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Was This It for Williams as a Yankee?

By BILL PLASCHKE
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Bernie Williams had a perfect opportunity Wednesday to quiet the fears of Yankee fans by announcing that, all things being equal, he wanted to remain a Yankee.

He did not. In fact, he only heightened those fears by saying that after he becomes a free agent this winter, the Yankees have only the same chance as anybody else of signing him.

“Their chances are as good as any other team’s,” Williams said before going 0 for 4 in the 3-0 victory. “I have a lot of good memories, and will those weigh in my decision? Yes. But there’s also been a lot of things that have gone on between the parties.”

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Some of those things have been messy arbitration hearings.

Another thing occurred when the Yankees’ first offer to Williams--about $37 million for five years--didn’t come close to agent Scott Boras’ demand of about $77 million for seven years.

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Bill Plaschke

Bill Plaschke, an L.A. Times sports columnist since 1996, is a member of the National Sports Media Hall of Fame and California Sports Hall of Fame. He has been named national Sports Columnist of the Year nine times by the Associated Press, and twice by the Society of Professional Journalists and National Headliner Awards. He is the author of six books, including a collection of his columns entitled “Plaschke: Good Sports, Spoilsports, Foul Balls and Oddballs.” Plaschke is also a panelist on the popular ESPN daily talk show, “Around the Horn.” He is in the national Big Brothers/Big Sisters Alumni Hall of Fame and has been named Man of the Year by the Los Angeles Big Brothers/Big Sisters as well as receiving a Pursuit of Justice Award from the California Women’s Law Center. Plaschke has appeared in a movie (“Ali”), a dramatic HBO series (“Luck”) and, in a crowning cultural moment he still does not quite understand, his name can be found in a rap song “Females Welcome” by Asher Roth.

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