How Giants coach Damon Minor carries his twin brother's legacy: 'You miss him every day'

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Damon Minor and Ryan Minor grew up as twins, both exceptional athletes in high school and college, both reaching the major leagues. But Damon always knew who was better.

And he was OK that it wasn’t him.

“When he played a sport, he played it so well, things came naturally to him,” Damon said. “For me, it was the opposite. I had to work hard to keep up with him, trying to be as good as he was. He did get a lot of the limelight, but it was a brotherly love competition. He was an inspiration for me.”

That is still the case. One of the Giants hitting coaches and a longtime coach in the organization, Damon Minor thinks about his brother every day and always tries to implement the work ethic he learned from him and pass it along to others.

Ryan Minor died Dec. 22, 2023, of colon cancer, an absolute shock to Ryan’s wife and two children and also to Damon, who was as close to Ryan as a brother could get. Ryan was just 49, two weeks before their 50th birthday.

“It’s a call you don’t want to hear,” Damon said. “He fought it for a year and a half. I was able to spend time with him his last few months, and that was good. But to see someone go through cancer, you don’t want to wish that upon anyone.”

Their relationship and Ryan’s passing hits home this weekend when the Giants host the Baltimore Orioles, the organization for whom Ryan played and later coached and managed in their farm system. While Damon played first base for the Giants for parts of four seasons through 2004, Ryan was an Orioles third baseman and also spent a season in Montreal.

When the Giants play the Orioles Friday night, they’ll seek their sixth win in a row in the wake of sweeping the Cubs, a series capped by Thursday’s 4-3 win and Jung Hoo Lee’s walkoff single. The Orioles, last place in the American League East, remain in Damon Minor’s heart for his brother’s association with the team.

“When he was going through cancer, the Orioles were involved, and I really appreciate that organization for what they did for him during his battle,” Damon said. “It’s going to be really cool with Baltimore coming in to see the Orioles uniforms on the other side.

“He played a few years with the parent club, and he's got the trivia question.”

Damon will never forget Sept. 20, 1998. He just happened to be playing for the Delmarva Rockfish in the short-lived Maryland fall league, and was close enough to Camden Yards that he took in a game not knowing that he would witness remarkable baseball history.

Before the Orioles played a Sunday night game against the Yankees, Cal Ripken Jr. walked into the manager’s office and told Ray Miller that he was fine sitting out. After playing a record 2,632 consecutive games over 16 seasons, Ripken finally took a day off. His iron-man streak, which began May 30, 1982, was over.

And the third baseman was …

“I was walking in and heard Ryan’s name announced. I thought, ‘That’s not right.’ Sure enough, he was the third baseman,” Damon said. “When he was told he’s starting because Cal was taking his day, he thought they were joking with him and needed someone to tell him it’s not a joke. They said no, this is happening. It was a really neat experience. I got to see him play and replace Cal.” 

One out into the first inning, with Yankee players applauding at the top step of their dugout and fans roaring for their hero, Ripken came onto the field and tipped his cap. It was Ryan’s third big-league game. He was 24 years old, 14 years younger than Ripken, and went 1-for-4.

Throughout their playing and coaching careers, the brothers talked regularly. To break down game action. To discuss strategies. To talk baseball and life. To vent. To laugh.

“We always had those conversations, especially after games,” Damon said. “I miss those calls. That's the toughest thing.”

The brothers never had the chance to face each other in pro ball, in the minors or majors, which Damon regrets. But they had the thrill of playing sports together in their younger days, including at Hammon High School in a small western Oklahoma town and on the University of Oklahoma baseball team that won the 1994 College World Series.

Ryan, listed at 6-foot-7 like his brother, also was an exceptional basketball player, scouted by Indiana’s Bobby Knight and Oklahoma State’s Eddie Sutton among others. Ryan was determined to play for Sutton, and Damon was interested in joining him at OSU to play baseball. But things got sidetracked.

“We went up on a recruit visit, and the baseball recruiter didn't show up for my recruitment, so I wasn't very happy,” Damon said. “So the following week, I visited Oklahoma and decided I was going to go there. They were highly recruiting Ryan, too, and he said, ‘Well, I'll just go with you.’ It was awesome. We didn't want to split up. It turned out for the best because we won the national title two years later.”

Ryan was a good enough hoopster to get selected by the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round (32nd overall) of the 1996 NBA draft, the year the Sixers had the No. 1 overall pick and took Allen Iverson. Ryan played some preseason games with the Sixers and spent a season in the D League with the Oklahoma City Calvary before pivoting to baseball.

“We played high school basketball together and might’ve lost seven games in four years,” Damon said. “He was very talented. I played center, he was a wing, and I didn’t get to shoot much because he never missed.”

Oddly, both brothers were drafted by the Mets in 1995, Ryan in the seventh round and Damon in the 19th. They stayed in college another year, and in 1996, Damon signed with the Giants, who drafted him in the 12th round. Ryan didn’t get drafted by the Orioles until the 33rd round, only because it was clear he would pursue a hoops career.

After all, he chose not to play baseball his senior year to concentrate on basketball, and why not? As a junior, he was the Big Eight Conference player of the year and third-team All-American, then had another banner year as a senior. When he eventually wanted to turn to baseball, the Orioles welcomed him aboard. 

Last August, Ryan was posthumously inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, and Damon made sure to be on hand, having been given time by the Giants to step away from his coaching gig at Triple-A Sacramento.

Damon remains close with Ryan’s family including his wife Allyson and daughters Reagan and Finley and got to visit with them in April when the Giants played in New York and Philadelphia. Reagan has special needs, and a golf tournament in Ryan’s name is set for mid-October in Maryland to support special-needs children, a fund that Ryan helped arrange before he passed.

Another golf tournament in early November at the University of Oklahoma helps support Ryan’s family.

“It's harder going through the summers and not being able to talk to him,” Damon said. “When you lose a twin brother, you miss him every day. It’s not easy.”