Bernie on ballot, but not Hall-worthy

Bernie was a very good, very classy Yankee, but ...

This was about five years into Joe Torre’s Yankee managerial stint. He was in the dugout at the old Stadium and the subject was Bernie Williams.

A veteran reporter was detailing all of what Williams could not do, such as throw, steal bases or read fly balls well off the bat. Torre, as was his wont, patiently listened then offered this biting response:

“Yeah, if he were any worse, all he would be is the cleanup hitter for a dynasty.”

Torre was making one of his familiar points: It is easy to find holes in just about anybody’s game, but if you are the manager, you better find reasons to like what the players can do, not what they can’t.

But as Torre made that declaration, strangely, what popped into my mind was: Egads, Bernie Williams is the cleanup hitter for a dynasty and shouldn’t we take the cleanup hitter for a dynasty seriously as a Hall of Fame candidate?

We get to find out more on that subject now since the Hall ballot was released yesterday and Williams — wow, retired five years already — is listed for the first time.

He almost certainly will not get my vote and I suspect Williams will fall well short of the 75 percent needed for induction; residing more into the Don Mattingly 10-30 percent of the vote region signifying excellence, but not immortality. He will be hurt by a lack of eye-popping numbers from an offensively inflated era. He also will pale by being a contemporary of fellow center fielder Ken Griffey Jr., a far-better all-round player and Cooperstown no-brainer.

In his era, Williams fits behind Griffey with the next group of standout center fielders such as Jim Edmonds, Andruw Jones and Kenny Lofton, who do not exactly conjure Willie, Mickey and The Duke (though, sorry, Brooklyn fans, Duke Snider is a lot closer to Edmonds and Jones than Snider was to Mays or Mantle).

Williams’ candidacy will not be about four Gold Gloves because his defensive game did not truly warrant those awards. And a .297 average and 287 homers are terrific, but not historic. Williams does have 22 postseason homers, second all-time. Obviously part of that is about expanded playoffs and the opportunity that comes with playing on an exceptional team. But one big reason the Yankees were in all those playoffs was because they had a switch-hitting center fielder with power, patience and a clutch bent from both sides. Plus having postseason opportunity and doing something with it are two different items as, say, switch-hitters Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira are demonstrating.