SALISBURY -It's not easy to be the answer to a trivia question.
But Ryan Minor, the man who replaced Cal Ripken Jr. on Sept. 20, 1998, and ended his consecutive-games streak at 2,632, is at peace with his place in baseball history, even if it comes up while he's eating dinner on the road.
"You hear that question asked a ton," Minor says as he sits in the dugout of his employer, the Single-A Delmarva Shorebirds. "And people don't even realize you're sitting there and you're the guy that played that night. So that's neat."
Being an unknown in this Eastern Shore town, however, is not as easy. Minor began his career in earnest here in 1997 and decided to make it his offseason home. It didn't hurt that he married a local girl.
On the concourse of Arthur W. Perdue Stadium hangs a banner that notes Minor's accomplishments in 1997: a .307 average, with 24 homers and 97 RBIs. He is, the banner states, a Delmarva "All-Time All Star."
"It's nice for me to be able to go home at night after the game is over and see my family versus going away for six months," Minor, 35, says.
"You see some of the same faces in the crowd. ... It's the same people I see at the grocery store on the weekend, so it's pretty neat."
At 6 feet 7 and 240 pounds, Minor remains an imposing figure as he supervises batting and infield drills before a night game. The team hired him at the beginning of last season to assist manager Ramon Sambo. This year, the manager is Orlando Gomez, a 40-year veteran of the game who led the Rookie-level Bluefield Orioles last season.
Minor says he enjoys working with younger players, even though it can be a revolving door as the better athletes move up the minor league ladder.
The Shorebirds, he says, are very young, with a lot of talented players. A dozen players were drafted in the top 20 rounds, and two others were labeled top prospects by Baseball America. Minor drills the basics and wants players to show commitment.
"You have to stick with it and be willing to learn," he says. "A lot of kids come in and sometimes they [think they] have all the answers. But the ones who seem to stick around the most are the ones who are willing to learn. One of the biggest things to succeeding is being able to take constructive criticism and deal with it. You've got to be a man about it and go about your business the right way."
Players like his style.
