Bernie Williams on a ‘nervous’ trip from World Series to New York Philharmonic

For Bernie Williams, picking up a bat was easy. During his career with the New York Yankees, he brought out the same trusty 34 1/2-inch, 33-ounce Rawlings model for all occasions, whether in spring training or the playoffs, whether facing a flamethrower or a knuckleball player stood.

Music, however, is different.

“Choosing a guitar is about the performance,” Williams said. “It’s about the sound you want to create, and it’s about the music you’re going to play. You need the right instrument with the right performance, and that varies over time.”

That’s what irks the former outfielder as he prepares for a second big league debut – this time in the arts. Williams will play guitar for the first time with the New York Philharmonic at the Spring Gala on Wednesday, an epic milestone for a five-time All-Star and four-time World Series champion now deep into the second act of his life.

So, which guitar? The acoustic steel string? The archtop? Williams said a few weeks ago that he might even opt to go electric “for that kind of Santana-esque sound,” though he added that it “might just be too over the top for that environment.”

Williams, who spent his entire career with the Yankees from 1991 to 2006, has rebranded himself as an accomplished musician, ordained with a Latin Grammy nomination and critical acclaim. Still, the thought of being in the spotlight at age 55 in another hallowed New York venue — think Yankee Stadium, but with better acoustics — gives Williams butterflies.

On Wednesday he will play one selection, his 2009 piece “Moving Forward,” newly arranged by jazz artist Jeff Tyzik. Famous conductor Gustavo Dudamel will be at the helm.

“I expect to be as nervous as I’ve ever been on any stage,” Williams said. “But I don’t think it’ll be any different than playing a seventh game of the World Series, you know?”

To answer that last question: No, Mr. Williams, us not know. There is no one else in baseball history that can compare the experience of the baseball Fall Classic and the Philharmonic Spring Gala. No one else played “The House That Ruth Built” and conducted in the concert hall that Leonard Bernstein christened on opening night in 1962.

Williams’ award means a lot of gnashing of teeth for the president and CEO of the New York Philharmonic. Gary Ginstling is an avid Mets fan.

“This is a very difficult decision for me, I must say,” Ginstling said during a telephone interview. “I’ve been scouring the landscape looking for retired Mets. But no one can support Bernie Williams.”

The experience is enough to give Williams flashbacks to his first at-bat in the big league. The switch hitter was 22 years old when he came to bat against left-handed junkballer Jeff Ballard in the third inning at Yankee Stadium on July 7, 1991. It was not a flying opening note. The Baseball Reference Box Score immortalized the moment this way: Ground out: 3B-1B (Weak 3B).

The outing got better. Williams drove in a run with the sacrifice fly in the fifth and then brought in another run with a infield single in the ninth.

“I remember being very nervous,” Williams said of that debut. “I remember being in this place where there was a lot of uncertainty about my career and my own ability to stay in the big leagues. All I wanted was to have the opportunity to show people what I can do.”

A week later, Williams hit his first home run at Anaheim Stadium against the California Angels. He hit a fastball thrown over the left-center field wall by Chuck Finley. He kept rolling from there: a .297 batting average with 287 home runs and 147 stolen bases over 16 seasons.

July 14, 1991
Bernie Williams hits his first career home run pic.twitter.com/nYIteNuXlL

— NY Yankees Throwbacks (@yankeethrowback) February 19, 2022

Williams helped the Yankees win four World Series titles, including three in a row from 1998 to 2000. His 22 career postseason homers rank third all-time behind Manny Ramírez (29) and José Altuve (27) .

That summation has sometimes applied to his musical career, in part because it would be easy to dismiss Williams as just another retired jock with an expensive new hobby. But his lifelong musical journey is part of what appeals to the New York Philharmonic. The Spring Gala, staged in the David Geffen Hall of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, is a fundraiser for music education. Ginstling wants younger audiences to be inspired by Williams’ scholarly dedication to his craft.

Williams’ first instructor was his father. Bernabé Williams, a merchant sailor, returned from Spain with a gift for his 7-year-old son. It was a guitar his son never put down. The family then found a guitar teacher nearby in Puerto Rico, and by the time Bernie was 9 years old, he had performed on a local radio station with other star students.

“The guitar teacher had all these little kids taking lessons with him, the ones who were kind of excelling,” Williams remembers. “He would give them a chance to play some songs on that radio show. … It was such a great experience and set the stage for everything that came after.”

Williams continued to play throughout his baseball career, especially as he mourned the loss of his father. who died of lung disease in 2001. The former hitting champion then spent a year studying guitar and composition at the State University of New York at Purchase in preparation for his first album, ‘Moving Forward’. That release furthered his bona fides thanks to 14 solid tracks, including collaborations with Bruce Springsteen, Jon Secada and Dave Koz.

Bernie Williams and musician Jon Secada perform at the Grammy SoundCheck on April 17, 2009 in New York City. (Joe Kohen/WireImage)

But eventually Williams formalized his expertise. He enrolled at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music on his way to a bachelor’s degree.

“I’ll tell you what, none of the home runs I hit in the postseason helped me get there,” Williams said. “I really had to reinvent myself. And in a very strange way, I had to earn the admiration of the kids I played with, because they were all virtuosos in their own instruments by the time they went to the Manhattan School of Music.

“I was the old man in the back of the room. I asked all the questions and asked that no one clear the board until I finished writing all the notes.”

Williams wasn’t chasing a degree for the sake of the paper. The experience marked his graduation from baseball player to artist.

“I think the school has given me a great perspective on why I wanted to be a musician and the responsibility we have as music makers to ensure we make this world a better place,” he said. “The joy and power of music is incredible to use for the good of the world.”

Therein lies the message of the Spring Gala and underlines why even a Mets fan like Ginstling embraces a Yankee at home. The eclectic bill on Wednesday aims to introduce new audiences to the philharmonic orchestra. Selections range from a suite from Richard Strauss’ ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ to two pieces by rapper Common to an aria called ‘Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5’, sung by the South Korean soprano Hera Hyesang Park.

“I think that’s what I’m so excited about,” Ginstling said. ‘We will have a lot of Bernie Williams fans in the house that evening who will probably hear the New York Philharmonic for the first time. It will be great for them to hear Bernie, but we want them to hear the orchestra play Strauss. And we want them to hear the orchestra play Nina Shekhar, the emerging composer whose piece we are playing.

“We hope that they get hooked not just on Bernie, but on all this repertoire, and that they come back.”

Until then, Williams sometimes wakes up unexpectedly at half past two in the morning and picks up his guitar. Still half awake, he strums until the notes sound as they should before letting himself fall asleep again.

“That’s the level of preparation you need for an event like this,” he said. “Because when the nerves kick in, you still want to be in control and not freeze when the situation arises. The only antidote to this is good preparation.

“That applies to everything that requires attention, great expectations and great pressure.”

Williams is certainly not the first baseball player to make news with his music. As early as 1964, a bus ride with the Yankees turned exciting when Yogi Berra grew tired of hearing “Mary Had a Little Lamb” as played on the harmonica by a fine infielder named Phil Linz.

But that was the ‘New York Phil harmonica’. The New York Philharmonic is a completely different story.

“Anyway,” Williams said, “baseball has taught me how to perform under pressure, and this will certainly test that.”

(Top photo: Mychal Watts/Getty Images)