An encore from Williams
Ex-Yankee tuning up for the World Classic
Bernie Williams stepped into the batter's box at George Steinbrenner Field in Tampa Friday and started whacking line drives to the gaps. On his last swing, Williams hit a shot that cleared the wall in right, drawing applause from the crowd.
"Stop it!" said former teammate Derek Jeter. "You're making us look bad."
Williams, 40, has been out of baseball for two years. But he is getting ready to play for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic, which he hopes to use as a springboard for a comeback to the majors.
He is also an accomplished classical guitarist and debuts his second CD, "Moving Forward," on April 14. Right now, he says, music and baseball are running neck and neck on his passion chart, but Williams is committed to playing ball again.
"I feel really awesome right now," he said. "The important thing for me is to try and get through this and to stay healthy. At this stage of my life, I can't afford to have any setbacks or injuries.
"All that said, the most important thing for me is to have fun. I'm like this guy who has gotten a second chance. If you had a second chance to do it over again, what would you do different? I'm that guy right now."
He made an attempt to play winter ball but came up with a quadriceps injury, exactly what he was hoping to avoid. He has been able to use the Yankee trainer's room and exercise machines for conditioning, an indication of how the relationship between him and the team has been repaired. Williams departed bitterly after the 2006 season when his five-year, $72 million deal was up.
He was one of the best.
He hit .297 for his career, with 2,336 hits, 287 home runs, a .381 on-base percentage, four Gold Gloves, and one batting title. He was a terrific postseason performer, with 22 home runs and 80 RBIs. He was smooth as silk. After the 1999 season, the Yankees and Red Sox got into a bidding war for his services.
"It was very close," Williams said. "It came down to a situation where at the last minute I knew I wanted to be a Yankee. Boston is a great organization with a lot of tradition. I was very tempted.
"It came down to the fact that I'd been here already for many years and I was used to the situation here and it was a more comfortable situation for me to be here. But I came very close to being a Red Sox."
He takes fly balls in left and center. He says he still gets good jumps, good reads. He's taking good angles to balls. Williams wants to prove he can be more than just a scrub player or the 25th man.
"I'm sure there's going to be a lot of skepticism for somebody not playing for two years," he said. "So I understand it's going to be hard to convince people I can still play and what role I can play without breaking down as a 40-year-old player.
"But I'm very committed to this. I'm very grateful to the Yankees for the opportunity to work out with the team. Just being around some of these guys who have been a part of this run from 1996 to about 2002, it has to be a positive influence. But my focus is to get ready two weeks from now when the real competition starts."
He said he wasn't ready to end it two years ago. But the Yankees gave him no more than an invite to camp, and he left angry.
"I had to reconnect to my family, look at my life, and just see what was most important," he said. "If I had played a couple of more years, I might not have been happy with myself and probably would have come home to an empty house.
"The Yankees made the decision easier for me and I took it as a sign that maybe I should shut it down for two years. I decided I was going to do my music and reconnect with my family."
So he tried to make himself the best classical guitarist. He experimented with rock, Latin jazz, ballads. He wrote music and did some backup vocals.
"It has taken me a while to realize I share a love for both, but in music I'm going to have an opportunity to play for a lot of years," he said. "I can play until I'm 80. In baseball, I know my days are numbered."
The question is, can a man who was a perfectionist as a player accept being less than that?
"That's a very interesting question," he said. "I still think I can be the best of what I have left. There's a big league bar and you don't want to be at it, you want to be above it. I still think I can be above it."
Things could get testy
Harry Manion of the Boston law firm Cooley Manion Jones feels the baseball players' union has opened itself up to potential legal issues after Alex Rodriguez's name was leaked to the media from a batch of confidential drug-test results that were supposed to be destroyed.
"A-Rod has said he wants to put this behind him," said Manion, "but if more names start to come out on the list of 104, I'm guessing it's not out of the realm of possibility you're going to see players come out who feel they have a claim against the union or the agents."
The union said it was asked to turn over the results to the federal government and therefore couldn't destroy them. Critics claim the union waited too long to destroy them.
Now fingers are being crossed around baseball in hopes that no additional names leak. If they do, it could start to get ugly between players and the union.
Manion thinks Rodriguez got the right legal advice to admit to using performance enhancers. He seems to have protected himself by doing so. If Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds had done the same thing early in the process, neither would have been charged with lying to a grand jury and/or Congress. They now find themselves embroiled in a legal mess that won't likely end well unless they admit to something and take a lesser punishment.
Manion said he would be surprised if Clemens doesn't try to cop a plea. He also thinks Bonds has a chance to get off scot-free.
"Bonds has more leverage, and the evidence against him doesn't provide a lock for the government's case against him," said Manion.
Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada also saw the light, plea bargained, and admitted he lied before Congress. He still faces possible probation, and while the legal issues don't necessarily go away, the fact that two prominent players are saying, "I did it," makes you wonder whether behind the scenes Bonds and Clemens are trying to find a way to minimize the damage.
After bullpen baptism, Rays' Price can't wait to get started
A few questions for Tampa Bay phenom starter David Price.
Has the postseason success changed your life?
DP: "I think a few more people know who I am. I get recognized a little bit more, but otherwise nothing much has changed for me. I'm just a guy trying to make the team, trying to get that No. 5 starter's job. This is a great rotation and it's not easy to make it, so that's where my focus is right now."
I know you have great confidence in your ability, but did your performance in the postseason surprise even you?
DP: "The performance didn't because I do have a lot of confidence in my ability. I just didn't know how I'd react to the situation because you can't get any more pressure than the postseason and facing the Boston Red Sox in the AL Championship or facing the Phillies in the World Series. So I can take that experience now and know that I handled it, so the next time it comes - and I hope that's this year - I can be more prepared and know what to expect."
You'll be a starter from Day 1 and no longer coming out of the bullpen. Will we see a different pitcher as a starter?
DP: "Not really. I think as a reliever, I'm not sure if I threw one changeup in any of my appearances, so as a starter I'll use my changeup when I need it. I think that will be the biggest difference. There's no big transition since I've always been a starter, so this is what I do. Coming out of the bullpen was different for me, but I'm getting back to what I do."
Will your postseason experience allow you to get fully entrenched in the AL East rivalry with Boston and New York?
DP: "I think that was the real eye-opener for me. The Boston fans are so passionate and there's such great tradition there and people are really into the team. In New York, you're playing before 56,000 people and the atmosphere is pressure-packed, so yeah, I hope to dive right into it and be effective for my team."
Etc.
2. Don Zimmer, Rays senior adviser: Zim is recovering from a stroke on Dec. 23 and also had a mishap when he fell at the team's Port Charlotte spring training site, but his speech is improving and his spirits are up. He noted about Rocco Baldelli, "I love that kid. I cried when I thought about what he went through with that disease. This kid was a five-tool player. I used to watch him hit a baseball and the ball just shot off his bat. He hit balls hard like Big Papi and he could run. I hope the kid makes it back big in Boston because there are few players you see in this game with that type of raw ability."
3. Andy Marte, Indians third baseman: The player the Sox obtained in the Edgar Renteria trade with Atlanta and flipped to Cleveland in the Coco Crisp deal was designated for assignment last week. Marte, who showed so much promise in the Braves system but has flopped badly, is opt of options but may get another chance somewhere.
4. Bobby Abreu, Angels outfielder: Looks like he will bat second behind Chone Figgins and ahead of Vlad Guerrero. It also looks as if Kendry Morales is the leading candidate to replace Mark Teixeira at first base. The switch-hitting Morales batted .332 in four minor league seasons, but has hit just .249 with 12 homers and 45 RBIs in 377 major league at-bats.
5. Corey Koskie, free agent third baseman: Last year in this space, we told the story of how vertigo drove Koskie out of baseball after the 2005 season. Now 35, he has been working out at the Twins camp. He is eyeing a return to Team Canada for the World Baseball Classic and possibly a return to the majors.
6. Kevin Cash, Yankees catcher: The former Sox backup said this about the Yankee staff: "It's a lot like Boston, where there are some great arms. Obviously, CC and A.J. [ Burnett] and Andy [ Pettitte] and Joba [Chamberlain] and Chien-Ming [Wang], but what people don't know is that there are some pretty good young arms here too. This kid [Mark] Melancon [a nonroster invitee] has as good a stuff as you'll ever see. I don't know what their plans are for him. I know he's coming off Tommy John surgery, but what stuff. This kid Andrew Brackman has a tremendous arm. When he figures it out, watch out. He can really throw. And the guys in here are great. Very similar to Boston in that there are good people in here."
7. CC Sabathia, Yankees pitcher: With a decent bullpen in New York, Sabathia shouldn't feel he has to pitch complete games, but as he put it, "I love pitching the whole game. It's what we're supposed to do. But with this bullpen, I have no problem handing the ball off to someone. This is going to work real well."
8. Gabe Kapler, Rays outfielder: Player-turned-manager-turned-player, Kapler has tremendous knowledge of Boston's top prospects, including Lars Anderson, who played for him in Greenville. Even better, says Kapler, "A lot of these kids in the [Rays] clubhouse I managed against when I was with the Red Sox." Kapler said the best thing he ever did was take the year away from baseball. "I thought I was just going to continue managing," he said, "but after a year I realized my body had recuperated and I knew I could play again. I'd recommend a year off to any veteran player."
9. Bartolo Colon, White Sox pitcher: His physique has already become fodder for relentless manager Ozzie Guillen. Colon, who was weighed in at 245 pounds (which everyone thinks is a joke), brought this observation from Guillen: "Colon was 350 pounds when he won the Cy Young [in 2005]. He's not a model. When you're not a model, you have to be careful. He's not a jockey. He's in better shape than what I thought."
Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com. 
