Hall of Fame
Allard Baird, currently vice president, player personnel for major league baseball’s Boston Red Sox, came to Southern Arkansas from St. Petersburg, Florida, in the summer of 1984, transferring to play his sophomore season in 1985 for the Mulerider baseball team. He played second base and shortstop, hitting .311 and being named honorable mention All-AIC (Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference).
Baird gave up his eligibility the following season to serve as a student assistant to legendary Head Coach Steve Goodheart in order to start laying the foundation for his future baseball career. At the time, Goodheart didn’t like the idea, but Baird persisted and Goodheart relented and placed him in charge of working with the pitchers.
In the 1986 season, the Muleriders were AIC champions with a 16-4 record and finished the year with an overall mark of 36-12 and were ranked as high as eighth in the national poll during the season. Following the season, Baird became an associate scout for the Kansas City Royals under Kenny Gonzales, who had signed Bo Jackson.
He then was hired in 1987 as head coach at Broward Community College in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., staying only a year. In 1988, Baird was hired full time by the Kansas City Royals, spending half his time scouting and the other half as a hitting coach with Class A Appleton, Wisconsin. He moved up the ranks as a full-time scout for Kansas City and worked on the field with player development. He was promoted in 1998 to vice-president of player development and scouting, before serving as assistant to the general manager in 1999 and 2000, and then was named in June of 2000 as general manager of the Royals, replacing Herk Robinson.
Baird was a member of the Baseball Olympic Selection Committee for the 2000 gold medal winning team. In 2003, he was named major league baseball’s Executive of the Year.
After his 18-year tenure with the Royals, the Red Sox hired Baird as a special assistant to the general manager in 2006. He was later named vice president and director of professional scouting, before assuming his current position last year, serving under Red Sox GM Ben Cherington.
Baird is most proud of the Red Sox’s 2007 World Series championship. He has been credited in publications as “Most crucial and being a major key to the Red Sox’s success over the past several seasons…As VP of player personnel he’s the man largely in charge of finding players…He and his team of nine scouts saw to it that holes would be plugged with players who gave surprisingly significant contributions, and…Baird has the ability to turn rocks into diamonds in the rough.”
Baird grew up in Rochester, N.J., and currently keeps a residence in Florida with his wife, Julie, who came to SAU with him in 1984. She holds a degree in accounting from the university and has her CPA license and is a shareholder with an accounting firm in Miami.
