Bernie Back Where He Belongs

From Tyler Kepner:

Two years later, Bernie Williams finally returned to the Yankees’ spring training camp. He’s not on the team, but he’s here to get ready for the World Baseball Classic. Williams will be with the Yankees until March 2, when he will report to Fort Myers with Team Puerto Rico.

“It doesn’t feel strange,” Williams said. “It feels great.”

Williams dressed at an unmarked locker near his old corner spot – now occupied by Jose Veras – but wore his familiar No. 51 jersey and batting helmet.

Williams still has his family – his wife and three kids, as well as his Yankees family. He even visited principal owner George Steinbrenner on Thursday for about 20 minutes, mostly talking about old times.

Here's some more from Anthony DiComo:

"I think it's important for Bernie to be around," Girardi said. "Your friends want to see you. The fans want to see you. Obviously, he has other things that he's doing in his life, but he was an important Yankee. I think it's important that he's around."

Thursday marked the first of 11 days in Yankees camp for Williams, who is working into game shape for next month's Classic. Though he won't know for sure whether he has made the final Puerto Rican roster until next week, team officials have already taken his uniform size -- "so that's always a good sign," Williams laughed. He will work out with the Puerto Rican team beginning March 2 in Fort Myers, Fla., then will likely come off the bench to spell starting center fielder Carlos Beltran in the tournament.

From there, it's anybody's guess. If all goes well in the Classic, Williams said he might not be able to resist the temptation of a return to the big leagues.

"Right now, I'm taking it as it comes," Williams said. "I'm really concentrating on representing my country well and not embarrassing me or the team. And then, from that point on, if I still feel the competition in me and I still have the fire, I may have to consider seriously taking the opportunity of perhaps playing somewhere else. But right now, it's a very premature statement. I'm saying that my focus right now is the World Baseball Classic, and that's about it."

"He's a part of our family," Girardi said of his old teammate Williams. "Obviously, he's retired as a Yankee. But once you're a Yankee, you're always a Yankee."

"I feel that I never left," Williams said. "There's always going to be this small kid inside of me saying, 'You can still do this, man. You can still do this.'"

And this from Mark Feinsand:

"The fact that I stepped away had nothing to do with being angry with them. I had to take care of some things, step away and really figure out what was important in my life. I think I'm in a better place right now."

"Right now, I'm having a great time," he said. "I faced some guy from Double-A or Triple-A throwing gas and I hit a line drive up the middle. What else could I ask for?"

Nice to see Bernie back at spring training. I'm not sure how much playing time he will get with Puerto Rico in the WBC, but hopefully he can contribute.

So when is Bernie Williams day at the new stadium?