While working as part of the social media team for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2016, Tim Dillard had an idea that he knew would be hard to pull off.
Dillard, a veteran pitcher in the Brewers organization, was "called up" for the month to help the team with its social media efforts after his minor league season concluded. His idea for a "Brewers Night Live" video in the mold of "Saturday Night Live" was coming together and had even included cameos from general manager David Stearns and owner Mark Attanasio; however, Dillard knew there was a piece missing.
That’s when he got the idea to include legendary Brewers radio broadcaster Bob Uecker in the video. Dillard had known Uecker awhile but understood he was not always camera-friendly. It took some convincing, but he ultimately got Uecker to utter "Live from Miller Park, it's Saturday night."
Dillard, who has established himself as baseball's resident comedian, called it "one of the coolest experiences I have ever had."
He looks back fondly on getting Uecker to star in "Brewers Night Live," but that was just one of many comedic videos that have given Dillard recognition throughout baseball and beyond.
Sporting over 70,000 combined followers between Instagram and Twitter — not bad for a career minor leaguer — Dillard often posts short videos that include him and his Colorado Springs Sky Sox teammates acting out clips from movies or television shows.
"I would call it guerrilla filmmaking," Dillard told Sporting News. "We pick up a phone, turn 'record' on, and act pretty ridiculous and it looks really bad until you edit it and you sync up words of a movie or a song or a commercial and, next thing you know, it looks like we are the actors. We put a baseball spin on it usually.”
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Through his videos, Dillard has also landed a spot performing a Latino song on the Univision Deportes channel, as well as a recent gig as a guest analyst for Fox Sports Wisconsin.
Dillard's inspirations include comedic legends Jim Carrey and Will Ferrell, so it's no surprise that several of his favorite videos have been based off movies such as "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective," "Anchorman" and "Semi-Pro."
Another of Dillard’s most memorable spoofs is based on September call-ups and is set to somber music, featuring several of his Triple-A teammates looking sad about not getting a big league promotion.
"Once we reached the concept, there were about four or five of us in the room, we laughed for about 10 or 15 minutes," Dillard said. "Have the sad puppy dog look and have Sarah McLachlan playing and throw some stats out there like, 'Only 3 percent of minor leaguers get rescued to the big leagues every year.'
"That was probably the most well-received one because it impacted a lot in a short clip, at least for a minor leaguer."
Dillard often takes suggestions from teammates for video content, but he does have one important rule.
"If you come up with the idea, you have to be involved somehow,” he said. "Maybe you don’t have to be in front of the camera, but you have to at least hold it or build a prop.”
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Making videos to entertain isn't anything new to Dillard.
At a young age, he and his older brothers, Jeff and Andy, found a substitute for the traditional Christmas gifts for his grandparents. They would record videos, doing different skits and mouthing the words to songs to entertain, much like Dillard still does now, recording all of it the old-fashioned way: hooking up a VHS Camcorder to a VCR.
These days, smartphones simplify the process. Dillard started making videos in the clubhouse on the once-popular Dubsmash app after a teammate introduced it to him. He has strayed from it for some time due to the fact that "it has actually gotten worse every update."
Dillard has used social media to distribute his videos, a tool that has been as important as anything in getting his work out to the public.
Before he was even a registered member of Twitter, Dillard learned from teammates of the unfavorable receptions athletes could receive on the website. In 2013, during a trying time in his life in which he found himself playing independent ball in Pennsylvania, his wife told him to sign up for social media. Dillard gave it a shot.
"Maybe you’re done with baseball, and if you’re done with baseball, maybe you should get social media to help with connections going forward for whatever your next career is," Dillard’s wife, Erin, remarked.
His Twitter run kicked off with one tweet:
You're Welcome World!
— Tim Dillard (@DimTillard) April 3, 2013
Fans have embraced Dillard’s likeable and endearing social media presence, which is influenced by the temperament with which he approaches it.
"I made up the idea that whatever I do, I'm going to do just for fun,” Dillard said. "I don’t care about politics, I can’t even speak on that. I don’t want to do current events. Really, if just something pops in my head and I think it is funny, I just try to go for it."
Dillard wasn’t finished with his baseball career after his experience in the independent league, although he hasn't reached the major leagues since 2012. His major league experience has spanned 83 1/3 innings over four seasons, all with the Brewers.
Nonetheless, Dillard has kept his celebrity status around baseball because of his personality and originality, which isn't hard to decipher while watching any number of his videos.
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The relationship between the Brewers and Dillard is the gateway that allows Dillard to be as creative as possible. A lot of trust has been built up between he and the team that drafted him in 2002; the Brewers are the only MLB organization of which he has been a part.
"I don’t want (the Brewers) to look bad, and they know that," Dillard said. “When you turn on a camera inside a clubhouse, a few years ago that was even frowned upon, so I try to keep the balance of I'm not trying to give anything away, I'm not trying to leak information and or make anybody look bad. I really just want to show how much goes on in a clubhouse because you don’t see behind the scenes that much."
Many minor leaguers bond while enduring the trials and tribulations of professional baseball through board or card games. Dillard and his Sky Sox teammates use his videos as a means to creating lifelong bonds.
He gives a unique glimpse into the future for Brewers fans, allowing them to get a sneak peek at the team's prospects before they come up to the big leagues.
Many minor leaguers star in Dillard’s videos and showcase their personality while showing a side of themselves outside of baseball.
"Just being with the Brewers organization, people have contacted me over social media and said, ‘Thank you for letting me get to know this player before he got there, so now I know I can root for him and I know what kind of person he is,'" Dillard said.
It became a Sky Sox initiation of sorts to be featured in Dillard's videos, and most of his teammates quickly became fixtures.
"I was really reluctant at first," Dillard’s former Sky Sox teammate Jim Miller said. "Then one of the other guys, he and I have the same agent, I was talking to him and I was like, 'What’s up with (Dillard), what’s he all about?’ He goes 'Dude, just search him on YouTube.'"
"I have been fortunate enough to be behind the camera and capture it, I have been an actor in a bunch of them,” Miller added. “I have helped develop ideas on a few of them when we are around each other."
Miller has noticed that while these videos are just a hobby of Dillard's, they also present a steppingstone toward something bigger.
"I have told him for the last two years, 'Dude, you have no idea, I know you’re having fun with this, but you’re building a brand for yourself,'" Miller said. "Where he is at and what he does with them, for me his creativity is off the charts.”
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Several downsides of minor league baseball, including low pay, long bus rides and a similar routine for months on end, create a clubhouse environment that isn't always ringing with positivity, but Dillard tries to provide an upbeat attitude for others to feed off of.
That is just who he is, an outgoing, larger-than-life person whose friends have a long list of great things to say about him.
“Anybody that meets him will quickly realize what a genuine person he is,” another former Sky Sox teammate, Jaye Chapman, said. “He genuinely cares for people and that comes across. He’s eccentric, he’s always into something. He’s so funny. He wouldn’t tell you this, but he’s brilliant, he's a really smart guy."
Dillard's demeanor sets him apart. It's part of why his peers appreciate him so much. In the baseball world that features a bevy of players that come and go, he has found a way to stand out as a valued and memorable teammate.
“It's always fun to have a good work environment where you enjoy coming," Dillard said. "I just tried to go, 'All right, when my teammates walk in the door, I want them to see me doing something ridiculous so that they are interested.' And then the next day I want them to go, 'What's he doing today? Am I going to be a part of whatever he is doing today?' That is actually the most fun part about it.”
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Aaron Hoback, an athletic trainer with the Brewers who has been with Dillard on and off over the course of 12 seasons, has seen first-hand how his personality and videos make players feel welcome.
"Especially at the Triple-A level, we have guys bouncing up and down to the big leagues or young prospects coming up who are nervous," Hoback said. "Tim has always been that guy to be that link between picking guys up when they come back from the big leagues or encouraging these young guys who come up from Double-A or the lower levels. I wouldn’t say he is the boisterous leader that a lot of teams have, he is more of a pick everybody’s spirits up guy.”
Dillard humbly shrugs it off, but his friends all believe that he has a bright future in broadcasting, comedy or something that combines the two, citing his charisma, on-camera presence and knowledge of baseball.
Maybe he can even have a similar future as one of his favorite guest stars, Uecker.
“I think he is definitely interested in doing something either with broadcasting or some sort of networking, either radio or TV goes,” Hoback said. “He has expressed interest in it over the past couple years. Me, personally, I foresee him not being the next Uecker, but along those lines. Either being some sort of comedic role or color commentary.
"I definitely feel like he has the talent for it and, more than I have seen out of a lot of guys, he has the drive and the ability to push himself to do better in everything that he does."