When the New York Yankees’ Core Four took the stage at Fanatics Fest in New York City on June 20 — in a panel moderated by host CC Sabathia and MLB Network’s AJ Andrews, also featuring filmmaker Spike Lee — they used the literal first response given to pay tribute to the “fifth Beatle” who paved the way for their success.

Before the mid-1990s, the Yankees were known as a franchise that always sacrificed the future for the present, trading top prospects (when they developed them) for win-now assets. Jay Buhner’s trade was the one that rankled Frank Costanza, but there were plenty of others, too. Hall of Famer Fred McGriff was a Yankee (in name only). Willie McGee may have won a National League MVP with the iconic ’80s Cardinals, but he could’ve burned up the Astroturf in pinstripes instead.

But as Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera were fighting their way through the system, one Yankees prospect was given a longer leash at the MLB level by the ingenious Gene “Stick” Michael, eventually paving a path to productivity for the rest of the young Yankees.

“If Bernie [Williams] doesn’t do good, I don’t think we’re up here in the big leagues,” Posada said. “Got to give props to Bernie, because he opened the door for all of us.”

Jorge Posada makes sure Bernie Williams isn’t forgotten at New York Yankees’ Fanatics Fest panel

Williams saw the Yankees’ darkest side in the early ’90s, hazed by outfielder Mel Hall as he attempted to break onto bottom-of-the-barrel rosters. He stuck around as the tide began to turn, posting 2.5 bWAR as a 24-year-old on the solid 1993 team, followed by 3.2 in 1994 and a 6.5-WAR breakout on the ’95 playoff team, so eager to deliver after losing October to the strike the previous year.

The Yankees acquired plenty of harbingers of hope as the mid-90s approached, from the Paul O’Neill masterstroke that sent Roberto Kelly to Cincinnati to the free agent additions of David Cone and Jimmy Key. But Posada, Pettitte, and Jeter credited Williams and applauded him for proving that kids can improve and can stick in the hungriest sports city in America (with the biggest spotlight). His emergence set the tone, and allowed the five-man unit to form continuity and force George Steinbrenner’s hand in keeping them around. After all, if they never lost, how could they leave?

The whole group got to experience the annual highs of being Yankees thanks to Williams showing how it could be done – but it’s still not quite so simple for rookies in the Bronx these days. As Sabathia quipped as the panel began, “Look at all these retired numbers up here. This is why you see all the rookies wearing 72, 85…99…”.