For 16 Major League seasons, Bernie Williams put smiles on children’s faces.

The retired Yankee great did it with 287 career home runs, a lifetime average just under .300, and countless spectacular plays in Yankee Stadium‘s center field.

Tuesday, he brought new smiles by dropping off 12 guitars – 10 acoustic and two electric – and an amplifier to schoolchildren who wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to rock out.

Williams teamed up with “Little Kids Rock” to donate the musical equipment to a sixth-grade class at Intermediate School 162 in the South Bronx.

“It’s a lot of joy,” said Williams when asked what he was feeling after a jam session with the children.

“I don’t get to do this a lot, and every time I do it, I wonder why I don’t do it more often,” he said. “It’s just great to see their faces.”

Little Kids Rock is a not-for-profit that raises money for musical equipment for public schools.

The organization says that it has provided free instruments and lessons for more than 110,000 youngsters nationwide. Williams is just one of several fund-raisers for Little Kids Rock.

Williams, an accomplished jazz guitarist, grabbed an acoustic guitar, took a seat with the children in the back row, and with a grin as large as those on the little ones around him, helped out in a rendition of Queen’s “We Will Rock You.”

Then, trading the acoustic guitar for an electric, Williams riffed on Bob Marley‘s “Stir It Up” with the class. He later took questions from his newfound bandmates.

One little girl asked the ex-centerfielder what he liked better, baseball or music.

“Tough question,” responded Williams. “Baseball was my job and a lot of fun, but music was always in my life. And you know what? The older I got, the more I realized I wanted to be a musician when I grew up. .. . I think I have to give the edge to music a little.”

Before yesterday, Little Kids Rock had donated two drum sets, one keyboard, three bass guitars and 30 acoustic guitars to IS 162.

School officials said that this is the first year that every sixth-grader is receiving instrumental music education.

“It’s amazing,” said Al Adkinson, 37, one of school’s music teachers. “My kids can play now. We’ve given them a voice.”

BY MIKE JACCARINO
DAILY NEWS