page_title: Bernie Williams
section_title: 1999–2004
hierarchical_section_title: Bernie Williams / Baseball career / Major league baseball / 1999–2004
caption_attribution_description: Bernie Williams of the New York Yankees during pre-game batting practice in 2004
context_page_description: Bernabé Williams Figueroa Jr. is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball player and musician. He played his entire 16-year career in Major League Baseball with the New York Yankees from 1991 through 2006.
  A center fielder, Williams was a member of four World Series championship teams with the Yankees. He ended his career with a .297 batting average, 287 home runs, 1,257 runs batted in, 1,366 runs scored, 449 doubles, and a .990 fielding percentage. He was a five-time All-Star and won four Gold Glove Awards, a Silver Slugger Award, the American League batting title in 1998, and the 1996 AL Championship Series Most Valuable Player Award. Known for his consistency and postseason heroics, Williams is one of the most beloved Yankees. The team honored him by retiring his uniform number 51 and dedicating a plaque to him in Monument Park in May 2015. Williams is widely regarded as one of the greatest switch-hitting center fielders in Yankee history.
  Williams is also a classically trained guitarist. Following his retirement from baseball, he has released two jazz albums. He was nominated for a Latin Grammy in 2009.
context_section_description: After the 1998 season, Williams signed a seven-year, $87.5-million contract with the Yankees, one of the largest in baseball at the time. The Boston Red Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks also bid for Williams on the free agent market. For the length of the contract, the Yankees made the playoffs every single year, and as a result Williams continued to add to his postseason statistics, placing in the top 10 of various career postseason categories.
caption: Williams in 2004
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