Yankee Memories

Andy Williams joined the Northern Arizona athletics staff as the head strength and conditioning coach in July of 2009. Williams came to NAU with 13 years of experience in the profession, most recently spending a year as the assistant strength and conditioning coach at Eastern Michigan University. He spent one year with the World Champion New York Yankees and recalls his experience.

I interned with the Kansas City Chiefs back in 1996. I got to know the Royals strength coach because they would come over and run at our indoor facility. He called me when I worked at Cal State Fullerton to tell me he had recommended me for the director position with the Yankees, the director of major league rehabilitation and the entire minor league system for the club.

Four days later they flew me to Tampa, the headquarters of the franchise, for a 24-hour interview. Two weeks later they offered me the job. I got to work with guys like Joba Chamberlin, who had a pulled hamstring in major league camp that year so I was in charge of his rehab until he made his debut later that year, and Phil Hughes.

It was a lot of fun. There are so many different people you meet that present different situations. For example, if I was working with a kid from the Dominican Republic who did not speak a lick of English, it tested how good of a coach you were because you have to teach through a translator. People have different learning styles. You can’t just tell the kids what to do. You have to show them and you have to physically help them through it. You deal with all kinds of different personalities within a minor league system with more than 300 people in it.

I got to be good friends with a guy who did the personnel stuff. It was interesting to see the system work. When a guy gets bumped out of the major leagues, it is a trickle down effect all the way down to short season A ball. There might be a kid going back to the Dominican Republic just because that guy gets bumped down from the major league roster.

Obviously one of the highlights was working with Roger Clemens, the Rocket. He was a great guy. He was very professional, the difference between a guy that gets paid and a real pro. There were other guys that were not superstars that were really good to work with. It was interesting.

I grew up a Yankees fan so that helped my enjoyment of the position a lot. I grew up hearing stories about the Yankees from my grandfather, who lived in New York. My ancestors had immigrated from Sicily to New York. At the conclusion of my time with the Yankees, I got a championship ring in the mail from one of the minor league teams that had won a championship during my tenure. It was real nice with the NY on it. I took it over to my grandfather’s house and gave it to him. Earlier that year we had lost my grandmother. I told him I got the ring because of them and I wanted him to have it. I was not the most popular grandchild at that time because how was any other grandchild ever going to top a Yankees championship ring? He has it in a safe deposit box now.

It is a good organization. I am fortunate I got to do it. With baseball you can hear a million stories in one inning. It was a great opportunity. In the end, it really was not for me. I am a football guy. I felt if I was not in it 100 percent, I was cheating the game, the organization and myself. But it is cool to see people you have a connection with do well.