Justice Recommends An Old Virtue: Patience

ATLANTA -- David Justice says there's one primary reason he is the starting right-fielder for the National League All-Star team a second straight year: patience. Justice had a career season in 1993, hitting .270 with 40 home runs and 120 RBIs and finishing third in the Most Valuable Player balloting.Heading into the All-Star game Tuesday, he has 12 home runs, 43 RBIs and a .343 batting average. He has also drawn 51 walks, has struck out only 30 times and is among the league leaders in on-base percentage. "The fact that I'm hitting three-something is because of patience in laying off bad pitches and taking the walks," Justice said. He said he could have become frustrated by the number of walks he has received and started chasing bad pitches. "Then I'd be sitting here hitting .250 and you'd be saying I'm having a bad season. "Justice has been on a tear of late, hitting nearly .400 the last six weeks. n Once again, the name Roberto Clemente is synonymous with baseball in Pittsburgh. While his Hall-of-Fame father performed on Pittsburgh's playing fields, Roberto Clemente Jr. labors on its sometimes mean streets, trying to rejuvenate interest in baseball.In the same year Pittsburgh is honoring the late Roberto Clemente at the All-Star game, his son is rediscovering Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente Jr. has returned to Pittsburgh to establish the Reviving Baseball in the Inner City program and its sponsoring organization, the Clemente Foundation. An eight-team league involving inner-city youths has been formed, with plans to expand to 15 teams next year -- and, eventually, as part of baseball's B.I.G. League program, to 30 other cities. A second-grade class raised $4,000 during two weeks of cupcake, popcorn and peanuts sales to buy 180 gloves for players from financially strapped families."Second-graders did this!" Clemente said, a tone of wonderment in his voice, at a recent Three Rivers Stadium ceremony. "It made me very emotional. It's amazing." n It was a night the Detroit Tigers might want to forget. Not so for Matthew Duprey. The 11-year-old from Novi, Michigan, was honored Wednesday night as the 100 millionth fan to attend a regular-season home game since the Tigers joined the American League as a charter member in 1901.Duprey threw out the ceremonial first pitch after sitting in the Tigers dugout with manager Sparky Anderson, who gave him an autographed ball. He also received five tickets for all remaining home game this season, Tigers merchandise, a bat autographed by slugger Cecil Fielder and a tour of Tiger Stadium. He was joined by 18,352 other fans, who watched Chicago rally to beat the Tigers 6-2.