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A complete legacy-buster for Bernie. It can't be worth it. Please don't do it.

FWIW, Yogi did it - and he is still beloved in the Bronx.

It would make for an interesting Mets series at YS during interleague, for sure.

If Bernie received anything less then a standing O every time he got up to the plate then Yankee fans have really lost it because this guy along with Jeter and Rivera is one of the biggest parts of their championship run. I don't see how anyone could boo Bernie at this point in his career no matter what team he went to. If this was a few years back when he was a free agent and possibly could have went to the Red Sox, than that would be different. I think it would be disgraceful for fans to boo him especially since he is such a class act.

What is up with all these Met/Sox fans who say they hate and can't stand the Yanks, but then add a disclaimer that it doesn't apply to Bernie. Gimme a freakin' break! Bernie is (was) a Yankee and I don't get the distinction between a Yankee hater and a Bernie lover. Any clue?

Yeah I think this would be up there with the Babe in Boston, Hank Aaron on the Brewers, and to a lesser extent Tino on the Cardinals/DRays. It would be nice if a guy could say that he played for one organization his entire career, but he just doesn't fit in with a championship caliber team. However, he can still swing a bat from the right side of the plate... and if I had the opportunity to swing a wooden stick at a white ball for a living, I'd do it as long as I possibly could.

Michael... I've always wondered that too, but with a different Yankee... Mo Rivera. I have one of those navy Yanks shirts with the interlocking NY on the front and name and number on the back. When I go out in it, in unfriendly Yanks territory (read: anywhere outside of NY/NJ), I get sarcastic comments all the time. That is, until I turn around and they see the #42. Then most often I hear "well, I hate the Yankees, but Rivera I respect." Kinda weird, like you said.

I could understand Bernie wanting to come back to be a part-time player with the Yankees, but why with the Mets (or any team for that matter)? I know Bernie still wants to play and feels he can, but would be seriously go to the Mets to be a right-handed pinch-hitter off the bench? The Mets already have too many platoon/spare-part outfielders to need Bernie. I think it would be a real shame for Bernie to hang on for one more year and be stuck on the Mets' bench.

Better to go out a Yankee.

Willie Mays played on the Mets at the end of his career. He was mediocre, but his reputation didn't suffer. My guess is the Bernie would play for the Mets if invited.

I don't see what the big deal is if Bernie goes to Shea for a couple of seasons of spot-starter duty. It won't change who he was as a player and who he was as a man. It won't change his legacy as the cleanup hitter for those great Yankee teams from 1995-2001 and it won't change the fact that a half-dozen or so years from now, he'll have #51 bronzed in left-center field. He's a Yankee, everyone knows he's a Yankee and that's that. Him finishing out his career on his terms should take nothing away from that and I think he's earned the right to go out any which way he chooses.

Being a bench player for the Mets doesn't tarnish Bernie's legacy (though I would barf hearing the slimy Mets fans boo him when he made an out), but my question is 'Why bother?' Bernie's a millionaire many times over and he has interests outside the game. So why spend a year pinch-hitting? If a team offered him a full-time role, that would make sense. But a pinch-hitter/fifth outfielder for someone? It seems below him. And somewhat pointless. For as aloof/easygoing as Bernie is made out to be, this would suggest he'd be willing to hang on no matter what.

A fair point, bailey. But I think he's probably of the opinion that, no matter the role, he just likes baseball enough to want to enjoy as much of it as he can before it's really truly over. Yes, he's got outside interests (his music and his charity-work). But he's got a whole lifetime to do that stuff and only a few more years in the game, even if it's as a pinch-hitter.

Believe me, it'll be weird to see Bernie someplace else and it'll be weirder to never hear Sterling say "Burn Baby Burn" again. But if he wants to hang on, so be it.

Maybe the man just loves to play the game of baseball...you have to consider that once he retires he can never get it back and unlike most professions, you retire at a younger age than most...I don't blame him for getting as much out the experience as possible..it's every kids dream who ever played baseball to play in the major leagues...maybe he just wants to hang on to it as long as possible..I'd give anything to be in Bernie's position right now...

Honestly, I don't see why the Mets would want Bernie. Endy Chavez isn't much of a hitter - Bernie will be able to out-hit him even when Bernie is 65 - but Endy can do something, very well, that Bernie cannot - play the outfield.

Then there's Lastings Milledge. He has two things on Bernie - he's younger, and he has a future in the majors.

I think this is a rumor tossed around to fill in space during the cold part of the hot stove.

MJ et al,
I've written many times about Bernie deserving accolades and a firm place in Bomber history. Put the plaque in centerfield and have him throw out the first ball in the new stadium. The particular legacy that I see Bernie losing if he plays (actually probably watches more than plays) somewhere else, is dropping off of a short list of players that: 1) played their entire careers with the Yankees, 2) won championships, 3) played for a long time (say ~ 10 years), and 4) were star players. Off the top of my head... #4, #5, #7, Frank Crosetti, Bill Dickey, Earle Combs, Scooter, Thurman, Gator, Whitey, Donnie, Roy White, and Bobby Richardson. Notice that nearly all of these guys are instantly identified by just one name… It’s because they have a special place in Yankee history (to make my point, Reggie has the name, but not the love). I'm almost tempted to give Yogi a pass. He played in 4 games and had 9 AB’s for the Mets, after sitting out a full year in retirement. Was that worth it in hindsight!!! Mel Stottlemyre probably deserves a spot on the list as well, as he was about all that was good with the Yankees for a very long time. It's a small group, but great company to be in. I’m expecting responses about the guys I left off the list. It will only go to make my point. People have a special attachment to the guys that meet the criteria I defined. I feel the same way about DJ, Jorge and Mo. Hopefully Cano someday. To me, somehow, these guys are special because they were ours and only ours. For a hardcore fan that could love no other team, being one of ours means something. Does this mean I don’t have a strong attachment to guys like Willie Randolph, Babe, Goose, O’Neill, Nettles and Pinella. Of course not. They poured their hearts out for the Yankees. I remember reading a line from Bobby Murcer the other day...The worst day of his life was the day he got traded from the Yankees.

Shaun: You may be right. I can't see how he fits into their plans over there. It would be nice to see him hang up the spikes, but I can understand why he would want to hang on for one more season.

"You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time." - Jim Bouton

If I had a girlfriend and while she was with me she was great: she did a lot of things better than other girls, but the more time we spent together the less time she spent taking care of herself, being beautiful, maintaining her figure, and doing all the things that made her great at one point. Unfortunately there would come a point in time where we would have to part ways. If in a month I saw her with my worse enemy and he's only getting the older version of what was once a great girl, then I don't think I'd be that mad or upset. I'd say hello, wish her the very best with my worse enemy, but she'll always know where her most memorable moments were.

I look at Bernie this way, I appreciate everything he did and he was a great Yankee. He was a HOF Yankee, but he's done. It's time to say goodbye to Bernie. I'd still give him a standing ovation every time he came up to bat for the other team, but I would NEVER boo him. Bernie was one of my favorite Yankees, but championships and emotions usually are mutually exclusive. The same way I can't get all sentimental with my ex-girl who doesn't do all/most of the things that made her great, then it's basically the same reason why I can't get all sentimental (at least in principle) for Bernie who doesn't do all the great things he used to do either.

Bernie, the guitar is no longer playing your tunes.....time to just call it quits.

Garcia,
Substitute wife for girlfriend, add to the description that you dated her, only and faithfully, since you were sophomores in high school, held on to her out of loyalty for a year or two, or three, after she was fully able to do the job, made her incredibly rich along the way (especially when she indicated she might consider leaving a few years back), then see if it doesn't sting.

I would never boo Bernie. Never. Just don't want to see him dancing with another team, especially since he'll be stumbling some around the dance floor. Bernie will be a retired Yankee hero for the rest of his life. Are a few AB’s with another club, in another uniform, going to make him look back on his career more (or less) fondly? If he was 40-50 hits short of 3000, I’d be arguing, loudly, to bring him back to let him polish of the stat sheet (aka Biggio). But that’s not the case.

Someone brought up Willie Mays earlier in the discussion. Willie embarrassed himself by hanging on, but he needed the money. Bernie doesn't.

Here's a shortened version of a story about Bernie the good citizen that was told to me firsthand. A friend of mine took his kid to a card show a number of years back to get an autograph from his idle, Mike Piazza's. On the way to the signing they got on the elevator with Piazza who completely blew off the kid. The kid was crushed and nearly lost his enthusiasm for baseball. Not long after that, the same guy and his kid were on vacation and at hotel pool. This guy slips into the pool by himself, starts talking to the kid, throwing a ball back and forth. Starts talking baseball with the guy and his kid. The baseball switch gets turned back on for the kid. Since that day, the kid and the father are die hard Yankee fans. It was Bernie.

I briefly meet Bernie in Tampa once (away from the ballpark setting). He was friendly, a gentleman, and smiling the whole time. He graciously accepted the cordial attention of me and a few other fans with a dignity that befits a champion. I don't want to see a 2007 baseball card with a picture of him in a Met cap or any other uniform.

I can't see anything wrong with Bernie playing for the Mets. It's not like he's going to the Red Sox (now, that would hurt) and he doesn't fit in with the Yankees anymore. Why should he retire simply because the Yankees don't have room for him on the roster? Let him play.

#15, it always stings....at one point or another.

If Bernie or any player wants to play he should play as long as a team is willing to employ him.

Who are we as fans to think we know what's best for him?