At least the first question to Bernie Williams during his long-overdue “retirement” press conference Friday night got right to the point: “What took so long?”
Nearly nine years after his final game in pinstripes in 2006, Williams – the popular four-time World Series champion and five-time All-Star center fielder who since has embarked on a career as a jazz guitarist – inked a one-day minor-league deal with the Staten Island Yankees and then finally signed his official retirement papers from baseball before the opener of the Subway Series against the Mets.
“I don’t know, I don’t think it was that important to me at the time.