Bernie Williams played Carnegie Hall on Tuesday night, sharing the stage with dominant tenor Jonathan Tetelman, not because he was a five-time All-Star and a dynastic New York Yankees icon. He played a versatile guitar for two enrapturing hours on the Carnegie Hall stage, keeping up with varying genres from operatic grace to samba rhythms to Broadway standards, and just so happened to have played a little baseball back in the day. He earned the night based entirely on his own merit, and kept the audience's attention with repeated displays of that skill.
As event organizer Adam Unger noted, to raucous applause towards the conclusion of Tuesday's show, Williams is "the greatest athlete musician of all time".