AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: MARINERS v YANKEES

October 17, 2000

David Justice

DAVID JUSTICE: I didn't say that. Any time a player is traded in the middle of the season, it's kind of tough, because you know, you set your mindset to help the team that you go to Spring Training with, to help that team win the World Series, and then all of the sudden they call you in in the middle of the season to say, "Hey, we traded you to not only a team that everybody tries to beat, but the World Champions." Next thing you know, 24 hours later, you're wearing a different uniform, you've got a different route from your new home to your new stadium. You see new people that work here. It's like your world is turned upside down. But also, you've got to take care of your business in Cleveland. It took me, I'd say probably a good week, because I know when I first got here, I was trying to hit everything out, just to show Skip that everything was working, but that wasn't working. But I settled down after like a week to ten days and I think it was the guys who made my transition smooth.

DAVID JUSTICE: I think it's because I respect him so much that I really don't try to do too much. Sometimes when I face certain pitchers, I'm thinking, "Okay, I'm going to get this guy. If he slips a little bit, I'm going to get him." And that gets me in trouble sometimes. But against Rhodes, because his pitches are such quality pitches, I never think I'm going to get him. I'm always just thinking, "Let me just make contact, solid contact and hopefully it will fall in here somewhere." And I think because of that approach it has helped me to shorten my swing up, and I really focus well whenever I face him.

DAVID JUSTICE: This is right behind it, because it's like the 100 meters in the Olympics. The gold medal was the last 9.7, and this was a 9.71. It was just magic, when I ran the bases, just to see this place erupt and the fact that it put us up by two runs. Obviously we're trying to get to the World Series and we really needed a lift, we were battling back. And like I said, it ranks right up there, right close to that home run that I hit in 1995.

DAVID JUSTICE: Well, going through the at-bat I was telling myself, I've just got to get this run in. Let me tie this game up. And I ran through my mind real quick the things that I don't want to do real quick and one of them was I did not want to swing at any high fastballs because a guy throwing 95 miles an hour, if he throw it is chest high, it's tough to get on top of that kind of pitch and you usually just pop it up and the last thing I want to do is pop up. So I was really concentrating on the strike zone and keeping my head down, and when he threw the pitch it was a hitter's count. I was kind of in a very aggressive mode but then the last second I realized it was high and I just held up.

DAVID JUSTICE: Yeah, I really believe that this is going to be unbelievable. This hasn't happened in a long time, and New York can't lose. I mean, everything is going on right here within the city limits, and it's going to be unbelievable. I'm just glad to be a part of it, and I guess you could say we're probably making history with this series, and I think this series will be remembered for a long time.