the symbol of their efforts, they gawk at the rings. But with only one notable exception, the Yankees' players rarely wear their rings, if at all.

"To tell you the truth, I've never worn any of them," Andy Pettitte said.

"I never wear them. I keep them locked up," Derek Jeter said.

"The only ring I wear is my wedding ring," Mike Stanton said.

It is not that they do not like the rings; some of them have an affinity for a particular ring because of how it looks or what that year meant to them. Mariano Rivera will wear the ring from 1996 on special occasions, for example, because it was from the first championship won by this generation of Yankees.

But the rings are so large and so spectacular that all but one of the players find them too unwieldy or too flashy to wear daily.

"I'm not an advertiser," Stanton said. "I'm not saying that guys who wear them are, but I don't want to bring attention to myself. And when you wear a big gaudy ring that's sparkling in the night, it can't help but do that.

"That's what they're supposed to do. They're supposed to be big, they're supposed to be shiny. There have been a few instances where I should've worn it, like I did a charity event, and I got asked several times, `Can I see your ring?' And I was like, sorry."

Rivera said, "I don't wear jewelry, except for my watch."

Scott Brosius wore the championship ring from the 1998 season in the hours after he received it. "We went to eat after the game that day," he said, "and I didn't want to leave it in the car, so I wore it." And then he put it away.

Brosius will sometimes show his rings to friends, and the one that draws the most response is the ring celebrating the 1999 championship. "You get oohs and aahs over that one," he said. "It's the fun one to show because it's sparkly."

Tino Martinez likes the platinum players' ring from 1999, a concept suggested by Roger Clemens. The team ring that Clemens received last year first had the No. 33 on it - David Wells's former number - but Clemens got a replacement and says he likes both rings and wears them on special occasions. Luis Sojo has three rings and sometimes will don the most current ring. Orlando Hernández says he likes all of the rings.

Bernie Williams's favorite ring is from 1996, his first, and he will wear a ring when he attends events where other players are present.

"To me, the rings are kind of like battle scars," he said. "I take them elsewhere and people think they're pretty, but they won't appreciate them, the real meaning of them.

"I like them all, don't get me wrong. They're all special in their own way, in my mind. Maybe when I'm like 45 or 50 years old and people start forgetting us, they'll be a good reminder. They'll be like, `Oh, this guy has a ring.' But right now, I really don't see a need for it."

Don Zimmer, the bench coach, wore his wedding ring for a year "and it always went flat on me, so I never wore that." He received a ring as a member of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, who beat the Yankees in the World Series, and he wore that for a short time before putting it away. "Clem Labine told me he was the only Dodger who wore the 1955 ring," Zimmer said.

But last year, Zimmer began wearing the 1999 championship ring, and still does. "It was probably the best ring of the four years," he said. "Actually, it's almost too big. You've got to be careful. You go to scratch yourself, and you could cut yourself, the way the diamonds stick up."

Willie Randolph, the third-base coach, likes his ring from the 1977 championship - his first - but rarely wears any of them. Mel Stottlemyre's favorite is from 1996, even though he got a ring for being the pitching coach of the 1986 Mets.

Manager Joe Torre usually wears the ring presented for the most recent championship, and he loves the style of the 1998 ring. "The other ones knock your eyes out, too, and I'm assuming this next one is going to knock your eyes out," Torre said. "I saw some pictures of what it's going to look like."

The other players uniformly smiled and laughed when told the identity of the only Yankee player who wears a championship ring daily: Ramiro Mendoza, who might be the most modest and unassuming player on the team. "I really like them all," Mendoza said, grinning.

Chuck Knoblauch does not wear a ring, but he likes the '98 ring, the design, the two words on the side: "Best Ever." "When you first get them, you kind of check them out," he said. "I don't wear them, so they stay put away. And let's not forget that winning the championship and being a part of that is more important than any piece of jewelry."