What they said about David Justice--not theories. REPORT: YES Network renews Justice.

According to Mitchell/Radomski, Justice's infraction was an alleged purchase "after the 2000 World Series."

• Following from ESPN.com:

"According to the Mitchell report, Radomski said he made one sale to Justice, which occurred after the Yankees won the 2000 World Series. Justice paid Radomski by check for two or three kits of HGH, the report said, and Radomski said that he cashed this check."

• ESPN.com references other alleged evidence, but later notes it didn't apply to Justice:

"Former New York Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski identified a number of former and current players to whom, he said, he had sold steroids and HGH. Checks and money orders, mailing receipts or shipments, and statements of other witnesses were used to back up Radomski's allegations. Much of this was found in Radomski's seized telephone records."

• ESPN notes an important adjunct to this claim--that no canceled check has been found from Justice--but not until the last sentence of the next paragraph, so some may have missed it.

"The Mitchell report did not provide a copy of the supposed check written by Justice to Radomski."

• In a separate article today announcing David Justice's return to the YES Network, is the following from Multi-Channel News:

"Former right fielder David Justice will return to the air as an analyst of baseball games (about 40), according to the New York Yankees' television network, even though he was one of 86 players named in investigator George Mitchell's report last week on the use of drugs among the sport's players.

• Ray Hopkins, the chief operating officer of the YES Network, said Dec. 18 that he had no reason to doubt Justice's assertions last week that he had not taken human growth hormone, as alleged in the report.

In the report, Justice was portrayed as having purchased the growth hormone from a former clubhouse attendant of the New York Mets, Kirk Radomski; and later admitting this to a one-time strength coach for the New York Yankees, Brian McNamee."

• ***SO FAR, NOWHERE DOES THIS ARTICLE STATE JUSTICE'S 1 ALLEGED PURCHASE OF HGH WAS AFTER THE WORLD SERIES. THE ARTICLE LEAVES THAT OUT. INSTEAD, IT ENDS BY DESCRIBING IN DETAIL A BIG HIT JUSTICE HAD IN THE 2000 ALCS THAT THE WRITER CLAIMS "PROPELLED" THE YANKEES INTO THE WORLD SERIES LEAVING THE READER WITH NO OTHER CONCLUSION BUT THAT HE ILLEGALLY HELPED THE YANKEES ILLEGALLY GET TO THE WORLD SERIES.***

(Multi-Channel News): "Justice played for the Yankees in 2000 and 2001. He hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning of the sixth game of the American League championship series that propelled the Yankees into the 2000 World Series against the New York Mets. The Yankees won that series four games to one; it is the last World Series the Yankees have won." (end of article)

• Sources, ESPN.com, "Justice Denies Claim Against Him in Mitchell Report,"12/14/07, by ESPN.com news services.

• Multi-Channel News, "YES: Justice Will Return as Analyst," by Tom Steinert-Threlkeld, 12/18/07

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