Beloved Cardinals icon opens up on surprising closeness to Yankees' Bernie Williams

In the grand tapestry of baseball history, it can be easy to forget who was leaving the game just as another generation was joining, and which stars overlapped and influenced one another. It only gets tougher as additional generations join the lexicon, while more and more stars from the recent past get gray around the temples. One moment at The National Collectors Convention last week, shared between Yankees legend Bernie Williams and Cardinals de facto captain Yadier Molina helped bridge the gap a little.

It was tough to miss that Molina and Williams, passing one another at the autograph stages, took extended time to embrace and converse. Williams' last effective season in MLB was 2004, when Molina made his MLB debut. The Yankees center fielder played through 2006, the season in which Molina's Cardinals memorably topped the Mets in the NLCS and captured the World Series.

2006 was also the year Molina joined a ridiculous catchers' room including Javy López and Ivan Rodríguez on Team Puerto Rico in the inaugural World Baseball Classic; Williams played center field on the roster, a final flourish to his incredible career.

Adam Weinrib of Yanks Go Yard got a chance to catch up with both legends of the game at The National, moments after they'd interacted, and got Molina to open up a bit about how he and Williams grew so close (and how the four-time Yankees champion had passed the torch).

Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina discusses relationship with Yankees' Bernie Williams

"Bernie, he grew up in the same town in Puerto Rico in Vega Alta," Molina told us. "I followed his career since the beginning. I know his family. I know his dad and his mom. When I saw him today, it was a great moment for me."

Molina, of course, went on to manage Team Puerto Rico at the 2023 event, and will return for 2026's edition; don't rule out Williams having a dugout presence, too, based on the mutual respect the two men clearly have for one another.

They might just reunite in baseball's eternal shrine someday, too; Molina feels like a first-ballot shoo-in (cue Cubs fans disagreeing), while Williams' Hall of Fame case deserves a closer look. If that ever happens, their generational divide will only blur further. They won't be remembered as stalwarts of the 1990s and 2010s. They'll be kids from Vega Alta made good, ready to inspire whoever's next.