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 Hitting back Indians' Justice: `I never asked out of the lineup'
Posted: Monday October 12, 1998 09:37 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- David Justice didn't take batting practice Monday; none of the Indians did. But angry that his reputation as a big-game player had been questioned, Justice took some swings, anyway. He was enraged by a TV report from ESPN baseball analyst Peter Gammons and called an off-day news conference at Yankee Stadium to try to set the record straight. Justice told reporters that he had made it clear to manager Mike Hargrove that he could play in Game 5 of the AL championship series despite a sore arm. Justice accused Gammons of reporting that he had pulled himself out of the starting lineup on Sunday. Gammons, however, said Justice misunderstood the report. Justice, hit in the right forearm by a pitch from Orlando Hernandez on Saturday, was originally in the starting lineup for Game 5, batting third as the designated hitter against New York's David Wells. When Hargrove asked Justice how his arm felt, he said it was sore and he could play. But the outfielder said he suggested to the manager that perhaps he should be dropped to the No. 7 spot in the batting order because he had been struggling lately against left-handers. Instead, Hargrove told Justice to rest his arm, adding that he had been thinking about starting Richie Sexson, anyway. Hargrove, already forced to start rookie catcher Einar Diaz because Sandy Alomar was having back spasms, juggled his lineup by starting Mark Whiten in left, Sexson -- a rookie right-handed hitter -- at first and Jim Thome as his DH. Justice said he wasn't going to question Hargrove's decision because he has never challenged a manager in a career that began in the Atlanta organization. "I was raised that you are a player," Justice said. "You don't demand nothing. You show up and play. If your name is in the lineup, you play. If it is not, you be ready to pinch-hit. That's the way I was raised. I don't run the team." Hargrove, who didn't appear at the news conference, said after the game that he pulled Justice from the starting lineup "based on the fact that he wasn't feeling really comfortable and with left-handed pitching right now, that's the reason we changed." The decision to sit Justice became a second-guesser's delight. Sexson, Diaz, Enrique Wilson -- another rookie -- and Whiten went a combined 1-for-14 with four strikeouts, and Whiten grounded into a double play in the eighth inning with two runners on and the Indians trailing 5-3. During a postgame segment on ESPN's "SportsCenter," Gammons said: "Well, he [Justice] told Mike Hargrove that he wasn't comfortable against Wells, but every left-hander respects Justice because he normally hits left-handers." Gammons went on to point out that with three players who spent most of the year at Class AAA Buffalo in Cleveland's lineup, the Indians' task against Wells was already difficult. "He is a presence," Gammons said, "and they missed his presence." Justice, however, perceived those comments to mean he had asked out of the lineup and that Gammons was questioning his desire to play in the Indians' biggest game of the year. "This is my ninth year in the big leagues and seven of those nine years I have built a reputation as being a good person, a good teammate, as well as a good player," a tense Justice said, his voice choking with emotion. "A player who always showed up to play in the big games all the time. So I was hurt in my heart when I heard Peter Gammons said that I asked out of the lineup." He said Gammons owed him on on-air apology. Gammons, who said he had talked with Justice, insisted he hadn't portrayed the ballplayer in a negative light and had actually complimented him for his ability to hit left-handers. "I'm not going to apologize for something I didn't say," Gammons said. Once he finally lightened up, Justice said he would definitely play in Game 6 and he expected to get his usual treatment from Yankee fans, who love to tease him about ex-wife Halle Berry and now have some new ammo. "I am sure when I get out here tomorrow I am going to hear people talking about me saying, 'Why did you whine?"'
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