4 Jul 2000: David Justice 28 of the New York Yankees swings at the pitch during a game against the Baltimore Orioles at the Yankees Stadium in New Orioles defeated the Yankees Credit: Jamie Squire Allsport Jeremy Nielsen is a New Jerseybased contributor to Pinstripe joined the staff in July 2000 New York Yankees were not a team of destiny like in 1998, or the welloiled machine that dropped but a single playoff game en route to a title in were a squad that needed for position with the Red Sox and Blue Jays in a crowded AL East, the Bombers sat only three games above.500 on June 28th when they executed a trade which would prove to be among the most impactful midseason deals in team Justice arrived in the Bronx and immediately became one of their most fearsome the Yankees limped into the playoffs, the man who had been a postseason hero for the Atlanta Braves added to his sparkling playoff resum by leading the way against the Mariners in the Yankees took down the crosstown rival Mets in the World Series to win their third consecutive title, and Justice earned his second championship Christopher JusticeBorn: April 14, 196Cincinnati, OHYankees Tenure: 200001Justice did not come up through the ranks in a traditional baseball high school, while proficient in athletics, lacked a baseball teamand as such he had to catch on through the travel attended Thomas More College in Kentucky on a basketball scholarship, but became to this day the only attendee of the school to be selected by an MLB team when the Braves took him in the fourth round of the 1985 made his MLB debut for Atlanta four seasons wouldn't take long for the lefty slugger to hit his 's brief 1989 cup of coffee was followed by a breakout campaign in 1990 in which he slugged 28 home runs and posted a.908 OPS 143 OPS+ en route to the National League Rookie of the Year award, albeit for a lastplace next season though, the Braves would find themselves in the Fall fell to the Minnesota Twins in the sevengame World Series Reggie Jackson Jersey, a memorable matchup of worsttofirst teams widely considered to be among the greatest ever returned in 1992, but lost again to Dave Winfield and the Toronto Blue of the dynastic baseball forces of the 1990s finally broke through in the strikeshortened 1995 , who had made headlines for a marriage to Halle Berry and most recently criticizing Braves fans during their playoff run, etched himself into history with a home run in Game of the World Series against to a masterclass of pitching from Tom Glavine, that solo shot proved to be the only run in a championshipclinching victory for the Braves Bobby Murcer Jersey, bringing the city of Atlanta their first MLB 's final year with the Braves was marred by a shoulder injury in May that ended his season early, meaning that he missed the World Series loss to the Yankees that October.A trade just ahead of the 1997 campaign sent Justice to Cleveland, the team he had defeated with that returned to the World Series that year helping dispatch the '97 Yanks along the way in the ALDS, but the Florida Marlins took them down in another legendary sevengame Fall lost to the Yankees and Red Sox the next two years before the 2000 season at last brought him to the in his age34 season, Justice was still producing at the dish, with 21 home runs at the time of the trade on June Yankees dangled a pair of young pitchers in Jake Westbrook and Zach Day, as well as the inimitable Ricky Ledeand with that, the Bombers had a new weapon in their hit his first Yankee home run on July in a 139 win over the stumbling to a 1015 record in June, the Yankees caught fire with Justice in the mix, winning 18 of 2in Yankees eked out another AL East title despite their pitching taking a nosedive in the final weeks of the finished out the campaign with a.305.391.584 slashline in pinstripes, launching 20 more homesincluding a walkoff shot against Oakland on August 8thto give him a careerbest 41 on the Bombers went on to battle the A's in a tightlycontested fivegame had a rather quiet series, but did homer in Game 5 as the Yanks advanced to take on the was mostly held in check for the first two games of the ALCS, but contributed a pair of runscoring hits in a 82 Game 3 victory at Safeco following night New York took a commanding 31 series lead over the M's with a 50 shutout victory in which Justice clubbed a tworun homer in the eighth inning to put the contest to took Game 5 to force the series back to the Bronx, where Justice provided the coup de grace in Game the Yankees trailing 43 in the seventh Yankees Store, Justice belted an Arthur Rhodes fastball off the face of the upper deck to bestow New York a lead they would not was named ALCS MVP as the Yankees prepared to host the Mets in the World 's hot hitting did not continue into the Fall Classiche went just 3for19 with no homers and three RBIbut by that point, the Yankees' playoff steamroller was fully game of the tilt was decided by two runs or fewer, but the Bombers held off their crosstown rivals to complete the threepeat and raise championship banner number winning his second title in his fifth World Series, Justice regressed with the Yankees in 2001 and a series of groin injuries limited him to just 49 games from July were occasional highlights, like a walkoff homer against the Red Sox in April and a crowning blow in Game 5 of the ALDS comeback against the A' for the most part, it seemed like the end was getting closer for the veteran as he fell to a.712 OPS that postseason, which featured a heartbreaking loss to the was dealt to the Mets at season's end for Robin Ventura, marking the second time a champion had traded Justice to a team he had defeated in a World , Justice's Met tenure lasted one week in December, as they then flipped him to Oakland where he finished his career as a veteran presence for the Moneyball A' was played by Stephen Bishop in the eventual 20 retired at the end of the season after Oakland bowed out to the Twins, who fell to the Angels in the next Justice's arrival in New York, it's hard to imagine the Bombers would have returned to the postseason.