MLBlogs pioneer receives major award

Please join me in congratulating our friend Scott Reifert, who was the first-ever professional sports senior executive to be an everyday blogger and a non-stop force in growing the MLBlogs community. Well deserved! Here is today’s news release:

SCOTT REIFERT
NAMED RECIPIENT OF THE 2008 FISHEL AWARD

            Scott Reifert,
Vice President of Communications for the Chicago White Sox, has been named the
2008 winner of the Robert O. Fishel Award for Public Relations Excellence, it
was announced last night.

Reifert, who is
in his 18th season with the White Sox, joined the club in 1991 as Assistant
Director of Public Relations and was promoted to Director of Public Relations in
1997. He was named Vice President of Communications in April 2004 where he
oversees the club’s strategic communications efforts, media services, mass
communications functions, branding, public relations activities, community
relations initiatives and the team’s website. In addition, Scott administers the
team’s market research initiatives and is a member of the club’s advertising
committee.

Prior to joining
the White Sox, Scott worked at Wirz & Associates, a Connecticut-based sports
marketing and public relations firm with a variety of baseball-related clients.
Scott is a 1988 graduate of the University of Iowa, and also has a master’s
degree in sport management from Western Illinois
University.

 The Robert O.
Fishel Award, named after the long-time baseball executive, goes to the “Active,
nonuniformed representative of Major League Baseball whose ethics, character,
dedication, service, professionalism and humanitarianism best represent the
standards propounded by Robert O. Fishel.”

 Fishel award
nominees are submitted by the 30 clubs and league officials. The nominees are
voted upon by active past winners, MLB officials and the BBWAA. Winners of the
award are as follows:

 

1981 Robert O.
Fishel

1982 Bob
Brown

1983 Larry
Shenk

1984 Red
Patterson

1985 Jim
Ferguson

1986 Fred
Claire

1987 Jim
Toomey

1988 Tom
Mee

1989 Donald
Davidson

1990 Ned
Colletti

1991 Phyllis
Merhige

1992 Richard
Griffin

1993 John
Blake

1994 Katy
Feeney

1995 Howard
Starkman

1996 Bill
Guilfoile

1997 Dick
Bresciani

1998 Jay
Horwitz

1999 Bob
DiBiasio

2000 Tim
Mead

2001 Rob
Matwick

2002 Mike
Swanson

2003 Rick
Vaughn

2004 Jeff
Idelson

2005 Randy
Adamack

2006 Rob
Butcher

2007 Rich
Levin

2008 Scott
Reifert

Here’s hoping our friend Josh Rawitch, another blogging trailblazer for the Dodgers, is a candidate at this time next year. Blogging definitely can be an advantage for today’s pro sports executive, whether in communications or beyond.

Curt Smith’s influence: Also just noticed that our own Curt Smith, the acclaimed author and former presidential speechwriter, is part of the 20-person electorate that decides the Ford Frick Award winner. In this case, they just gave the 2009 honor to Tony Kubek, so Kubek willl be part of the induction ceremony next July. Another example of the influence of MLBloggers!