Jeff Scott (baseball writer)
Jeff Scott (born November 18, 1953) was the Senior Writer for Major League Baseball Productions from 1988 until the company was dissolved in 2015. He wrote more than 1100 television shows for various networks including
Early career
Scott’s writing career began in the early 1970s as a part-time sports writer for The Intelligencer, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. In 1975 he was hired as sports editor and feature writer for the News-Herald in Perkasie – a position he held for the next five years. Following a brief period in which he drove across the country for fun and then worked as a truck driver, deejay and day cook, he landed a job at The Free Press in Quakertown, Pa. There he served as a columnist, medical writer, movie reviewer and editor of a weekly entertainment magazine. In 1981, when Free Press publisher Charles Meredith III underwent quadruple bypass surgery, Scott received permission to observe the operation directly over Meredith’s chest. He then wrote a series of award-winning articles about it for The Free Press and then adapted the series for a feature story that appeared in Philadelphia Magazine in October 1981.
In the summer of 1983, producer/director
Major League Baseball Productions
Jeff Scott joined MLB Productions (through Phoenix Communications) in 1988 as the writer for ESPN’s Major League Baseball Magazine – one of the first independently produced programs for the fledgling network. Over the next four years Scott wrote 176 episodes of the widely acclaimed program which was narrated by Warner Fusselle. He began writing This Week in Baseball – the longest running sports anthology program in television history – in 1992, for Mel Allen, the legendary announcer and original voice of TWIB. After the Hall of Fame broadcaster died in 1996, Scott wrote for another Hall of Famer, Ozzie Smith, who hosted the show for two seasons. When the Baseball Commissioner’s office took back MLB Productions from Phoenix Communications in 1999 Scott began writing for Buzz Brainard, who would narrate TWIB for the next 11 seasons. Scott wrote 450 consecutive episodes of the iconic show before it was discontinued at the end of the 2011 season. Scott wrote and helped create TWIB’s replacement – MLB Player Poll – which debuted on FOX and MLB Network in the spring of 2012.[4] The program – which polls players on a variety of subjects – was hosted by MLB Network personality, Greg Amsinger during its two year run. Scott also helped create, and wrote, MLB162 for Fox Sports 1 in 2014.
Scott wrote several other weekly shows, as well as every Official World Series Film from 1988-2014[5] (with the exception of 1999).[6] The World Series Films were often narrated by a celebrity, whom Scott recorded and directed in the voiceover sessions.
Scott played a significant role in the launching of the
Voices
The following is a list of some of the men and women whom Scott has written for and directed in recording sessions:
Notable shows written by Jeff Scott
(in no particular order)
This Is The USFL |
Prime 9 |
This Week in Baseball | |
Major League Baseball Magazine | The Pen | Yankeeography | |
Letters From Jackie | Cardboard Treasures | Don Zimmer: I've Seen It All | |
Pride & Perseverance: The Story of the Negro Leagues | Triumph and Tragedy: The 1919 Chicago White Sox | Josh Hamilton: Resurrecting the Dream | |
MasterCard Presents: Inside the Moments | Generations of Heroes | The Babe & the Billy Goat: Reverse the Curse | |
The 2006 World Baseball Classic | Baseball Remembers: 9/11 | My Father the Ballplayer | |
1999 A Season of Heroes | Baby Ruth Presents: Take Me Out to the Ballgame | The All Century Team | |
Baseball: A Latin Passion | When Baseball Went to War | The Science of Swing | |
Michael Bolton’s Winning Softball | Legacy | The 2008 Official World Series Film | |
The Mike Schmidt Story | The Best of the USFL |
Palestra Pandemonium: The History of the Big Five | |
Superstar Shortstops | Hank Aaron: Brave Hero | The History of the World Series | |
MLB Player Poll | Mission October | Caught Looking | |
Behind The Seams | Being Mariano | Derek Jeter: 2 Witness An Icon |
External links
- Jeff Scott at IMDb
- MLB Productions
- Jeff Scott Essay on the Official World Series Film collection
- Jeff Scott - TWIB Notes
References
- ^ "Behind the TWIB Notes". Retrieved 23 January 2013.
- ^ "Bizarre world of baseball". Retrieved 23 January 2013.
- ^ YES Network. "YES wins 18 New York Emmy Awards". Retrieved 2009-04-22.
- ^ RBR-TVBR (4 April 2012). "MLB Player Poll to air on Fox each Saturday". RBR-TVBR. Retrieved 23 January 2013.
- ^ Wiegand, David (19 November 2012). "'SF Giants Official 2012 World Series Film' review". SF Gate. Retrieved 23 January 2013.
- ^ "The Official World Series Film Collection". Amazon.
- ^ YES Network. "Yankeeography Videos".
- ^ YES Network. "YES wins 13 New York Emmy Awards". Retrieved 2009-04-22.
- ^ MLB. "Show Lineup : Prime 9".