While growing up across the river from where The Big Red Machine was formed, David Justice never envisioned himself following the career paths of George Foster and Pete Rose.
Baseball was simply that recreational activity that he enjoyed as a kid. By the time college arrived, Justice's athletic focus was on basketball.
Fortunately for himself, his actual focus one particular afternoon was on finding a way to escape the conditioning rigors that Thomas More College's basketball coach was demanding. He found playing baseball would provide him this escape, and eventually, much more than he could have ever imagined.
Drafted by the Braves in the fourth round of the 1985 First-Year Player Draft, Justice was named National League Rookie of the Year in 1990, and enjoyed a span from 1991-2002 where each of his teams advanced to the postseason. His crowning October moment came in 1995, when he provided the Braves a World Series clinching homer in their Game 6 win over the Indians at Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium.
"I'm just amazed that I could be a professional baseball player, because never once in my life in my household -- I was raised by my mama -- did we ever discuss me being a professional athlete," Justice said.
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