Minor named Keys manager
Minor, who played in parts of four Major League Baseball seasons, three with the Baltimore Orioles, and played two games with the Keys during a rehab stint in 2000, is entering his sixth season as a coach in the Orioles Minor League system.
Joining Minor will be pitching coach Kennie Steenstra, returning to Frederick after three seasons with the Bowie Baysox, the Orioles' Double-A affiliate, hitting coach Torre Tyson, formerly a manager and defensive coordinator in the New York Yankees organization, and athletic trainer Patrick Wesley, returning for his fifth season in Frederick.
Minor -- who is best remembered by Orioles fans for replacing Cal Ripken Jr. in the lineup on Sept. 20, 1998, marking the end of Ripken's record-setting streak of consecutive games played at 2,632 -- played with the Orioles from 1998-2000, and spent a season with the Montreal Expos in 2001. In 143 Major League games, the vast majority of which he played third base, Minor hit five home runs and drove in 43 runs.
In his three seasons managing Orioles Class A Delmarva affiliate, Minor led the Shorebirds to a 166-252 record. Before becoming the Shorebirds' manager in 2010, he spent the '08 and '09 seasons as Delmarva's hitting coach.
Prior to embarking on his professional baseball career, which spanned 10 Minor League seasons (1996-2005), Minor played college baseball at Oklahoma University, where he was on the team that won the 1994 College World Series. He also starred for the Sooners on the basketball team, and, as a 6-foot-7 forward, was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 32nd overall pick in the 1996 NBA draft.
Minor, however, chose baseball over basketball and was drafted by the Orioles in the 33rd round of the 1996 MLB draft.
Steenstra, 42, spent the last three seasons with Bowie after serving as the Keys pitching coach in 2009. Prior to his season in Frederick, he spent four years in the same role in Delmarva. Steenstra pitched in 11 Minor League seasons (1992-2002), nine in Triple-A, with seven different organizations, including the Orioles in his final season, 2002. He reached the Majors briefly, pitching in four games with the Chicago Cubs in 1998. Steenstra's coaching career began in 2004 in the independent Northern League with Lincoln. The 2013 season will be his ninth in the Orioles organization.
Tyson, 37, played five seasons of Minor League baseball (1998-2002) in the Yankees and Boston Red Sox organization before becoming a coach with the Staten Island Yankees, a Class A Short-Season affiliate of the big league Yankees, in 2003. After three more seasons in the Yankees organization, Tyson, whose dad, Mike Tyson, played 10 seasons as a middle infielder with the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs, became manager of the Charleston RiverDogs. He managed the RiverDogs, another Class A affiliate of the Yankees, from 2007-09, then managed the Tampa Yankees, the Class A Advanced Yankees' farm team, in 2010. In 2011, he was promoted to defensive coordinator of the Yankees' Minor League system.
Wesley, a Frederick, Md., resident, returns for his fifth season as the Keys athletic trainer, and enters his 10th season in the Orioles organization. A two-time South Atlantic League Trainer of the Year (2007-08), the Centralia, Ill., native has also worked with Southwestern Illinois College and Morgan State University.
Preparations for the 2013 season are underway and it's never too early to book your partial and full season ticket plans for the upcoming year at Harry Grove Stadium. For information on ticket plans, please contact the Keys Group Offices at 301-815-9900 or via the web at frederickkeys.com online.