Page 165 - 1975 BoSox

STEVE DILLARD WAS BORN IN Memphis on February 8, 1951, but was raised
and — as of
Mississippi, a town of around 3,400 people some 100 miles to the southeast of Memphis. Steve’s parents were working in Memphis at the time, his mother for a catering cafeteria supply place named Vend- Foods and his father doing a number of things, but eventually becoming tax collector for Lee County, Mississippi. Stephen Bradley Dillard was the oldest of four boys in the family.
Steve’s father loved baseball and had played some in school, as well as a little softball. He really sparked his son’s interest in it and encouraged him any way he could. His youngest three sons all played high- school ball, but Steve was the only one to move into professional ball. “I started to play from the time I could walk, I guess,” Steve remembered in a 2005 interview.1
Dillard did well in high school, always playing short- stop, and Saltillo High won the state title in his senior year. e summer before, the American Legion team from Tupelo, Mississippi, on which Steve played won the Legion championship as well. Playing on a couple of standout teams like that, he got scouted a bit and attracted the attention of a bird-dog scout in Tupelo, who recommended him to the San Diego Padres. His memory is that he hit around .520 for Saltillo High and was drafted right out of high school by San Diego in the 13th round of the June 1970 draft,
but had been granted a full scholarship to the University of Mississippi and elected to go to college instead.
After Dillard’s sophomore year at Ole Miss, though, the Red Sox drafted him in the second round of the June 1972 free- agent draft. Milt Bolling was the Red Sox scout. “He had this area and he signed
me and Butch Hobson, Jack Baker, Sam Bowen, Andy Merchant, and I’m sure a lot of others, but those guys eventually got in the big leagues for at least a little bit of time. ... I think with the signing bonus and incentive bonuses they gave back then, it was probably worth about $35,000.”
After signing with the Red Sox, Dillard was assigned to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in the Carolina League. “ ey had a team in Winter Haven then, in the Florida State League and I guess they considered Winston-Salem the higher Class A team at that time. Of course, now both those leagues are high A or advanced A leagues, but I think back then the Carolina League was considered a little bit better than the Florida State League.” He played at Winston-Salem for a month and a half or so, nishing out the season, and played there again for a full year in 1973. Both years, Dillard went to the instructional league after the season, but after the ’73 season he needed shoulder surgery, so he missed the rst month or two of 1974. Still, that year saw some real progress. Dillard started in June in Double-A Bristol, Connecticut, but after only 30 plate appearances was advanced to Triple-A in Pawtucket and nished the season there. Again, he played in instructional league ball.
In 1975 Dillard started with Pawtucket, but there was another shoulder repair and he went down to Bristol to nish up the season there. When Bristol’s schedule ended, he was called up for the last week of the big-
league season, joining the Boston Red Sox and sitting on the bench taking it all in. e Red Sox clinched the pennant on the next-to-last day of the year, a Saturday, and both Dillard and Andy Merchant made their major-league debuts on the following day. Coming in a few weeks ahead of them had been Butch Hobson and Rick Kreuger, who also played that nal game, an 11-4 loss to Cleveland.
Steve Dillard
by Bill Nowlin
2014 still resided — in Saltillo,
158