Missed Opportunity Story

Gina Carrano

Paper No. 3

Missed opportunity story

On Sunday, October 1, 2006, before a packed house in the Bronx, the New York Yankees trailed the Toronto Blue Jays by a score of 5-7 in the ninth inning. It was the final game of the regular season. The Blue Jays had long since been eliminated from postseason contention and the Yankees had already clinched home field advantage throughout the upcoming playoffs. But what might have seemed like a meaningless game was transformed into an event to remember for Yankee fans when Bernie Williams, the team’s longtime center fielder and designated hitter, came to the plate with two out and nobody on in the bottom of the ninth.

As soon as Bob Sheppard, the voice of Yankee Stadium, announced, “Now pinch hitting: Bernie Williams,” the Stadium practically shook. Loud cheers reverberated throughout the stands as the fans chanted, “Ber-nie! Ber-nie!” As Williams smoked a double down the right field line, the applause and ovations from the stands grew almost deafening. These were the same cries of encouragement and support that Williams had been hearing for 16 seasons, and the fans realized they were witnessing a special moment—it would probably be the last time they’d see Williams, who had spent his entire career with the Yankees, playing in a game.

Just over nine months later, the fans’ October suspicions appear to have been correct. The Yankees are about a third of the way into their 2007 season, and for the first time in what seems like forever to some, they’re playing without fan favorite Williams.

Williams, who burst onto the Yankee scene as a soft-spoken but graceful and talented outfielder in 1991, was as much a fixture at Yankee Stadium as staples like hot dogs, beer and Monument Park. Throughout his tenure in the Bronx, he helped lead the team to four World Series championships and also garnered numerous individual honors such as the 1996 American League Championship Series MVP, the 1998 AL batting title (.339), and four Gold Gloves at the center field position (1997-2000.)

When he was a rookie in 1991, Williams fought hard to even become an everyday player with the Yankees, as he had to battle veteran players like All-Star Roberto Kelly for playing time in the outfield. But the Yankees liked his athletic prowess, quiet confidence and ability as a switch hitter, so eventually he became a permanent fixture with the team. Back then, however, little did anyone know that Williams would become arguably the most popular Yankee of a generation.

As the years went by, the other faces in the Yankee outfield changed. But Bernie was the constant, the ones the fans loved and came to see. At the beginning of every game, as he trotted out to take his place in the field, the “Bleacher Creatures”—a long-standing nickname for Yankee fans who sat in the bleachers behind center field—would serenade him by chanting his name, showing their love and appreciation for all he did to help the team.

But like the cliché says, all good things must come to an end, and Williams’ time in baseball was no exception. Eventually, his fielding skills, which were once considered among the best of any outfielder’s in the league, started to decline, and Williams begun to ponder retirement in 2005, the last season of a seven-year deal he’d signed with the Yankees in 1998. But although his glove wasn’t what it had once been, Williams knew his bat had not gone silent yet. In the 2005-06 offseason, he and the Yankees found the perfect solution to best maximize his skills: the designated hitter position. Williams signed a one-year deal with the plan that he’d act exclusively as the DH. In order to do so, he took a pay cut of over 11 million dollars, and even willingly relinquished his old CF position to Johnny Damon, a former member of the rival Boston Red Sox, but it didn’t matter to Bernie; he just wanted to play baseball, and was only interested in doing so with the Yankees, the only team he had ever known.

In 2006, Williams got more playing time than was expected. He played many games in the designated hitter spot as planned, but due to serious injuries sustained by everyday right and left fielders Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui, he even got into 91 games as an outfielder. Williams’ final 2006 numbers indicated that his bat indeed still had a lot of life in it; in 420 at-bats, he hit .281 with 12 home runs and 61 RBI. He was particularly effective against left-handed pitching, batting .323 and slugging .549 from the right side of the plate.

But by the end of the 2006 season, whispers throughout the New York media indicated that despite Williams’ successful year with the bat, there would be no spot for the popular veteran on the team next year. The Yankees planned to use the defensively proficient youngster Melky Cabrera as the utility outfielder to back up regulars Matsui, Damon and Bobby Abreu, and manager Joe Torre said that it was crucial to Cabrera’s continued development to get him as many at-bats as possible in 2007. Between the crowded outfield and the injury-proneness of Jason Giambi, which required the Yankees to make him the everyday DH and use a righty/lefty platoon at first base, this left Williams without a roster spot.

Many fans couldn’t imagine the Yankees without their beloved Bernie. But in February 2007, the news broke that they very well might have to do so. Rather than finding a spot on the roster for the 38-year-old free agent Williams, the Yankees offered him a minor-league contract, wherein he’d have to come to spring training and compete with other players for a regular season roster spot.

Williams didn’t give the Yankees a response to their offer right away, but by the time spring exhibition games started on March 1, and there was still no sign of the popular player in Florida, his absence spoke louder than any words could. So began the end of a long and successful chapter in Yankee lore.

Williams was missed sorely at Spring Training by his teammates, many of whom sympathized with his position, and all of whom were saddened to see his tenure in Yankee pinstripes come to an end.

“As a 16-year veteran, it’s tough to come to spring trying to earn a job,” said catcher Jorge Posada. “To be here and be fighting for a job, it’s really tough to swallow when it comes to Bernie Williams.”

First baseman Andy Phillips eloquently expressed what Williams had meant to both him and the team, saying, “I have the utmost respect for Bernie…You hate to see anything come to an end at any time for a guy like that, because he’s been such a special guy for this place. I want the best for him because he’s been great to me.”

Relief pitcher Mariano Rivera conveyed his feelings on the situation very succinctly. “As a player, as a teammate, I want him to be here,” he said.

Williams, a musician who is often described as sensitive and pensive, sounded magnanimous when he talked about his situation to reporters from the New York Daily News. “I have to do what’s best for me and my family,” he said. “It’s just part of the game. [The Yankees] have a responsibility to make a decision for the benefit of the club. That’s what makes this game interesting.”

There were initially murmurings throughout baseball about Williams working out at home and staying in shape should the Yankees need him later in the season because of injury to one of their regular outfielders, but with the All-Star break only a little over a month away, all thoughts of a triumphant Williams return appear to be dead now.

Much has been made in the media about the state of Williams’ relationship and negotiations with the Yankees, but very little has been written about how it feels for Williams, who has been wearing the classic pinstripes longer than anyone else on the team, to enter this state of flux, transition and uncertainty in his life.