Bernie Williams figured the baseball portion of his life was over. He wasn’t officially retired, but he didn’t feel the need to file any papers.
Why bother?
“I didn’t think it was that important,” he said.
On Sunday night, the former Yankees great realized what he was missing. A month after he finally retired, he was honored with Bernie Williams Day at the Stadium: His No. 51 jersey was retired and a plaque that will go in Monument Park to commemorate his mostly brilliant 16-year career — all in pinstripes — was unveiled before the Yankees-Rangers series finale.
“This is unbelievable. Never in my wildest dreams did I think a 17-year-old kid from Puerto Rico could be here for this day for this celebration,” he told the crowd in an emotional speech. “I am overwhelmed.”
Several minutes before he was honored, there were “Bernie, Bernie” chants from the bleachers, a nod to his memorable career that was somewhat overshadowed by more famous teammates. The fans continued to echo their appreciate throughout the 25-minute ceremony.
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It was such a big night in The Bronx, it even brought Derek Jeter back to Yankee Stadium for the first time since he retired following last season. He was joined by a host of other teammates from the great Yankees teams of the past two decades, such as Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and manager Joe Torre.
“I’ve been thinking about this day for a while,” the 46-year-old Williams said. “Coming to the field, to me it reminded me of going to a playoff game. I started feeling the butterflies in my stomach, almost the way I felt coming to play in a really important game.
“It brought me back. It was good to have that kind of set of emotions running in my head as I was coming to the stadium. It felt great. This is a great day, one of the greatest days obviously in my career and top days in my life.”
Williams is not considered among the Core Four — it consists of Rivera, Pettitte, Jeter and Posada — but that’s because he wasn’t around for the 2009 title, having left baseball after the 2006 season. He was very much integral to that group.
“Bernie was a huge part — he was here before any of us,” Pettitte said. “We know we couldn’t have won any of those championships with Bernie being in the thick of things.”
The smooth switch-hitting center fielder played his entire 16-year career with the Yankees and was arguably the best player on the four World Series championship teams between 1996 and 2001. He was a five-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner, an unassuming star who did his talking with his bat and glove.
Williams won a batting title in 1998 and was known as a clutch postseason performer, taking ALCS MVP honors in 1996. He had 80 career postseason RBIs — the most in baseball history — and leads the Yankees with 22 home runs in the playoffs.
Though Williams left baseball in 2006, he didn’t officially retire until this year, after signing a minor league contract with the Yankees. The Yankees didn’t offer him a contract following the 2006 season, but Williams didn’t look to sign with another team. He has released two jazz albums and received a Latin Grammy Award nomination, and is pursuing a jazz performance degree at the Manhattan of School of Music.
“I feel like this really heavy weight fell off of me,” he said. “It made me feel like I’m ready to really move on to the next half of my life. I needed to have this chapter of my life closed. It took me nine years, but I finally got it done.”