1986 Durham Bulls
Background-
The Braves drafted Justice out of high school in the 4th round of the 1985 MLB Draft. Justice played for the Bulls during his first full season in professional baseball. Durham was one of two stops for the outfielder that summer, along with Sumter in the South Atlantic League. Justice made the Majors at the end of the 1989 season, but maintained his rookie status heading into the 1990 season. He ended up hitting .282/.373/.535 with 28 home runs, and 78 RBIs during that season. The performance was good enough to win the Rookie of Year Award in the National League. Justice would go on to spend 14 seasons in the Majors playing for the Braves, Indians, Yankees, and A's. He ended his career with more than 1,500 hits, more than 300 home runs, and more than 1,000 RBIs. Beyond his Rookie of The Year Award in 1990, Justice also took home the American League Championship Series MVP for his performance against the Mariners while playing for the Yankees. He retired from baseball in 2002, but since he played with the A's that season, he managed to get into the movie Moneyball....
Well, not really David Justice. Just some guy playing David Justice. We're cool.
Card-
Justice has had a lot of different autographs over the years, several from his playing years, and several since he retired. I actually have an autograph of him from the 2004 Topps base set, it's from the World Series insert set, so I wanted something a little bit different. At the same time, I also really wanted an autograph of Justice on the Braves. I know he was a good player in Cleveland, New York, and Oakland, but I best remember him in Atlanta. Plus, the Braves were the parent club of the Durham Bulls at that point in history. I was really happy to run across a Topps Tribute card of him on the cheap. This set has been in my last three posts, all about Durham Bulls players, like I found a huge bundle of them on Ebay. They did not sell for much. He's got a great signature too. Happy to add this to the stack of Durham Bulls cards.
Justice has had a lot of different autographs over the years, several from his playing years, and several since he retired. I actually have an autograph of him from the 2004 Topps base set, it's from the World Series insert set, so I wanted something a little bit different. At the same time, I also really wanted an autograph of Justice on the Braves. I know he was a good player in Cleveland, New York, and Oakland, but I best remember him in Atlanta. Plus, the Braves were the parent club of the Durham Bulls at that point in history. I was really happy to run across a Topps Tribute card of him on the cheap. This set has been in my last three posts, all about Durham Bulls players, like I found a huge bundle of them on Ebay. They did not sell for much. He's got a great signature too. Happy to add this to the stack of Durham Bulls cards.
I remember seeing that scene between Billy and DJ in Moneyball. I wonder how accurate it is. Justice had a solid final season for the A's. At the very least he held his own statistically.
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