It was a long, overdue formality and a feel-good photo opportunity. But with a dotting of the i’s in Bernie Williams and the crossing of the t’s in a nearly decade-old retirement, a beloved era of iconic Yankees was officially laid to rest.
Call them the Core No More.
Given that Williams was outlasted in the Bronx by Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera and finally Derek Jeter — the Core Four, as they were celebrated in the post-Williams years — General Manager Brian Cashman was kind enough to start the countdown to Williams’s May 24 enshrinement in Monument Park by recasting the core as the Fab Five.