All-Diamond Team: David Justice

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 the second of three outfielders, David Justice.

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: Joe Panik
Third Baseman: Chipper Jones
Shortstop: Brandon Crawford
Outfielder: Andruw Jones
Outfielder: David Justice
Outfielder: TBA

Justice played some baseball growing up but did not play for his high school. He went to Thomas More College in Kentucky, not far from his hometown of Cincinnati, on a basketball scholarship and walked on to the baseball team.

He was selected in the 1985 MLB Draft by the Atlanta Braves and reported to rookie-level Pulaski in Southwest Virginia, where he hit .245 with 10 homers in 66 games to begin his professional career.

In 1986 he split the season between the Braves’ Class A affiliates in Sumter and Durham. He belted 22 homers that year and hit .290 with 105 RBIs. He was slated to start the 1987 season with Double-A Greenville but suffered a broken wrist in the spring, causing him to miss three months.

Despite less impressive numbers at Double-A, Justice was one of the most-watched hitting prospects in the Braves organization coming into the 1988 season with Triple-A Richmond.

Justice’s first game at The Diamond was on April 2, 1988, in Richmond’s annual exhibition against the Atlanta Braves. In a 4-1 win for the R-Braves, he had three hits and drove in three runs. He opened the scoring with a solo homer in the third inning against Tom Glavine.

He made his official Triple-A debut on April 7, 1988, in a loss to the Pawtucket Red Sox at The Diamond. He went 0-for-3.

After a quiet start at home, the R-Braves headed to Old Orchard Beach, Maine to face the Phillies’ affiliate. After Maine took a lead in the seventh inning, Justice hit his first Triple-A homer, a two-run shot down the right-field line, to tie the score. Richmond rallied to win the game, 7-5, in 10 innings.

He hit his second and third homers on back-to-back days on April 16 at Columbus and April 17 at Toledo. Two days later on April 19 in Toledo, hit a three-run homer in the eighth in a 3-0 win.

Justice hit .324 with four homers in the R-Braves’ first road trip of the season. It seemed like he was adjusting to Triple-A well.

But Justice fell into a slump from May into mid-June. He entered a game on June 14 at Indianapolis 3-for-44 before hitting a two-run homer and drove in all three runs in a 3-2 R-Braves win at Indianapolis. Four days later on June 18 in Nashville, he homered twice and drove in four runs.

After the stretch of homers, Justice fell back into another slump. He was batting .203 through 70 games with a team-high 55 strikeouts through July 2.

At that point, he had eight homers, all away from The Diamond. Of his 28 RBIs, 22 came on the road. He called The Diamond a “dungeon.”

Justice was convinced the distance markers on the outfield walls at The Diamond were wrong. According to John O’Connor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Justice brought a tape measure to batting practice one day in 1988 and double-checked the distance from home plate to the outfield wall. The “330” sign was accurate.

The Braves sent him back down to Double-A Greenville on July 2. Justice told the Richmond Times-Dispatch he was relieved to receive the demotion. After missing half of his Double-A season in 1987, he said he was a little overmatched by the veteran pitchers in the International League.

He spent the rest of the season in the Southern League and hit .278 with nine homers in 58 games.

Justice returned to Richmond in 1989 looking to bounce back.

He got off to an improved, although not blistering start through the season’s first five weeks, batting .234 with three homers and 20 RBIs. He lowered his strikeout rate to 17 percent from 23 percent the prior year, an area of emphasis placed on him by Atlanta.

After an injury to Lonnie Smith, Justice got word on May 22 he was being called up to the majors by Atlanta for the first time. The Braves were hoping to leave him in the minors for most of the year, but with a shortage of outfielders, they brought him up.

Justice made his MLB debut for the Braves on May 24, 1989, in Atlanta against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He went 1-for-5 in that game.

He spent the rest of May in the majors and went 0-for-15 over seven games before being sent back to Richmond.

Justice appeared to be heating up in mid-June. On June 10, he went 5-for-8 in a doubleheader sweep against Pawtucket. The next day, he hit three doubles and scored twice in a 5-1 win over the Pawsox, finishing the series with eight hits in 11 at-bats.

He followed with an 0-for-15 slump. It was brief, though. He hit .423 in the last seven June games.

In front of a sellout crowd at The Diamond on July 4, Justice gave Richmond an early lead with a two-run single before Rochester scored three straight runs to take the lead. With the R-Braves trailing in the bottom of the eighth, Mark Lemke hit a two-out single to right to tie the score and Justice sliced a single to left to bring home the go-ahead run in a 4-3 win.

The win improved Richmond to 12-3 in a 15-game stretch. They were making a push to win the International League West pennant.

Although his average was trending up, Justice had not shown the same power he displayed the previous year to that point. On July 17 at Syracuse, he hit a game-tying homer in the seventh inning, his first since May 20 and fourth on the year, in a comeback win.

He homered again on July 21 at The Diamond. He clubbed his sixth homer of the season on July 26 back in Syracuse.

On July 28, he helped lead Richmond to a 9-2 win at Syracuse with two homers and five RBIs.

His hot stretch was stalled in early August after an injured forced him to the disabled list. He returned later in the month in time to help with Richmond’s charge to the postseason.

On August 26 at The Diamond, Justice brought in the tying run in the seventh and hit a walk-off double in the ninth for a 2-1 win over Denver, helping maintain their first-place lead in the West.

Later in the week on August 30, Richmond clinched the IL West title with a 5-1 win over Tidewater.

Justice finished the 1989 regular season with a .261 batting average, 12 homers and 58 RBIs.

The R-Braves faced Syracuse in the Governors’ Cup championship series, a team Justice had success against during the regular season, batting .418 with five of his 12 homers.

Richmond won the first game, 5-0, on a near-perfect game by starting pitcher Charlie Puleo at The Diamond. After losing Game 2, the series shifted to Syracuse tied, 1-1.

In Game 3, Justice opened the scoring with a three-run homer in the first inning in a four-RBI night to help push Richmond to a 10-4 win.

Needing one more win to claim the Cup, Richmond was tied with Syracuse in the eighth inning of Game 4. With one out, Justice worked a walk and Barry Jones followed with a two-run homer, giving the R-Braves a 4-2 win to clinch the title.

Richmond advanced to face American Association-champion Indianapolis in the Triple-A Classic, but an ankle injury suffered in the bottom of the eighth in Game 4 of the Governors’ Cup series kept Justice out.

Justice was called back up to Atlanta for the final weeks of the 1989 regular season. In his second stint in the majors, he hit .354 (11-for-31), including his first major league homer on Sept. 19 against the Astros.

While preparing for the 1990 season in spring training, Justice suffered a broken nose and fractured cheek bone when he was hit by a ball while sliding into home plate, requiring surgery.

Justice missed about a month before returning to game action with Richmond in May. He got off to a slow start, going 1-for-12 to begin his season. He responded by going 8-for-15 over the next few games, including hitting a pair of three-run homers on May 9 at Syracuse.

His 1990 stay in Richmond was short. After playing 12 games, he was called back up to Atlanta on May 15 and did not return to the minors the rest of his career, aside from a pair of rehab stints.

In 1990, he hit .282 with Atlanta and clubbed 28 homers on his way to being named the National League Rookie of the Year.

Justice went on to spend 14 seasons in the majors, including eight years with the Braves. He also played for the Indians, Yankees and Athletics.

He was selected as an All-Star three times, twice with Atlanta (1993 and 1994) and once with Cleveland (1997). He won a World Series title with the Braves in 1995. In 2000, he was named the ALCS MVP with the Yankees before winning his second World Series.

In 2007, Justice was inducted to the Braves Hall of Fame.