College

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 went on to be drafted in the 33rd round of the 1996 MLB Amateur Draft.

Playing career

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 Majors 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 2001 between the Expos and the Ottawa Lynx. Overall, Minor played 142 games during his major league 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 in time 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 RBI, which were second most on the Barnstormers team and tied for third in the league. He finished his career with a lifetime .265 average, 154 homers and 567 RBI.

Coaching and managerial career

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. 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, and returned to the Delmarva Shorebirds.

Personal Life

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

[ Source: Wikipedia ]