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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2009 > February > 01
Sunday, February 1, 2009
You can believe David Justice
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No athlete I’ve ever met has a more honest tongue than David Justice. So, when the former Braves slugger suggests he doesn’t know Kirk Radomski from Captain Kirk, you should believe him.
When Justice mentions his fear of needles proves he never injected steroids, you should believe him.
Mostly, when Justice says he couldn’t care less if you believe any of this, you should believe him.
“You’re talking to your boy who had a whole stadium wanting to see me fail in 1995,” said Justice, over the phone from his home in San Diego. His reference was to Game 6 of the World Series at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. The day before, he shouted what was whispered by everybody else about how lousy the Braves crowds were compared to their spirited counterparts in Cleveland.
That’s why Justice was smothered with boos — well, until he ripped the homer that won a Braves world championship in the sixth inning of a 1-0 victory. He eventually was inducted into the Braves Hall of Fame, and despite spending the last six of his 14 seasons in the majors with other teams, he has a tomahawk across his heart.
He even has formed a traveling baseball team in Southern California involving his two sons (David Jr., 9, and Dionisio, 6). The name of that team? The Braves, complete with uniforms to match. So the choppers and the chanters always should hug Justice for all of that alone.
Said Justice, “I am not a weak-minded person, and I’m not a person who really needs you to like me or love me. I just think that I’m a cool dude. So if you don’t like me, you just don’t like me.”
Radomski doesn’t like Justice. Either that, or the former clubhouse attendant has a vivid imagination. He told George Mitchell that he sold human growth hormone to Justice. That was significant, because Mitchell was in charge of baseball’s investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Then Radomski told ESPN that he gave Justice a box of HGH and steroids during a ride to the airport after Justice finished playing for the New York Yankees in the 2000 World Series.
Now consider this: Radomski has a recently published book on steroids and baseball. It’s a book with large passages disputed by Mitchell. Which means it’s wise to question anything leaving Radomski’s lips.
“When he said he took me to the airport after we won the World Series, hey, I got my cousins, I got friends who were up there with me, and they all said, ‘That dude didn’t take you to no airport,’ ” said Justice, who did recall Brian McNamee, the former trainer, now famous for saying Roger Clemens was juiced.
Soon after Justice joined the Yankees in 2000, McNamee approached him with HGH. He told the outfielder it would help his various aches and pains.
“I’m having good days and bad days with my sports hernia and groin, and I’ve got the New York Yankees strength coach, who is Dr. McNamee and somebody I thought was a really cool guy, coming to me,” Justice said. “He tells me, ‘This is not steroids. It will not hurt your body. Doctors prescribe this every day. It will help you with the healing of your groin.’
“Why would I not take it? That’s my point. I would have taken it had it not been dealing with needles. In my limited knowledge of it, and now you put it in my locker, and I see it ain’t no pill. I can’t get with you, bro.
“I don’t know where [McNamee] got [the HGH] from. He could have gotten it from Radomski. It wasn’t even that deep. All this happened quickly.”
Quickly enough for everybody to forget it and move on.
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: Braves/MLB
