SPRINGDALE — Bernie Williams moved from center field to center stage.
Williams battled the blues after his major-league baseball career ended in 2006 — Williams, 43, still hasn’t officially retired — but he found solace in music. Williams was well known for playing his classical guitar in the clubhouse during his 16-year career with the New York Yankees, and his off-the-field hobby has become his newfound life’s work.
Williams was the keynote speaker Saturday night at a fundraiser for the Kendrick Fincher Hydration Foundation at the Holiday Inn Convention Center. During a meet-and-greet, arrangements were made by local weatherman Dan Skoff to have a friend bring a guitar so Williams could perform during the dinner.
“The music outlet, I never really realized how important it was until I became very interested in doing it on a full-time basis,” said Williams, who has released two albums, one of which was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award in 2010. “I pick up my guitar and practice for hours and hours. Playing with my own band and being able to perform under somewhat of a pressure situation. All the lights are on me.
“It’s not like I’m one of the musicians in the band. I am the musician that everybody looks at. The band is backing me up.”
The music also replaced the hole in Williams’ life after he played in 1991-2006 with the Yankees. Williams, a career .297 hitter, was sometimes underappreciated on those successful Yankees teams, but he was key player, finishing his career with 2,336 hits, 4 Gold Gloves and 4 World Series rings.
Williams said the end of his baseball career put him in a temporary funk.
“You can go into a deep depression, man,” Williams said. “There’s nothing that I can compare with being the center fielder for the New York Yankees. You live your life 150 mph every day. It’s a high-profile, high-pressure, high-everything position.
“Once that is gone, you still have a lot of things in your essence that thrives for that competitiveness. I needed to have something that occupied my mind and kept me challenged.”
When Williams first began to play music full time, he was still known as the All-Star outfielder who was pretty good on the guitar.
When he played gigs early on, people would congratulate him and want to talk baseball.
That g race period is coming to end as Williams finds himself being judged purely on a musician level. For Williams, that’s cool.
“I take it very seriously,” Williams said. “Time is running out where I can sneak up on people who say, ‘Let’s see if he can really play.’ Those days are over.
“It’s awesome now. I have people coming up to me and saying, ‘I love your music.’ ”
And, about that baseball retirement, Williams seems content on being an unsigned active player for a bit longer. He joked that he will announce his retirement when he turns 70.
His time with the Yankees coincided with a string of world championships and brought Williams fame and incredible amounts of money.
“As a player, if you want to play for a team, the Yankees are the team you want to play for,” Williams said. “But you’ve got to perform.”
It’s the same in music, as Williams has happily discovered.
Sports, Pages 26 on 08/19/2012