Jeff Scott, award-winning TV writer and former Bucks County journalist, has died at 72
He worked for MLB Productions through Phoenix Communications from 1988 to 2015 and wrote more than 1,000 TV show scripts.
Jeff Scott, 72, formerly of Hilltown, Bucks County, longtime award-winning TV and video script writer, director, and producer, former columnist and editor at the Quakertown Free Press, and green-thumb gardener, died Saturday, Sept. 19, of pulmonary fibrosis at Hunterdon Medical Center in Flemington, N.J.
Born in Philadelphia, reared in Hilltown, and a graduate of Pennridge High School, Mr. Scott turned his lifelong interest in sports, affable collegiality, and writing, reporting, and editing skills into an award-winning career as a TV and print journalist that spanned more than four decades.
For 32 years, from 1983 to 2015, Mr. Scott wrote scripts, directed talent, and produced shows for TV, film, video, radio, and DVDs. He worked for Major League Baseball Productions through Phoenix Communications from 1988 to 2015 and wrote more than 1,000 TV show scripts for ABC, NBC, ESPN, Fox, and other networks, including 176 episodes of ESPN’s Major League Baseball Magazine and 450 consecutive episodes of the popular This Week in Baseball.
His dramatic scripts detailed many memorable baseball seasons, went behind the scenes with championship teams, and shared stories about star players on and off the field. They were narrated by iconic announcers such as Mel Allen, Curt Gowdy, Bob Costas, and Harry Kalas, featured thousands of players, coaches, and managers, and earned 16 New York Emmy Awards.
Former colleagues at MLB Communications posted a video tribute to Mr. Scott on X and noted his “indelible impact” on This Week in Baseball. Buzz Brainard, a former narrator for This Week in Baseball, said on Facebook: “Honored to bring his words to life every season for 11 years.”
Earlier, from 1983 to 1988 at the old Halcyon Days Productions, Mr. Scott wrote scripts for the weekly This is the USFL for ABC and other shows about John Madden, Mike Schmidt, and other sports and entertainment notables. Sports reporter Jayson Stark said on X: “You may not know the name, Jeff Scott. But you should.”
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In print, Mr. Scott was a columnist and weekend magazine editor for the Free Press in the early 1980s. In the 1970s, he was sports editor and a features writer for the Perkasie News-Herald, and a part-time sports reporter for the Doylestown Intelligencer.
At the Free Press, he won awards and covered all kinds of local stories, including his publisher’s triple-bypass heart surgery. At the News-Herald, he wrote a sports column called “Time Out” and a news feature called “Know Your Community.”
In 1976, he opened a News-Herald sports story with: “Some would call it luck. Some might call it breaks. And some might even consider the fact that somebody upstairs is carrying the fate of the Pennridge football team this year. We prefer to call it pure, unadulterated hustle.”
A former Pennridge baseball player said in a tribute: “It always was a big deal when he came to our games.” A former colleague at the Free Press said: “He made me feel important, and he made sure I knew that he was my friend.”
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Other former colleagues praised Mr. Scott’s “sense of humor,” “warmth and kindness,” and “quick wit that never waned” in online tributes. “To know Jeff was to like him,” longtime friend and colleague Jim Burger said. “To know him well, which I had the good fortune to do, was to love him.”
Jeffrey Llewellyn Scott was born Nov. 18, 1953. He played street hockey in Hilltown and baseball at Pennridge, and attended what is now West Chester University.
After college, he drove a truck, worked as a disc jockey, and traveled across the country. He married and divorced Lorrie Greenly and Amber Hudson.
He met Lenore Homeward on vacation in Tobago, and they married in 1991, and lived in Manhattan and Pittstown, N.J. He created seven flower beds on their property and tended many flower pots. “It was like a full-time job,” his wife said.
Mr. Scott enjoyed music and followed the Phillies, Eagles, 76ers, and Flyers. “He was a homebody,” his wife said.
His niece Shanice said: “My uncle Jeff had a big heart and meant the world to me.” A longtime friend said: “The world will be a less warm and kind place without him in it.”
His wife said: “He was loyal, funny, humble, and compassionate. He had the ability to see the better in people. He was friends with everybody.”
In addition to his wife and niece, Mr. Scott is survived by a sister, Kathleen, and other relatives. Three brothers and one sister died earlier.
Private celebrations of his life are to be held later.
