Ed Scott (baseball scout)

Edward Scott, Sr. (October 17, 1917 – January 11, 2010) was an American baseball scout. Before he became the first African-American scout in the history of the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball, Scott was a talent-spotter for the Negro leagues, and he signed Henry Aaron, the Baseball Hall of Famer and future home run king, to Aaron's first professional contract for the Indianapolis Clowns.

Scott was born in Dade City, Florida, but moved to Mobile, Alabama, as a young man, where he played baseball for a local, semi-professional African-American team, the Mobile Black Shippers. He worked in a paper company and barnstormed the area with his baseball team. When his playing days ended, he started scouting. The baseball color line had been broken in minor league baseball in 1946, and in MLB the following year, by Jackie Robinson. But the 16 Major League teams were slow to integrate and the Negro Leagues were still operating when Scott's scouting career began.

According to Ed Scott, Jr., his father discovered the teenaged Aaron playing in a Mobile softball game. "If that boy can hit a softball that far, how far can he hit a baseball?" his son quoted Ed Sr. as saying. He was able to sign Aaron for the Indianapolis Clowns, and by 1952, the 18-year-old player was offered a contract by the Boston Braves. Aaron would go on to play 23 big-league seasons, and shatter (in 1974) Babe Ruth's all-time record with 755 home runs over his career. (Aaron currently stands second, all time, to Barry Bonds.)

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