Ryan Minor

Ryan Minor was an All-American basketball player at the University of Oklahoma and was selected in the second round of the 1996 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers. However, he chose to play baseball instead, and was drafted in the 33rd round of the 1996 MLB Amateur Draft.[1]

After playing two-plus seasons in the minor leagues, Minor made his major league debut in 1998. He split the next two seasons between the Orioles and their farm clubs, mostly the Rochester Red Wings. His most notable contribution in the Major Leagues was being the first player to start in front of Cal Ripken Jr. to end his consecutive games played streak. After the 2000 season, he was traded to the Expos for pitcher Jorge Julio. He then split time in the 2001 season between the Expos and the Ottawa Lynx. Overall, Minor played 142 games during his MLB career.

From 2002 until 2004, Minor played with three different organizations, along with stints with the Newark Bears and Atlantic City Surf of the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. He joined the Lancaster Barnstormers for their inaugural 2005 season. He hit the first-ever Barnstormers home run on May 17, 2005 at Clipper Magazine Stadium. With Lancaster, Minor batted .268 with 26 homers (a team best) and 99 RBIs, which were second most on the Barnstormers team and tied for third in the league.[2] He finished his career with a lifetime .265 average, 154 homers and 567 RBI.

After Minor retired from professional baseball, he went on to coach the 2006 Road Warriors. In December 2006, Minor became the hitting and infield coach of the York Revolution, also of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. In 2008, he started serving in a similar capacity with the Delmarva Shorebirds, the Orioles' class A affiliate in the South Atlantic League.[3][4] From 2010-2012, Minor managed the Class-A Delmarva Shorebirds. In 2013, Minor was promoted to manager of the Advanced-A Frederick Keys. He was replaced for the 2014 Frederick Keys season by Luis Pujols. He then returned to the Delmarva Shorebirds for four seasons (2014-2017) before becoming the Frederick Keys manager again for the 2018 season.[5] After the Keys finished 2019 in last place with its worst season since 2004, his contract was not renewed by the Orioles.[6]

Minor's twin brother, Damon, was also a Major League Baseball player for the San Francisco Giants. They were teammates at the University of Oklahoma from 1993 to 1995.

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)