David Justice

David Christopher Justice

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 3", Weight 200 lb.
• School Thomas More College
• High School Covington Latin High School
• Debut May 24, 1989
• Final Game September 29, 2002
• Born April 14, 1966 in Cincinnati, OH USA

BR page

[edit] Biographical Information

David Justice was an outfielder and designated hitter who made his major league debut in 1989 with the Atlanta Braves. In 1990, he won the National League Rookie of the Year Award with the Braves. Justice hit the World Series clinching home run in 1995 against the Cleveland Indians' Jim Poole during Game Six. He later went on to play with the Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees, and Oakland Athletics, hitting over 300 home runs in his career, but is also well-known as the ex-husband of Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry from 1992 to 1996.

David attended Covington Latin high school in northern Kentucky, despite being a Cincinnati native. This school is for gifted students and specializes in an accelerated program, which means that nearly all the students there skip a grade or two. David graduated at the age of 16. The school never even had a baseball team when he went there, and it was terrible at every sport except soccer. David played American Legion Baseball during the summer.

Justice in 2013.

Signed as a fourth round pick by the Atlanta Braves and scouts Bill Wight and Harold Cronin in the 1985 amateur draft, he spent five years working his way up the ladder in their minor league organization. He hit .300 and slugged .500 at only one stop on the way, a half-season with Sumter in Single A in 1986, but at all of his stops he drew lots of walks. He started off with the 1985 Sumter Braves and hit .245/~.369/.431. He showed good pop, tying Rob Tomberlin for the Appalachian League lead in homers and he also tied for the most sacrifice flies (5). In '86, Justice hit .300/~.425/.509 for the Sumter Braves with 10 homers in 61 games; he was named the 8th-best prospect in the South Atlantic League and finished the year with the Durham Bulls (.279/~.400/.485).

Justice hit only .227/~.329/.336 for the 1987 Greenville Braves, overmatched at AA. At age 22, David socked 17 homers, 9 with Greenville (.278/~.394/.490) and eight for the Richmond Braves (.203/~.320/.357). Returning to AAA, he improved to .261/~.358/.430 and was voted the #9 prospect in the International League by Baseball America. He broke in with the major league 1989 Braves for 16 games, hitting .235/.291/.353.

The next year, 1990, he posted .356/~.444/.644 in 12 games at Richmond, and the Braves brought him up to become a regular.

He played 14 seasons in the major leagues. He hit .386 with RISP in 1994. He was frequently injured, managing to get 500 at-bats only three times in his career, but had a lifetime .500 slugging percentage in spite of the injuries and appeared in 6 different World Series. He was a three-time All-Star.

The most similar player to Justice, as of the end of 2005 and according to the similarity scores method, is Tim Salmon.

As of 2006, he works for the YES Network doing color for some New York Yankees games on television.

• Once appeared on the TV show The Young and the Restless.

• When he hit a home run in New York, the Yankees scoreboard would often flash "And Justice For All".

• The transcript of an interview with him on October 12, 1998 appears here: http://www.asapsports.com/baseball/1998alcs/101298DJ.html

"They can't get any rougher on us unless they show up with Uzis." - David Justice, talking about the New York fans

"What the hell was David Justice thinking?" - a website, commenting on the beauty of Halle Berry and the break-up of their marriage

[edit] Notable Achievements

• 1990 NL Rookie of the Year Award
• 1990 Topps All-Star Rookie Team
• 3-time All-Star (1993, 1994 & 1997)
• 2000 ALCS MVP
• 2-time Silver Slugger Award Winner (1993/OF-NL & 1997/OF-AL)
• 1997 AL Comeback Player of the Year Award
• 20-Home Run Seasons: 9 (1990-1993, 1995 & 1997-2000)
• 30-Home Run Seasons: 3 (1993, 1997 & 2000)
• 40-Home Run Seasons: 2 (1993 & 2000)
• 100 RBI Seasons: 3 (1993, 1997 & 2000)
• Won two World Series with the Atlanta Braves (1995) and the New York Yankees (2000)