All-Diamond Team: Ryan Klesko

In 2025, The Diamond hosts its 40^th and final season of professional baseball in Richmond. Between the Richmond Braves from 1985-2008 and the Richmond Flying Squirrels since 2010, countless future major leaguers have taken the steps from the first base dugout onto The Diamond’s playing surface.

Prior to the season, fans voted for The All-Diamond Team, selecting one manager as well as 14 of their favorite players who have gone on to MLB stardom after suiting up for the R-Braves and Flying Squirrels.

We continue the announcement of the All-Diamond Team with the fans’ choice for first baseman, Ryan Klesko.

Manager: Grady Little
Starting Pitcher: John Smoltz
Starting Pitcher: Tom Glavine
Starting Pitcher: Logan Webb
Relief Pitcher: Mike Stanton
Relief Pitcher: Hunter Strickland
Utility Player: Mark DeRosa
Catcher: Javy Lopez
First Baseman: Ryan Klesko
Second Baseman: TBA
Shortstop: TBA
Third Baseman: TBA
Outfielder: TBA
Outfielder: TBA
Outfielder: TBA

Ryan Klesko was picked by the Atlanta Braves in the fifth round of the 1989 MLB Draft out of Westminster High School in California. In his fourth year climbing Atlanta’s minor league ladder, he reached Triple-A Richmond to start the 1992 season.

Entering that year, Klesko was rated by Baseball America as the No. 8 prospect in baseball. He had been named the Southern League’s Most Valuable Player the previous year with Double-A Greenville after overcoming a slow start, batting under .200 for the first month.

Klesko was considered one of the top power hitting prospects in the minors. He hit .291 with 14 homers in his MVP campaign with Greenville. His defensive work was coming along, but it was an area the Braves were challenging him to improve. Klesko was occasionally caught taking simulated swings while standing in the field at first base.

He came to Richmond in 1992 along with his Double-A manager from the previous year, former MLB All-Star and Rookie of the Year Chris Chambliss, who was brought in to replace outgoing R-Braves manager Phil Niekro. Chambliss was credited with helping Klesko overcome his early slump in Double-A, working with him to be more selective at the plate. Klesko went on to strike out only 60 times in 506 plate appearances in 1991.

Klesko began the 1992 season as the only 20-year-old player in the International League and one of only four in Triple-A across baseball. He made his Triple-A debut on April 9, 1992, in the R-Braves season opener at The Diamond. He went hitless, but he brought the Richmond crowd to its feet with two flyouts to the warning track.

In that game, he was on third when a chopper was hit to second base. The throw to the plate had him beat by several steps, but the 6-3, 220-pounder plowed through Columbus catcher John Ramos and knocked the ball free to score.

He picked up his first two Triple-A hits the next night, kicking off a seven-game hit streak.

Klesko did not hit his first homer until nearly three weeks into the start of the 1992 season on April 27 in a win over Syracuse at The Diamond.

His second homer came four days later. The R-Braves trailed, 4-1, entering the bottom of the ninth against the Tidewater Tides at The Diamond. With two runners on, Andy Tomberlin hit a three-run homer to tie the score.

As players in the Braves dugout were still high fiving Tomberlin, Klesko pounded the very next pitch from Mark Dewey over the center field wall to win the game, 5-4.

Klesko was living up his billing as one of baseball’s top power prospects. The next week, he hit a two-run homer at Rochester’s Silver Stadium that was reported to have landed past the 330 marker and over 11 rows of cars in the parking lot.

Later in the summer, he hit a homer in Columbus that was talked about for weeks. On a 1-1 pitch from Ed Martel, Klesko hit a ball that was reported to have gone over the trees behind the right-field fence, estimated to have carried up to 450 feet.

He rode a mid-season slump to the middle of June, knocking his average down a little over .200. His playing time became sparse as Atlanta sent major league veteran first baseman Nick Esasky to Richmond, who was working his way back after missing two years, first on a rehab assignment and later on an option to Triple-A.

In that era, there was no designated hitter when National League affiliates played against other NL affiliates. That meant Klesko had to split time at first base with Esasky, who the Braves hoped would return to his 30-homer, 108-RBI level he had posted in his last season on the field in 1989.

“The first year, I struggled a little bit,” Klesko said while visiting The Diamond for the Flying Squirrels’ opener in 2019. “But that’s Triple-A. You see a lot of major league pitching. I was kind of in and out of the lineup. Nick Esasky had vertigo and had a little bit of a wrist injury. That was the first time I really struggled in the minor leagues, the first part of the season. Three-and-0 changeups, 3-1 sliders. That made me a better hitter, to struggle somewhere.”

In the second half, Klesko got hot. Hits fell more consistently, and his long home runs came more frequently.

Klesko credited part of his improvement to a conversation with Hall of Famer Willie Stargell, who worked after his playing career as a coach in the Braves organization.

“Willie Stargell sat me down and started to teach me about the mental side of the game,” Klesko said. “On getting a good pitch to hit, staying focused more on left-center and right-center.”

In August, he homered six times and drove in 18 runs.

Klesko finished his first Triple-A season with a .251 batting average and 59 RBIs over 123 games. He led the R-Braves and ranked tied for fifth in the IL with 17 homers.

After the Triple-A season ended, Klesko was called up to Atlanta in September. He made his MLB debut on September 12, 1992, against the Astros in Houston and struck out pinch-hitting for pitcher Mike Stanton. He played 13 games with Atlanta that fall, going 0-for-14.

At the Braves’ insistence, Klesko played in the Arizona Fall League after the 1992 season. He led the league in homers and was voted as the AFL’s top prospect. In 2006, he was named to the AFL’s All-Time All-Star Team.

Klesko returned to Richmond for the 1993 season under new manager Grady Little. Chris Chambliss had taken a job as a hitting instructor with the Cardinals, and Little had led Double-A Greenville to a dominating run in the Southern League with Greenville in 1992.

Including Klesko at first base, the 1993 Richmond Braves were considered to be one of the best collections of prospects for a minor league team in a long time. The group was dubbed “The Great Eight,” and featured future major leaguers at every position on the field, including catcher Javy López, second baseman Ramon Caraballo, shortstop Chipper Jones, third baseman José Oliva and outfielders Tony Tarasco, Melvin Nieves and Mike Kelly.

“It was amazing,” Klesko said. “Javy and Chipper, and I think if you look back at that Triple-A team, most of those guys that were on that ballclub made the major leagues. Just a great group of teammates. Some guys that were really good here never even made the Braves roster. We were so stacked in the minor leagues.”

Unlike 1992, Klesko started the 1993 season hot. In his first 16 at-bats, he picked up five hits, including four homers.

On April 18 against Rochester at The Diamond, he fell behind 1-2 before knocking a walk-off single to left to give the R-Braves a 6-5 win in a game they had trailed 5-0.

After the game, Little told Klesko he was being called up by Atlanta. Little knew Klesko was being promoted and was told not to play him that night, if possible, but he had a prime chance to win the game and called for him to pinch hit in the ninth.

“We had such good teams, no one know when they were going to get called up,” Klesko said. “A lot of times, you thought you were going to get called up and you didn’t. I was a little antsy there for a while, too. Once you get up to Triple-A, and even some parts of Double-A, any time you can be gone.”

In his second stint in the majors, Klesko was used exclusively off the bench. He knocked a pinch-hit single for his for big-league hit on April 22 at Florida. He hit his first MLB homer on April 27 to force extras against the Pirates.

He played 14 games with Atlanta before being optioned back to Richmond in mid-May.

Back in Triple-A, he picked back up hitting homers. He hit his sixth homer of the year in his 63^rd at-bat on May 27. He went deep again on May 29 at The Diamond, blasting a two-run homer off the speakers over the wall in center. It was his seventh homer in just 21 games with Richmond.

On June 6 against the Red Wings, Klesko hit another homer off the speakers, which sat about 35 feet above the ground past The Diamond’s 402-foot marker in center field.

The 1993 R-Braves had a heated rivalry with the Charlotte Knights, Cleveland’s Triple-A team. Richmond and its deep roster of young prospects and Charlotte with future Hall of Famer Jim Thome among other future major leaguers were the two best teams in the International League.

Tensions boiled over in a game at The Diamond on June 17 and Klesko was at the center. In the fourth inning, he drove in the game’s first run with a long homer against Dave Eiland. As the ball sailed over the right field fence, Klesko stood in the box and watched it.

In the eighth, Klesko stepped in against reliver Bill Wertz, whose first pitch went behind him. Klesko took a few steps towards the mound before being stopped by the home plate umpire.

On the next pitch, Klesko swung and his bat sailed between Wertz and Charlotte second baseman Jeff Schaefer and rolled into the outfield.

The benches cleared and several fights broke out around the field.

In brawl, Jones tangled with Thome up against the backstop netting behind home plate, a story he told when they were both inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018.

“Chipper actually talked about how he met Jim Thome during his Hall of Fame speech,” Klesko said. “When I charged the mound, Jim grabbed him and picked him up and held him up against the screen. Actually, the last time I talked to Chipper, we talked about it. It’s pretty funny. The guy threw at me before a couple times. Guy threw behind my head so I had to go get him.”

There were no suspensions, but Klesko was later fined $100 by the league.

Decades later, people still bring up that famous 1993 brawl at The Diamond between the Richmond Braves and Charlotte Knights to Ryan Klesko.

Listen on Apple Podcasts/Spotify/etc.: https://t.co/72HQHczHeE https://t.co/sLoqFmhicc pic.twitter.com/vzxBjoV0eD

— Trey Wilson (@treywilson757) July 8, 2025

Klesko, Jones and López were all selected as starters for the Triple-A All-Star Game on July 14 in Albuquerque. Reliever Bill Taylor, who led the league with 18 saves at the time of the roster announcement, was also selected.

Klesko and Thome were among the participants in the Home Run Derby, which was won by Norfolk’s Ryan Thompson with five homers. Batters were given 10 pitches. Klesko hit one home run.

The National League won the game, 14-3, and the IL’s “Star of Stars” award was given to Klesko. He doubled in the first inning, singled high off the right-field wall in the second, homered through the wind to right in the in the fourth and added a solo shot to left in the seventh. He finished 4-for-4 with two homers, a double and three RBIs.

Klesko’s mother, who had been battling illness, attended the game. It was her first time seeing him play in three years.

In June, rumors were swirling that the Padres were interested in acquiring Klesko as part of a deal for first baseman Fred McGriff. After nearly two months of speculation, Atlanta did trade for McGriff on July 18, instead sending Nieves, Donnie Elliott and Vince Moore to San Diego.

With McGriff joining Atlanta, Klesko began mixing in work in the outfield.

Klesko slumped through most of July, hitting just one homer through July 26 before a big breakout against Syracuse on July 27 at The Diamond. He started the game 0-for-3. With Richmond trailing 7-3 in the seventh, Klesko hit a two-run triple to close the score to 7-5.

Down a run in the bottom of the ninth, he hit a solo homer to center to tie the score.

In the bottom of the 10^th with two on, Syracuse manager and former R-Brave Bob Didier opted to walk Jones and face Klesko with the bases loaded.

On the first pitch from Darren Hall, Klesko blasted a walk-off grand slam to right-center for an 11-7 win. He finished the game with seven RBIs, all after the sixth inning.

The performance tied the Richmond Braves’ single-game RBI record, matching performances by John Lickert in 1985, Gerald Perry in 1986, Mike Kelly earlier in 1993 and Didier. The Syracuse manager who opted to intentionally walk Jones to face Klesko, had the franchise’s first seven-RBI game on April 19, 1972, against Syracuse, including an inside-the-park grand slam.

The grand slam was Klesko’s 18^th homer of the season, setting a new career high.

On July 31 at Norfolk, Klesko belted his 19th homer of the year into the Elizabeth River. It was only the third homer to reach the water behind Harbor Park, which was in its first season. Klesko dedicated the homer and his 3-for-3 night to his father, who had been ill but flew in from California for the series.

Klesko did not homer again until August 19 in Columbus, his 20^th of the year. He added a homer on August 23 at The Diamond against the Tides and drove his last regular-season bomb on September 1 against the Knights.

He finished the season with 22 homers, batting .274 with 74 RBIs.

Richmond met Charlotte in the opening round of the International League postseason. Klesko hit a grand slam in Game 2 to help the R-Braves win, 8-7, but the Knights ultimately won the series.

Following the series, Klesko was called back up to Atlanta for his third MLB stint. He saw action in eight games down the stretch and went 3-for-6 with a homer and four RBIs.

He did not return to the minors again, aside from a handful of rehab appearances throughout his career. Klesko went on to play 16 MLB seasons, including eight years with the Braves, seven with the Padres and his final season with the Giants in 2007.

Klesko was part of the Braves’ World Series title run in 1995 and was selected as a National League All-Star in 2001 with the Padres. For his career, he played 1,736 games and batted .279 with 278 homers and 987 RBIs.

He played 221 games with the R-Braves between 1992 and 1993, batting .261 with 39 homers and 133 RBIs.

“The people in Richmond, Virginia have always had open arms from the day I came,” Klesko said. “It’s just special. You don’t get that in many places. It was great. I really enjoyed playing here.”