Williams’ Demeanor Sets Tone for Yankees

It was early in Bernie Williams’ career, during one of those late-season call-ups from the minors, that the New York Yankee center fielder was entertaining autograph hounds outside the players’ exit at Yankee Stadium.

A young fan approached the gathering, eager to get the prospect’s signature, when he heard Williams carrying on a conversation in Spanish.

“Damn, Bernie,” the kid said before turning around and walking away, sans signature. “I thought you were a brother.”

A certain aura of mystery has always surrounded Bernabe Figueroa Williams, who, some say, is the best player on the best team in major league baseball.

Trained in his native San Juan, Puerto Rico, to be a classical guitarist, he possesses a quiet demeanor that contradicts his ferocious on-field game face.

Williams, 31, plays center field with the fluidity and grace of Yankee Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle but bristles at such compliments.

He is New York’s silent leader.

With the Yankees playing in their third American League championship series in the last four years, Williams prefers to lead by example. At least when he’s not catching a power nap.

“Bernie doesn’t really say too much; he’s kind of a unique person,” New York shortstop Derek Jeter said Saturday after the Yankees had swept the Texas Rangers in a division series. “He’ll come [to the stadium] and he’ll fall asleep, wake up 15 minutes before the game, go out there and play. . . .

“He just goes out there and performs on the field.”

Williams takes pride in his speak-softly-but-carry-a-big-bat mentality.

“That’s just the way I am,” he said. “I don’t really like to talk that much about myself or the things that I do. But I really enjoy what I do. I like to play hard and I figure that [because] I’m so fortunate to be in the position that I’m in, it would be silly not to take advantage of the opportunity, to play hard and try to enjoy every moment.”

He did just that in Game 1 Wednesday against Boston, hitting the game-winning homer in the bottom of the 10th of New York’s 4-3 victory.

He also had to enjoy the division series against Texas, his monster Game 1 setting the tone for the series.

Williams went three for five with a two-run double, a three-run homer and six runs batted in, and had seven putouts in the field during an 8-0 victory.

Yet it was his rally-killing sliding catch of Juan Gonzalez’s fly ball in the third inning that turned the tide, according to Texas Manager Johnny Oates.

“It would have been a whole different series,” Oates said after the three-game sweep. “That play set the tone, I thought.”

But Williams wasn’t finished.

In the clinching Game 3, Royce Clayton seemed destined to break the Rangers out of their hitting funk when he sent a drive deep to left-center field. But Williams, shading Clayton to right-center, ran it down and made the catch just before hitting the wall.

“He got good jumps on the balls, made it look easy,” Oates said after the 3-0 loss. “I haven’t seen that too many times this year, especially when you’re playing on the other side of second [base].”

Said Yankee Manager Joe Torre: “We talk about how many tools he has. But his defense, the play on Juan the other night, it was huge. Those are the things he’s capable of doing. And, you know, it’s nice to see him step up.”

Williams came close to making those types of plays for either the Boston Red Sox or the Arizona Diamondbacks this season.

Last winter he was playing the free-agent role and reportedly had offers in excess of $90 million from both clubs. Meanwhile, the Yankees had a relatively paltry $60 million on the table.

Plus, his genteel persona had sometimes been mistaken for weakness by Yankee owner George Steinbrenner, who had once wanted a “soft” Williams traded.

“I didn’t realize until the end that it was very important for me to stay a Yankee,” Williams said. “I was sort of like caught up in the moment of being a free agent and trying to get compensated the way that I felt that I was entitled to.”

He was, after all, coming off a season in which he became the first player to win a batting title, Gold Glove and World Series championship in the same year. And the Yankees were entertaining thoughts of signing Albert Belle, whose character has never been mentioned in the same breath as Williams’.

“But at some point,” Williams said, “I realized that there are a lot of things more important than money.”

So after getting the Yankees to adjust their offer to $87.5 million for seven years, he re-upped with the organization that initially signed him for $15,000 on his 17th birthday.

Williams didn’t disappoint.

The switch-hitter had another strong all-around year for the Yankees in 1999, even as he endured a recurring battle with inflammation and tendinitis in his left shoulder.

He set career standards in batting average (.342), hits (202), runs (116), RBIs (115), walks (100) and games played (158).

Throw in the 25 home runs he hit and it’s easy to see that New York’s investment was as wise as any 401(k) plan.

“Bernie, he’s a special person, a special talent,” Torre said. “He’s the same guy making 10 cents [as $87.5 million]. He’s the same person.

“For him to have . . . the year he had this year, it’s very impressive. A lot of times he comes in and it’s like he shouldn’t be playing baseball, he should be doing something else. That’s the mentality he has.”

And that’s the reputation that precedes him, even though Williams this year became the first Yankee to have 200 hits and 100 walks in the same season since Lou Gehrig in 1937.

Still, Williams prefers to stay in the background, even as the New York tabloids and fans campaign for him to become the first Yankee captain since Don Mattingly retired in 1995.

“I take a lot of pride in keeping my private life private. I figure the less people know about me, the better off I am,” said Williams, a married father of three. “Professional athletes, and celebrities, for that matter, need to have a private life. There’s some things that we like to keep to ourselves, like everybody else does. The fact is that everything we do gets coverage these days. But I like the way it works out for me. I just like to keep my life private.”

That’s not to say he shuns the Yankees’ recent wealth of success and all that accompanies it. He just puts it in perspective.

“It’s one of those things where you enjoy the moment and certainly you shouldn’t take it for granted,” he said. “But at the same time, we look ahead and get ready for the next step.”

It’s a wise philosophy, certainly smarter than walking away from a Bernie Williams autograph.