Jeff Blair

{{Short description|Canadian newspaper columnist}}

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| name = Jeff Blair

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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1960|3|30}}

| birth_place = Kingston, Ontario, Canada

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| occupation = Newspaper Columnist and Sports Broadcaster

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| credits = The Globe and Mail and Sportsnet

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Jeff Blair (born March 30, 1960) is a Canadian former newspaper columnist for The Globe and Mail, a sports columnist for Sportsnet and sports talk radio host on Sportsnet 590 The FAN in Toronto.{{cite podcast |host=Jeff Blair, Richard Deitsch & Stephen Brunt|title=Kawhi's Game-Winner and What's Next for the NBA |website=Writers Bloc |publisher=Sportsnet |date=31 March 2020 |url=https://www.sportsnet.ca/590/writers-bloc/march-31-kawhis-game-winner-and-whats-next-for-the-nba/ |access-date=4 April 2020}}

In June 2019, Blair took over as a host of the long-running, nationally syndicated evening sports radio show Prime Time Sports (also simulcast on television via Sportsnet 360), with co-hosts Stephen Brunt or Richard Deitsch. In October 2019, with the end of Prime Time Sports, Blair, Brunt and Deitsch moved to a mid-afternoon time slot with the debut of Writers Bloc.

Blair was previously a sports columnist for The Globe and Mail and a baseball beat reporter for The Montreal Gazette. In 2012, he also wrote a book, Full Count: Four Decades of Blue Jays Baseball. He began his career as a 19-year-old in 1979.{{cite podcast |host=Jeff Blair & Stephen Brunt|title=Live From Chateau de Wagner |website=Writers Bloc |publisher=Sportsnet |date=13 March 2020 |url=https://podcast.sportsnet.ca/writers-bloc/march-13-live-from-chateau-de-wagner/ |access-date=14 March 2020}}

In 2010, Blair was named to the roll of honour of the Manitoba Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.{{cite web|url=http://www.manitobasportswriters.ca/mssamediarollgallery.html|title=RRC Media Roll of Honour past winners gallery|year=2018|website=Manitoba Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association|access-date=February 24, 2022}} In 2018, Blair was awarded the Jack Graney Award by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame as "a member of the media who has made significant contributions to baseball in Canada through their life’s work."{{Cite web |url=http://baseballhalloffame.ca/blog/2018/11/28/sportsnets-jeff-blair-named-winner-of-canadian-baseball-hall-of-fames-jack-graney-award/ |title=SPORTSNET'S JEFF BLAIR NAMED WINNER OF CANADIAN BASEBALL HALL OF FAME'S JACK GRANEY AWARD - Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum |access-date=2019-07-22 |archive-date=2019-07-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190722182258/http://baseballhalloffame.ca/blog/2018/11/28/sportsnets-jeff-blair-named-winner-of-canadian-baseball-hall-of-fames-jack-graney-award/ |url-status=dead }}

Since 2021, Blair has co-hosted the podcast Blair and Barker alongside former MLB player Kevin Barker, which airs during the baseball season and is also broadcast on Sportsnet.{{cite web |last1=Thiessen |first1=Connie |title=New Sportsnet audio slate shifts focus to on-demand content |url=https://broadcastdialogue.com/new-sportsnet-audio-slate-shifts-focus-to-on-demand-content/ |website=broadcastdialogue.com |date=September 29, 2021}}