[2] Born in Long Beach, California,[3] Minor graduated from Wilson Classical High School where he excelled in both baseball and football.

At first, he bounced around five organizations for over a decade in the Minor Leagues, through 1960, going from the Pirates to the Philadelphia Athletics, New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers and Milwaukee Braves.

[4] Minor began his career as a pitcher-outfielder for the Class A Riverside Dons of the Sunset League in 1947,[5] where he posted a 6-10 record with a 6.29 ERA in 22 pitching appearances and also played 41 games at outfield.

[2] The Braves made Minor a scout in 1960, and he moved to the Mets in 1967, to ensure a successful long-term relationship under nine different general managers and stayed there in various areas of player evaluation until his retirement in 2013.

[7] Minor earned that respect with a scouting sense that led to him being involved in the signing of numerous amateur players for the organization, including Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, Lenny Dykstra, Mookie Wilson, Wally Backman, Kevin Mitchell and Kevin Elster, all of them members of the 1986 World Series champion Mets,[7] as well as Hubie Brooks, John Gibbons, Greg Jefferies and Tim Leary.

[10] He was married with Elizabeth Gale, his wife of 65 years, and they had four children: two girls, Debbie and Becky, and two boys, Bob and Steven, who played school baseball and then became scouts like their father.