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You can say one thing about John Anderson’s hosting assignments for ESPN this summer, they’re off the sports world’s beaten path.
Not to say the ESPN SportsCenter anchor minds offbeat, unique, and memorable events or destinations during his national sports network’s “SportsCenter Across America: 50 States/50 Days” promotional tour. In fact, he relishes them.
So far, he’s played catch at the Field of Dreams (yes, THAT Field of Dreams in a Dyersville, Iowa, cornfield) and covered the fourth annual Thunder in the Mountains foosball spectacular in Staunton, Va.
Now the veteran broadcaster is heading to Machias to poke around the 30th annual Machias Wild Blueberry Festival and its signature pie-eating contest. It’s all part of the tour, and Maine takes center stage Saturday during the 6 p.m., 11 p.m., and 1 a.m. SportsCenters.
“We’re saving room for pie,” the affable Green Bay, Wis., native said from his home in Bristol, Conn. “You’ve got to be in Maine to do a blueberry pie-eating contest.”
The 18-year broadcasting veteran had yet to start boning up on Maine trivia Thursday afternoon, but he has already learned something that will come in handy.
“I didn’t know there was a difference between real, Maine blueberries and blueberries. I thought they were all the same,” he admitted. “But now I know about the little ones.”
It’s things like that which make this tour – a wide-ranging but brief one for Anderson – so fun for him.
“I’m not exactly well-versed in Mark Twain kinds of things, but I do think those are the things that make up America,” he said. “My favorite events are the ones where you need to be there to get the feeling. I think we really need to go there and see stuff like this because it’s unique Americana.”
Anderson and his ESPN crew will broadcast from the Centre Street Congregational Church in Machias. It will be a return trip for the father of Collin (31/2) and Katie (2 in October).
“I have been to Maine once. We came up in August three years ago and went to Kennebunkport,” said Anderson, who has never taken part in a pie-eating contest. “No, aside from trying to keep up with my brothers at a family dinner.”
The lifelong Green Bay Packers fan moved to Connecticut six years ago and will be driving up (and down) to Machias on Friday. He’s looking forward to the trip.
“All these places have been sort of fascinating. They’re certainly not necessarily things we get to schedule into our life,” he said. “I’ve been to games. I’ve been to Super Bowls. I really enjoy this because it’s a little more intimate and memorable and unique and people have been really excited to have us around.”
Anderson has just one complaint about his tour duties this summer. He was pulled out of two other appearances due to conflicts with his September SportsCenter host duties with Steve Levy: McAlester, Okla., for the annual prison rodeo Sept. 2 and West Allis, Wis., for the Highland Games and Celtic Fling on Sept. 4.
Those stops happen to be the nearest and dearest to him as he is a Badger State native and spent several years working at a TV station in Tulsa, where he also met his wife Tamara.
Anderson has plenty of special moments from his two previous 50 States gigs, but his most memorable may have been the most simplistic.
“I was at the Field of Dreams and one of the guys playing the ghost players handed me a glove to go play catch with my dad,” Anderson recalled. “The guy I played ball with is my stepdad, Walter Collins. My real dad passed away when I was a year old, but I think of him as my father, too. I did get an odd vibe while doing it.”
Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net
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