ESPN’s SportsCenter Broadcasts From Chatham Anglers Game

CHATHAM – By the time the camera started rolling live from Veterans Field, the home ballpark of the Chatham Anglers, easily more than a hundred people surrounded ESPN reporter Molly McGrath. 

Together with the cameras, crew and crowd, McGrath stood behind the bleachers that rise above home plate on Tuesday, July 22, as she welcomed a television audience to Chatham and the Cape Cod Baseball League. The network came to Veterans Field for the Massachusetts stop on “SportsCenter: 50 States in 50 Days,” a cross-country tour for the flagship sports news program.

As the Anglers hosted the Wareham Gatemen, McGrath reported a handful of segments from the park during the evening’s SportsCenter broadcast, including a pre-game interview on the field with Chatham manager Dennis Cook and the initial live open where countless onlookers watched as she set the scene — that ESPN had arrived on the shores of Cape Cod, New England’s premier vacation destination, with its beaches, charm and summer baseball.

McGrath, who most prominently works as a sideline reporter for ESPN/ABC college football games, said afterwards that it was an “honor” to be at the Massachusetts portion of the “50 States in 50 Days” tour. She has roots in the state as a Boston College alum and former team reporter for the Boston Celtics. 

 “I think it blew me away how much this matters to people and how SportsCenter being here is such a big deal for the Cape League, for everyone who works here, for this community,” she said. “I think that was the coolest thing to witness — is how special this was and how much this mattered to the people.”

 Other segments aired from Veterans Field had McGrath walk from nearby Red Nun Bar and Grill to the park, sit on the private seats peeking out behind the backyard fence of the “Home Plate” house adjacent to the field, and join Anglers commentators Hudson Ridley and Jake Klein in the Chatham broadcast booth.

“It was chaotic,” McGrath said. “It was crazy, but it was a lot of fun. And it was unlike anything I’ve done, so that was really cool to be a part of something unique and different, and hopefully we gave people a sense of what it’s like to be here.”

ESPN’s visit to Chatham was in the works for several months, according to Anglers president Steve West, who said the network first approached the team in the late winter or early spring. An onsite visit was conducted two weeks prior.

On Tuesday, staff at the park handed out ESPN T-shirts for fans. The weather was great. The evening drew a listed attendance of 5,523 people, more than a two-fold increase from the Anglers’ preceding home game.

 “We’re glad to have ESPN here in Chatham,” West said. “It’s good for Chatham. It’s good for the Cape League. It’s good for summer baseball.”

Throughout the day, both before and after the SportsCenter broadcast, McGrath fielded a deluge of interviews from the many reporters on hand, most of them employed by the Anglers, Gatemen or the Cape League. 

Finally, when it was all said and done, McGrath walked over to the playground at Veterans Field, where her kids were waiting. Her husband was at the game, too. Comparing the Cape League environment to the big-time college football games at which she typically works, McGrath said the former was definitely more family-friendly — a place you want to bring your kids and experience with your family.

“It’s all just like a throwback to simpler times, and that’s what I love about this,” she said.