The lineup card ? one of baseball?s simplest images; there to make known that day?s starters ? had never been more telling. Ryan Minor?s name sat right beside a blacked-out name ? that of living legend CalRipken Jr.
On Sept. 20, 1998, Minor had been chosen to start for Ripken, who had decided that day to take the night off, at third base, thus ending Ripken?s record streak of 2,632 consecutive games played.
Manager Ray Miller pulled Minor into his office 10 minutes before the first pitch against the rival New York Yankees and gave the rookie the news that he would be starting ? and, in effect, becoming the answer to a great trivia question.
“I just kind of looked at him funny and said, ?Yeah, right,?” Minor recalled on Tuesday, when it was announced that Ripken will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., this summer. “I asked if Cal knew this because I didn?t want to run out and have it be a joke on a rookie.”
It was no joke. In fact, it was history. Minor tried not to think about it.
“I didn?t have a whole lot of time to think about it, so I wasn?t really that nervous,” he said. “When I first ran out there, I was like, ?Don?t hit me a ball right now.? I was trying to take it all in.”
After the first out was recorded, the Yankees came to the dugout?s top step and tipped their caps to the Iron Man, who sat relaxed in the Orioles? dugout.
“That?s when I realized how cool it was and how much fun I knew I could have that night being involved in it,” Minor said. “I didn?t try to put any pressure on myself to do anything special. I was just trying to get my feet wet.”
Minor, who had signed with the Orioles in 1997, spent just over a year in the minor leagues before getting called up in September 1998. In that famous game, he had one hit in four at-bats.
After that season, Minor played in just 78 more games for the Orioles before being traded to Montreal for pitcher Jorge Julio. Minor played in 55 games for the Expos in 2001 and was recently named a coach for the Atlantic League?s York Revolution.
Now living in Salisbury, Minor refuses to take the limelight.
“I think people talk to me about it, they want to put a lot of emphasis on it, but it was really a night to look back at what Cal did,” Minor said.
