Saturday Bird Droppings: Ryan Minor has passed away took away the mind of a sensational ace to decide his fate.
There was sad news in the Orioles family on Friday. Ryan Minor died at the age of 49 after a battle with colon cancer.
died at the age of 49 after a battle with colon cancer.
Minor spent parts of three seasons on the O’s big league roster from 1998-2000. During that time he gained notoriety as the player that replaced Cal Ripken Jr. in the team’s lineup, marking the end of Ripken’s consecutive games played streak.
After his playing career ended, Minor returned to the organization as a coach and manager. Between 2008 and 2019, he served in various roles at all levels of the club’s minor league setup.
Prior to his life in pro baseball, Minor was a two sport athlete at the University of Oklahoma, playing basketball and baseball. He got a chance to try his hand at both, spending some time with the Philadelphia 76ers in the preseason before he settled on baseball full-time.
Minor was the sort of person that makes professional baseball tick. He climbed his way up the organizational ladder as both a player and coach. While he did not achieve huge personal success at the big league level, you can be certain he made an impact, both on players of a decade ago as well as some that may still be plying their trade in Baltimore today. He is a significant loss in the Orioles community.
As the Baltimore Sun explained, Minor had been diagnosed with stage IV cancer in 2022. He had been in hospice care at home in Salisbury since November following a determination by doctors at Johns Hopkins that no other treatment options were available. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.
Links
After 101 wins, expectations will be high for the 2024 year Orioles | Steve Melewski
As they should be! But it’s not about wins, per se. The team needs to advance deeper into the playoffs. They’ve proven they can win a division. Now go and win a playoff series or two.
Holliday, Mayo highlight baseball’s best-ranked system | MiLB.com
This seems to be a month-old post, but it was circulating and being promoted by MiLB again this week, and it’s simply too much fun to look at how amazing some members of the O’s minor league system thrived in 2023.
After James McCann’s sons started life in the NICU, the wants to help others there | The Baltimore Banner
The perfect pick-me-up for the holiday season. NICUs can feel isolating and incredibly scary. It’s near to see one of the Orioles own working to ease those feelings in some way, shape, or form.
Orioles birthdays
Is it your birthday? Happy birthday!
The late Dave May (b. 1943, d. 2012) was born on this day. He spent parts of four seasons in the Orioles outfield from 1967 through ‘70.
This day in O’s history
1980 – Free agent outfielder Jim Dwyer signs with the O’s. He would go on to spend almost eight full seasons with his new organization, which included a World Series win in 1983.
