From ballboys to GMs: Game has followed Minasian Bros. all their lives

The Alous. The Boones. The Bells.

Baseball is filled with famous families who have left their imprint on the game across generations. But there’s another notable family that has surged to prominence in recent years: the Minasians.

The patriarch of the family, Zack, worked as a clubhouse manager for the Rangers from 1988 to 2009, giving his four sons -- Rudy, Perry, Calvin and Zack -- a chance to grow up in the game and rub elbows with baseball luminaries like Nolan Ryan, Tommy Lasorda, Bo Jackson, Iván Rodríguez and President George H.W. Bush.

This early exposure sparked a lifelong passion for the game that later helped propel the clan to the top of their fields. Perry, 44, and the younger Zack, 41, are now general managers for the Angels and Giants, respectively, while Calvin, 43, works as the director of clubhouse and equipment for the Braves. The 47-year-old Rudy, meanwhile, has found success away from the game, practicing law at his own firm in Chicago.

Here’s the story of the rise of the Minasian Brothers:

RAISED IN THE CLUBHOUSE

Bobby Valentine, Rangers manager from 1985-92: I signed professionally in 1968, and I went to Ogden, Utah, to play Rookie ball. Zack (Sr.) was the clubhouse manager. I was 17, and he was in his third year of being Tommy (Lasorda’s) sort of traveling secretary. He was still in high school. The reason he was there is because Zack's dad, Eddie, ran the Cocoanut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel off of Wilshire (in Los Angeles). It’s where all the stars went. And Eddie was the man to see. Anyway, Zack and I struck up that friendship, and then you fast forward. He goes to college, gets out of college, gets a degree. He's working in Chicago. Doesn't like his job. A job comes open when I am now a manager, right, 20 years later in Texas. Zack already had his family, but he took the job as visiting clubhouse manager. And he revolutionized what a clubhouse could and should be.

It wasn’t long before the job became a family affair, with all four Minasian brothers getting their start by working for their dad as clubhouse attendants and batboys for the Rangers.

Zack Minasian, father: My oldest son, Rudy, who's an attorney, started in the clubhouse before any of the other three. As like a 12-year-old, he took on a lot of responsibility in the clubhouse. Perry, when he was probably 8, he was sitting down the left-field line as our ballboy. The two younger, Calvin and Zack, when they were old enough, were in the clubhouse and they basically grew up there.

Perry Minasian, Angels GM: Obviously, we’re a baseball family. My father worked in the game a long time. I have three brothers, we all worked in the clubhouse for years. I had the pleasure of cleaning bathrooms for eight years. So that was a lot of fun.

Zack Minasian, Giants GM: I was 5 when my dad got the job, and I was definitely in the clubhouse. The one rule was, if you’re in the clubhouse, you’re going to work. Now, there were probably only so many things I could do when I was 5, but I would clean shoes, I would pick up dirty clothes and things like that.

Will Clark, Rangers first baseman from 1994-98: Their dad was a pro. He knew exactly what he was doing and made sure everything was taken care of. But Zack, his brother, Perry, and then his other brothers, they were our clubhouse guys. They ran around getting all the dirty laundry and making sure that some of the stuff was stocked in the clubhouse and making sure everything got washed and put away.

Doug Melvin, Rangers GM from 1994-2001: I got hired in the ‘94 season, and Zack’s dad was on the visiting clubhouse side. When I went in as general manager, I had conversations with him. We had an older guy in Joe Macko who was very good on the home side, but I made the switch and brought Zack over on the home side. He had the kids working at the time, and I didn't know the kids probably for most of the first year. But his dad was a good mentor to both of them in the working world. He made them work. They worked hard. They all had passion for the game. They had passion for the Rangers at that time. But they worked hard. They put in long hours. Zack Sr. was very good at teaching them that you're not going to do anything wrong by working hard, and it'll lead to success later on.

Buck Showalter, Rangers manager from 2003-06: They would go to school, they would come in. God knows they weren’t getting much sleep, which prepares them for this job, too. But they never had a bad day, either.

Bobby Witt, Rangers pitcher from 1986-1992 and 1995-98: Whether it was being a batboy, shagging, doing something in the field or the in clubhouse, they were always doing something and they always went about it the right way. You could tell they had a passion for what they were doing. Could I have seen them in their current positions? I don’t know. But you could tell they would likely do something in baseball.

BOYS BEING BOYS

Despite the long hours and unglamorous work, the Minasian boys always found ways to make the most of their unique upbringing.

Clark: All kinds of mischief went on, and I was always in the middle of it. (Former Rangers outfielder) Rusty Greer had a face rag that he took a shower with all the time, and he kept it in locker. Rusty was in the locker next to me, and we called it Rusty's rag. I would constantly hide Rusty's rag, and he'd get all mad at me. “Where's my rag?” Needless to say, there were a few times I got Zack in on the deal. I'm like, “Here, this is Rusty's rag. Go hide it.” Zack became part of the Rusty's rag crew.

Melvin: It's still a kid’s game, and they had fun. I know they got excited about the celebrities that would come into the clubhouse. Tiger Woods was in there one time, and they’d sort of hide around the corner and see that Tiger Woods is here. So they got excited about that like any young kid would.

Calvin Minasian, Braves clubhouse manager: Any ESPN game, Perry would want to be the batboy. He loved the limelight and he was all about being on TV. He worked for it. He was the oldest and we kind of looked up to him and tried to follow his path.

Perry: There was a picture in the newspaper that said Nolan Ryan and his son. Because I was sitting next to him. Nobody would sit next to him in between innings, so I would. So it said Nolan Ryan and his son on the front page of one of the Dallas papers. I have it at home.

Barbara Minasian, mother: They knew how to act around other people. But at home, they were insane. You know, they’re boys. They burp at the kitchen table. They fart. I mean, it was just like a free-for-all. That was OK, because they had fun. And that’s a big thing for me with kids. Kids should have fun with whatever they do. I don't care if it's school. I don't care if they're working in the clubhouse. There's got to be an element of fun to it, because I think that's what gets you through life. You're finding the joy in something you do.

Valentine: The one thing about the four Minasian boys -- mainly because of their mom, I always say, but their dad had a great hand in it -- was they were always really respectful. Can you imagine these four less-than teenagers in a Major League clubhouse?

Calvin: Our dad instilled the work ethic in us, but our mom instilled family values. This is why we're so close. I talk to my brothers at least once a week. So, you know, that was my mom’s influence.

When they weren’t at the ballpark or at school, the Minasian brothers would often compete in everything from Wiffle ball to pingpong to basketball, clashes that occasionally exhausted the patience of their mother.

Barbara: With four boys very close in age, their behavior led me to sometimes think, “I don’t think I can take another day.” They acted ridiculous to a point that one day I told Calvin and Perry to get out of the car at the corner. We lived down a hill. I said, “OK, now you two can get out of the car." And they go, “What?” I said, “You two are getting out of the car and you’re going to walk down the hill and go home.” They said, “But there’s no sidewalk.” I said, “I understand, but I can’t take it anymore.’” They were just like other siblings that were close in age. They were just boys.

One of their favorite battlegrounds was their PlayStation, where Perry and Zack got their first opportunity to build teams while playing Madden Football.

Calvin: Our dad just got us a new PlayStation, and that was kind of when PlayStation just came out. We got John Madden Football, which is one of the biggest PlayStation games out there. We open the game and we want to play, and all of a sudden, my brothers see a draft section on the game. Zack and Perry, all they wanted to do is the draft. They wanted to build players. They wanted to do all that. I just wanted to play the game. I wanted to pick a team and get going. Ever since then, I knew they were into building players and running a team.

AN EDUCATION IN BASEBALL

Luckily for Perry and Zack, working in the Rangers' clubhouse put them in the direct orbit of a coterie of respected baseball minds, including Melvin, Showalter, Johnny Oates, Valentine, Tom Grieve, Mel Didier, DeMarlo Hale, John Hart and Ed Napoleon.

Zack, father: Perry would drive Johnny Oates home after every home game. On that ride over, they talked about baseball. That's a kid talking to a Major League manager every night for 81 games, about the game, whether it was about the game that night, or situations that may have occurred, or whatever. All of my sons were like that. They weren't afraid to ask a question. They weren't afraid to wonder, “Why did that happen?” I think it helped them all.

Valentine: The oldest brother, Rudy, kind of ran the clan. There are four boys, and Rudy was the teenager, so he had to do a lot of the discipline if you will. But Perry was next in line. And he was in everybody's locker. He was asking guys everything. As a 9-year-old, he was a batboy, and he happened to be one of the best batboys we had. I want to say for Nolan Ryan’s sixth no-hitter Perry was the guy telling him who the pinch-hitters were going to be. Zack was still a baby at the time, but he was still in the thick of it. I just remember the kids playing and taking batting practice. They were ever-present.

Melvin: They probably had more access to the game than what I did by sitting up in an office. I would interact with coaches more than I did players. They interacted with players. They would see who was the kind of player you'd like to have on your team, the kind of player you maybe wouldn't want to have in your team. But they also got engaged in the mechanics of the game itself and had a lot of conversations with managers and coaches.

Clark: They were able to see a lot of the things that went on in the clubhouse. Especially when they got older, they were able to talk to people about what kind of dynamic you need in the clubhouse. “We won because of this reason, and we had this camaraderie in the clubhouse,” that kind of thing. The bad teams, they were missing an element. And these guys, because they were there every day, they were able to see that element that was missing.

Perry: I wasn’t talented enough to play, but it was the closest to playing -- traveling with the team all year, going through the long road trips, arriving at 5, 6 in the morning and playing that night. Doing those things. You get a feel for the ebbs and flows of the season. You get a feel for not everything is going to be roses all the time. It’s how to handle the good, how to handle the bad, not get too high, not get too low. Being around a lot of successful clubs and teams that struggled helped both of us along the way.

Zack, Giants GM: We were so fortunate to be around so many special people who cared about baseball and knew that we loved it. They gave us an education.

FRONT-OFFICE BEGINNINGS

When Showalter was brought in to manage the Rangers in 2003, he took quick note of a 23-year-old Perry’s baseball acumen and hired him to work as an assistant to his coaching staff.

Showalter: Perry was a guy that any time I’d ask him about a player, he knew everything there was (to know). We cleared out a closet in the locker room and made an office for him, and basically he set up the advance meetings. If a coach needed something run off or a pencil or whatever, he was the go-to guy. He was the guy that you knew could get it done. He loved baseball. He knew every player, I thought, in the game. I could ask about someone in Bakersfield and he would know them. And I’d go, “Don’t you ever sleep?”

Zack, father: Buck Showalter is no dummy. When he decided to take Perry from working in the clubhouse and make him his advance guy who did the reports and prepped the team on the upcoming opponents, he knew what he was doing. I remember Zack said or did something to impress Buck. Buck then looked at me and said, “Did I take the wrong guy?” I said, “Absolutely not. You took the right guy, but the other guy's going somewhere also.”

The younger Zack soon began his own rise in Milwaukee, where Melvin gave him an opportunity to work as an intern in the Brewers’ front office.

Melvin: While Zack was still going to school, I remember I had gotten the job in Milwaukee and became the general manager there in 2003. I called Zack. I said, “Zack, when do you graduate?” And he told me the date. I said, “Well, as soon as you graduate, you get yourself on an airplane, you come up here and I’m going to have you as an intern and work for me up here in Milwaukee.”

The reason I felt that (Zack) could work in the game is he knew players. I'd sit down and they would talk players, and they would talk trades like any young fans do. But what they talked about made a lot of sense. I’d sit down with them and laugh with them and joke with them, but I knew in the back of my mind that there's a chance for these kids to work in the game.

Perry joined the Blue Jays as a Major League scout in 2009 and became the director of scouting a year later, when Alex Anthopoulos became Toronto's general manager. Zack, meanwhile, became the youngest pro scouting director in the Majors at 27, giving him a chance to collaborate with his older brother on a major trade that sent Blue Jays right-hander Shaun Marcum to the Brewers in exchange for infielder Brett Lawrie in 2010.

Zack, Giants GM: I remember my boss calling me -- it was actually during Thanksgiving -- and he was asking me about this potential deal that I had mentioned. I remember him asking me about it. "Let’s look at Lawrie and Marcum again." I got on my computer, and I’m looking at Lawrie’s numbers. I turn around, and sure enough, Perry’s standing right behind me, staring at my computer, so I had to like shoo him away.

I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s any easier to get a deal done because it’s your brother. We’re probably just more direct. So if we are going to get a deal done, we know pretty quickly, and if we’re not, we know pretty quickly.

While Perry and Zack focused on climbing the front-office ranks, Calvin followed in the footsteps of their father and embarked on a career in clubhouse management. He spent nine years working as an assistant clubhouse attendant for the Nationals and became the first of his siblings to win a World Series ring in 2019. He earned a promotion the following year, joining the Braves as their new director of clubhouse and equipment.

Zack, father: Calvin, he's like me. He's a clubhouse rat. He's a guy that just enjoys the clubhouse. He enjoys the interaction with the players. I have no doubt he could have gone into the administrative end of the game, and done very well. We might have had three general managers. I really believe in Calvin's evaluation of players and understanding what it takes and that kind of thing. He just chose a different path. It was the path that I took. He loves it, and I understand why.

BASEBALL LIFERS

Perry followed Anthopoulos to Atlanta in 2018 and served as an assistant GM there for three seasons before he was tapped to lead the Angels’ front office in 2020. Zack spent 14 seasons with the Brewers before the Giants hired him to serve as their pro scouting director in 2019. He was elevated to GM when Buster Posey took over as the club’s president of baseball operations last year, making the Minasian brothers the first siblings in Major League history to hold the title at the same time.

While they remain as competitive as ever, Perry and Zack came together to give a joint interview to MLB Network during the Winter Meetings in December, which gave the family an opportunity to reflect on just how far they’d come.

Zack, father: Standing there watching them do (an MLB Network) interview at the Winter Meetings, I was about 20 seconds away from crying. I tried not to. I knew there was a camera that was panning to me once in a while, so I tried to hold back those tears and just enjoy the moment.

Perry: It was pretty surreal. Really, it's mind-blowing, right? When you think of all the different stages of life, being around each other all the time, all four of us, and trying to figure out what we want to do -- to just do an interview together and have him sitting next to me and have the same job title, it’s special.

Zack, Giants GM: I think for Perry to get there on his own prior to me was amazing, and obviously, a special opportunity. For me to get the opportunity as well, it doesn’t even really feel real.

Calvin: I know how hard they work and how dedicated they are to winning. I'm obviously proud of them. We all have that mentality to never give up and to keep working. That's credit to my mom and dad for building that in us. I knew my brothers were going to be something special.

Showalter: They’ve made [the game] better, I can tell you that. They’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. They just want to outwork people, out-relationship people. When you step back and think about it, I’ve got to tell you, the people that know the family, it doesn’t surprise them. It’s more like, yeah, that’s the way it should be. They should be getting ahead. They should be getting back what they’ve put into it. I’m happy for the game. It’s a better game with them in it.

Valentine: I get chills, you know? And the oldest brother, Rudy, could be in baseball, but he’s a prominent attorney in Chicago. I see Calvin in Spring Training and he shows his clubhouse and the way he runs it reminds me of his dad and he has his demeanor. Perry is effervescent and looking for the biggest and the brightest. And Zack is much more subdued and studious. It’s a tough road following those three boys, but he more than held his own.

Clark: Here's a family that grew up in the game of baseball, and now pretty much all of them are on the Major League level. It's definitely a testament to their family. I’m really proud to see guys that I knew back when and now I'm still friends with [be rewarded]. They've come a long way, shall we say?