Yankees legend Bernie Williams using his music to help those affected by disease that took his father's life
Bernie Williams knows many people recognize him for wearing pinstripes, hitting from both sides of the plate and winning World Series titles with the New York Yankees. It is where his main legacy lies in the game of baseball.
However, throughout the years manning centerfield for the Yankees, Williams' love for music, specifically the guitar, was always prevalent.
He recalled to Fox News Digital how, one day in the Yankees clubhouse, rock legend Bruce Springsteen was walking around meeting the players. Usually, the Yankees are the ones being asked for an autograph, but this time, Springsteen was the main attraction as he made his way through the clubhouse.
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Williams did not want an autograph on a bat or baseball, though. That was too simple.
"So, I have this Fender Telecaster in my locker and I said to him, ‘Hey, would you please sign this? I’m not going to make you sign a ball or bat. I think this would be really cool,'" Williams said. "So, he signed the guitar saying, ‘To Bernie, if you ever get tired of baseball…’"
Springsteen, a wizard on stage, may have foreseen the sweet-swinging Williams getting into music in the future. It is his musical career, post-baseball, that is being used to honor his late father's legacy, while helping others along the way.
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This Friday marks Rare Disease Day, and Williams spoke to Fox News Digital about his work with Tune In To Lung Health, a program created to support patients dealing with interstitial lung disease (ILD), as well as their loved ones.
ILD causes irreversible scarring of the lungs that can make it difficult to breathe – so difficult that many patients are left needing to carry oxygen tanks. The disease affects roughly 50,000 Americans each year, and it has no cure.
Bernabé Williams Figueroa Sr. died in 2001 due to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a type of IDL.
"He was the one that taught me how to play baseball," Williams recalled about his father. "He was the one that taught me how to play music with my guitar and all that. All of these things come together full circle with this initiative, where I can really give back to the community, remember his legacy and do great things to my mind as well, being able to feel rewarded as I help other people navigate through these really challenging times."
This program explores how music and breathing can help people cope with both the physical and mental aspects of disease, and it has allowed Williams to connect with patients and caregivers through his music.
"Music has always been a really important part of my life, and as I’ve grown older, I can see how powerful music is in all aspects of life," he said. "You can use it for healing. If you’re emotional, it can get you through hard times. You can use it for working out. The power of music is just so vast, and for me, it just seems like a no-brainer to introduce it and to try to make it part of this campaign, which utilize the power of music to cope with a lot of these things that you have to deal with when you’re going through these interstitial lung diseases like my Dad went through when he was alive."
Through the initiative's website, Williams, who has a Latin Grammy nominee under his musical career belt, loves the different ways patients and caregivers can use music and breathing exercises to better their daily lives.
"Breathing is a huge part of [singing], using your voice as an instrument," he explained. "The application for people that really value every single breath they take and everything going on in their life is really important, too. So, having that information on hand, you can have these exercises to really improve the quality of your life."
Williams said this initiative is "very therapeutic" for him because it allows him to remember those great times with his father through his other passion in life outside of baseball.
In fact, Williams will be at the iconic Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey, with his band on March 27 – MLB Opening Day – to play some tunes and have a fireside chat with fans, which will include this initiative.
The signature Jersey Shore venue is the one Springsteen got his start in. It was the start of a pathway to rock greatness, and eventually, to a professional baseball player hungry to share his own music with the world.
They would connect again down that pathway.
"20 years later, I’m playing on stage with him for one of those Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation dinners. [Springsteen] was a guest performer, and he brought me on stage, and we had this great acoustic version of ‘Glory Days’ that we played together, him and his wife. That was a great moment in my young musical career. It’s one of the things I remember and will never forget," Williams said.
Williams will also never forget the man who taught him how to strum that guitar.
"As long as I have a breath, I will try to give people information and try to educate people about what I went through and what my father went through," Williams said.
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