 We will bring in a very special guest right now. Yes. Looking sharp as always. Thank you. Bernie, will you? I don't know about the sharp, but he's very sharp. Oh, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. You look terrific. That was a jazz musician look. There you go. It's kind of rare to see him without a glove, bat, or guitar. Right? That is true. That's right. Yes. What are those three things you be in your head at all time? Not a microphone, though. No, not at all. Why not? Now, you obviously watched the series. What did you take away? I was very frustrated. I still think that even though the Yankees came up short, they still have a pretty good year. When you win 100 games, it still tells you that you're doing some things right. But unfortunately, New York and especially the Yankees don't get judged by the regular season. They get judged by the postseason and their results. And I think at that particular point in the game for this team, they definitely need to make some adjustments. They had a lot of writing on this lineup to be productive. And I think it was a lot to put on Ann Duhar and Glaber to try to carry that team and be part of that lineup. I think it's definitely going to be a great learning experience for them. And I mean, I don't know their mindset because I was not in the clubhouse. But I know what it did for me to be cut short in this series. In 95, we got cut short in Seattle. We ended up winning in 96. In 97, I made the last out in that Cleveland wildcard thing. And I ended up having one of the best runs of my career, 98, 99, 2000, even 2001. So my experience will tell me that these guys are going to take this loss. And they're going to make a lot out of it. And they're going to work so much harder in the off-season. And I predict that this team is going to be a much different team next year. And they're going to hopefully take it a lot farther than they did this year. Didn't happen to you that often. But last year, they go to game 7 of the league championship series. This season, they took a step back. How difficult is that to? All right, you learned from losing. But they're going to look back and go, well, we thought we were going to take the next step. And we actually took a step backwards. Yeah. I don't think I should look at it that way, because in short series, anything can happen. And I think you can lose in the first game on the first series in the wildcars, as you can lose in the World Series, you can lose in the American League championship. And to me, it's all the same, because it's just short series. And anything could happen in those short series. The thing is about getting up to that point in the regular season and have that opportunity to be part of that postseason teams. You can look at it like that it was a step back. But if you look at it in that light, I think you're missing a little bit of what the team was all about this year. There's a lot of positives that I can take from this team this season. And like I said before, they won 100 games, man. It was just Boston had just an unbelievable season. And they're playing inspired. And that's kind of hard to deal with that. I mean, you live on both sides of the street here, because the championships we won in 96, 98, 99, 2,000, that team had home runs. But it was not a home run hitting team. There were hits up and down the order. Then after 2001, you guys started getting eliminated in rounds, because that was a home run predicted team. That's how they scored runs. I think home runs go away in the postseason, certainly in big moments. Can a team win just being a home run hitting team? I do not believe so. And this is the reason why. I think in postseason more importantly than any other part of the season, I think you are hanging on small details and nuances. And some of these things can make such a big impact in games. Things that may not be, I don't know, looked up in stats. Moving a runner over at the right time, making the right out, throwing somebody out, making a good defensive play. These things are so significant in postseason that they can mean the difference between winner and losing. And I think for hitters, I think I'd rather take a complete hitter that would take a quality of bat. Even if it's a walk, you take a quality of bat, rather than somebody that is just trying to hit the ball out of the yard and then whatever happens, happens. I think there was, in our teams, in our era, we had guys that were not in any leader division, offensively, home runs or RBI's. But we were guys that would grind out at bats. We had like 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 pitch at bats. And we were out the opposition trying to get to the bullpen early. And we were guys that were hitting 20 home runs, 20 to 25 home runs, maybe 75 to 85 RBI's, all across the board. But we were tough hitters. And some of the parts was the thing that made the lineup. If you had a guy like Brochus hitting 9th and still being the MVP of the World Series, what does it tell you about the rest of the lineup? We were guys that were grinding at bats, working walks, and then just waiting for our opportunity to produce. The problem with the birdie saying, and I guess it irritates me about baseball, is I'm not sure any of that applies anymore. Working counts. Why? To get to the bullpen. Nobody wants to go to the bullpen. Some teams' bullpens are better than the starting pitchers. You don't dread going to the bullpen. In order to work a count, Bernie, you have to have a two-strike approach. These guys don't have it. They're trying to hit a home run 0-2, just like they would if they're up 2-0 on the count. The ninth inning is the best example of it. Both Sanchez and Stanton, you almost knew we were getting out when Kimberle couldn't buy a strike. Yes. Yes, that's true. Well, I thought Sanchez had a good at bat. I think they had a terrible at bat. I think Sanchez came with an inches of hitting a grand slam. And that's something that you cannot do much about. I mean, I remember watching that 14-back and having Kajas Strensky going out with the game on the line and then just missing a pitch when he has come through so many times for that team. So the only thing that you can do is put yourself in a good position to have a good at bat. And then sometimes you'll be successful. More times than not, if you have the talent, you will be successful. But you have to be able to carry that thing that may not go your way. But the only thing that you can do is put yourself in a good position to have a good at bat. The thing I remember about you and your teammates have told me that in big moments, you didn't freak out. I mean, it wasn't like the game sped up for you. It was still very chill when you came to the play. Do you see that with these Yankee players? Do you think that the game was speeding up for Jean-Claude Stanton? Well, I think this is what I think. I think that when you are thinking to go yard every at bat, it limits your ability to see the whole picture. Like you can help a team a lot better in terms of having a good at bat. And what is a good at bat? For a slugger, if they don't want to pitch to you, don't swing at that pitch. Just take the initiative to work the count and make the pitcher work and not really guess to see if I'm going to swing at this pitch no matter where it is, because I think it's going to be a strike. Maybe sort of work the count. Just see these guys and try to hit the ball where it's pitch, trying to. I mean, these guys don't even, these guys nowadays, they don't really need to pull the ball to hit it out. They don't have, they don't need to have that mentality of I need to hit the ball hard to hit it out because they're so strong they can go the other way. They can hit the ball straight away center field. So that particular thing about hitting the ball out should be out of their minds. They should just think about making good contact with the baseball. And if you are hitting it in the right angle, obviously it's going to go out. But still, if you hit it hard somewhere, you could keep the things going and hitting is contagious. So you get a guy on base, you walk, you get a double, you get a base hit, you get so much havoc for the defense and the pitching. And in my mind, the way that I see the game played, the sum of the parts, it's what makes our team, it's what made our team dangerous. You can have a guy having just the things rolling. Some guy gets on, somebody gets him over, then you get another hit, you get a double, then you get somebody hitting, and just kind of keeps the pressure going. And to me, that was the way that I learned how to play and how our teams were successful that way. Joe Tori, as opposed to what's happening now. I mean, could Joe manage now? Because he went, there wasn't a lot of analytics when you played, right? So is there a manager like that anymore? Does that even apply to today's game of what made him a good manager? Of course, of course. But how do you do it then? You have to play the game, just play the game. What's the right way to play in the game? You still have to hit the ball, you still have to play the game with character and dignity, play the right way, hustle all the time. And just to me, having good at bats, which not necessarily mean hitting the ball out. Having a good at bats, it's mean working the count, just hitting the ball solidly, and take some data for your next at bat and your next at bat. It makes it a lot difficult these days because maybe to your point, starting pitching is not the way it used to be. Some people will give you three, four innings and then you go right into the bullpen. But they still need to throw strikes. They still need to come to you. And I think we did a really good job in making the game come to us, as opposed to kind of like reaching out. We'll talk with Bernie Williams here on the Michael K Show, but contrary to what you're saying that it could still happen, your former manager, Buck Show Alger, I was talking with him the last time the Orioles were in town and he said, you can't tell players what to do anymore. He said, they're not gonna move runners over because they're paid to hit home runs. There's no shame in striking out anymore. They don't care. He said, for them to lay down a bunt or take the extra base, that's not what they're getting paid on. The game pays on home runs and strikeouts. It's weird. Well, I think if that's the case, then we're going into a really, really interesting philosophical discussion here. Yeah, I know. Is it about the team winning or is it about the player having good numbers? But the analytics people think that that's the best way to win is just hit home runs and strikeout. Well, I don't know. I mean, you can justify any kind of theory that you want. If you wanna play the game, and people that have played the game, I think that it takes a little bit of everything. It takes a guy that can move the runner over because it's just a moment in time that it will require you to do something special. You don't have to hit home runs all the time to win games. The game, we have sort of minimized and sort of limit the game to just a couple of things that you have to do. You have to hit the ball out. You have to do this. You have to do that. But the game is so much more complex. There's so much more strategy that comes with the game of baseball that makes it the game it is. And I think now with this, we're just kind of like sort of condensing the thing and just kind of sort of pay more emphasis on certain things. But we're kind of like neglecting what make this game great. And to me, it's just playing a full game and being a complete player. Yeah, it's so frustrating because I don't think that's the way they unfortunately look at it anymore. What's going on in the player's minds right now? Season's over, very disappointing. Do you shut down? Do you start working immediately? What's the schedule like after you have a disappointing loss like that? It depends on your level of frustration. To me, I mean, I can always talk about myself when I made the last out in 1997 on a bonehead at bat. So we got the first pitch, Jose Mesa sort of hung a slider and I just kind of went for it and I just sort of popped it up to left field and it was such a great situation in the game for me to show up and kind of come clutch. I took it to heart so bad that the whole off season for me was, you could have played the Rocky theme every day and that would be me working so hard in my game, trying to make sure that I was at the best of my game and what that moment of frustration did in 1997, it propelled me to have some of the best runs that I've ever had in my career in years, 98, 99, 2000, I had pretty good years but it came out of that frustration from 97. So if they have any kind of inclination of thinking the same way that I did, this team is certainly gonna take this experience and try to make something out of it for next year. I wanna run something by you. I've been so impressed the way Aaron Judge carries himself. I think he's almost a perfect athlete for this day and age. He doesn't style, he doesn't pimp his home runs, he doesn't show anybody up, hardly does anything wrong. Then I was kind of surprised after game two, he walks past the Red Sox clubhouse, as you walk to the bus with a boom box booming New York, New York. It's kind of like trolling them and then when they win yesterday, they're playing New York, New York during the celebration spring champagne around the clubhouse. Were you surprised that Aaron did that and do you think that could be a motivating force for the Red Sox? Well, anything could happen in the heat of the moment. And I think when you have the passion for the game that Aaron has, and I would assume the rest of the team has, you can get a little carried away. Things like that don't bother me as much, but what I tell you is this, it does affect the opposition because I remember playing in Oakland and that series that we played in Oakland, I'm trying to remember the year, I think it was 98 or 99, they happened to broadcast the press conferences as we were doing that in practice. And they have the Oakland stadium, the Oakland Coliseum and they have people, they're talking, answering questions. And I remember Eric Chavez being interviewed and saying something alluding to the fact that we were kind of like the old guard and they were the new guard coming in and it was time for us to sort of step aside and have them have their moment in the shiny moment in the sun. And as we're watching this and batting practice, we're like saying, what is he talking about? And I would like to believe that that moment in time sort of add fuel to the fire. And I think I was, it just made it more, not only a thing that we had to win for the city and the team, but it made it a little bit more personal to me. And obviously it made me play a little bit harder because I was taking it personal. It was not a business, it was not about the game, it was about this guy's trying to show us off. See, that's what I didn't understand. I totally hear what you're saying. It's just not Aaron. That's not the way he is. That's why when I heard it, I was like, wow. But he's a young player and he's a young player and he's passionate about the game. Maybe he heard something from them that was not publicized or was not sort of reported. The players knew. That the players knew. And maybe he just kind of reacted to that. But at the same time, that's why I'm such a proponent of old school, not showing everybody off and not really talking about just doing your talking on the field and doing all that stuff because it really worked for me. And it is something that is, I don't know, the game is kind of changing that way with the advent of social media. There's a lot of people making commentary and making a lot of things. And sometimes they don't take the time to sort of take back and say, what are the ramifications of this thing that I'm doing right now? Yeah, I don't have, exactly. I don't have the sort of the middle, the buffer from my media relations guy. I don't have a reporter with a microphone in my, now I can just go here and say whatever I need to say and just send it with no filter, no nothing. I mean, that might be good for media, for publishing and for marketing, but sometimes these things would have a repercussion on the other team. All right, what's wrong with Bernie Williams? This Friday night, that's October 12th, Bernie Williams and his all-star band returned to New York City with a concert at the Schimmel Center at Pace University. Special VIP meet and greet tickets are available. We get the best premium seats in the house and you meet up with Bernie after the show for photos. Plus, he'll take you out to dinner and though that's true, that's not true. Plus, he'll be signing CDs and other music merchandise. Now for tickets and info, call the Schimmel Center box office at 212-346-1715 or you can find links to tickets at bernie51.com or on Bernie's Facebook page. You can also find him on Instagram at berniewilliamsofficial and Twitter at bw51official. Tickets are currently at lowest $29, but going fast, so tell me about the concert. All over the place, man, all over the place. Yes, I've had an opportunity to do a lot of great things this summer, playing at your gig, that was a lot of fun. Had a chance to go to Savannah and play at the Savannah Jazz Festival, came to NJ Packed and played with this world-renowned bass player named Kristen McBride with his big band and played a couple of numbers and an event, a tribute to Sarah Vaughn and Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. So I'm moving myself into this sort of music thing in the city and beyond the city and it's working, I mean, I'm working as hard as I did as a musical, as a baseball player to try to make some sort of an impact and this industry, it's not really easy, man, it's very competitive. Is this as fulfilling for you as when you were a player? Is it fulfilling that void? Absolutely, no doubt about it. I mean, the amount of music and the amount of talent that is in this city alone, it makes you work hard and obviously networking and the people that you know that can lead you to other opportunities, but the fact of the matter is that you still have to play and you still have to be ready. And as ready as I was, you know, as a baseball player, you know, it's a daily thing. You work on your batting practice, you work on your swings, you know, whether it's soft toss or, you know, whatever, in music is the same thing. You got to make sure that your chops, as they call it, us cats, I guess. You jazz cats and your chops. Well, actually, I mean, it's jazz but it's all kinds of music, you know. You got to be ready for when the opportunity comes, you don't waste it and you make the best out of it and that's what I'm trying to do. All right, so this Friday, it's at the Schimmel Center at Pace University again for tickets, 212-346-1715, or you can find links to tickets at bernie51.com. You're great at what you do. You're really tremendous when you come in. Oh, thank you so much. This is not some jabroni athlete pretending they can play. No. And people like feel bad for them so they show off. This is a guy who's got chops to play and he can do it a lot longer than he played baseball, too, absolutely. That's the one thing that I really appreciate about this and that there's, in baseball, I kind of knew where I was and how much, you know, what I could do, what I couldn't do, what was I good at and why, you know, things that I would stay away from. In music, there hasn't really been a ceiling for me. You're always in this sort of mentality that there's always something to learn from great players and the ability to play with different people in different times. It's just, I'm just living the dream, man. It's just an amazing experience for me. Well, what Michael Jordan said, the ceiling is the roof and the roof on Friday is gonna be the shimmel set. Thank you. That's it, man, that's it. Bernie, great to see you. Thank you so much, man. Thank you for having me. Michael K. Shaw, 9870, SPN, brought to you by Geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. 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