Randy Scott interacts with reindeer during his visit to North Pole, Alaska. (Jessica Shobar/ESPN)
Young Randy (L) and his family visit San DIego in this vintage photo. (Randy Scott/ESPN)
Young Randy Scott, his mom and siblings enjoy Rhode Island in this vintage photo. (Randy Scott/ESPN)
Since their founding in 1960, more than 200 alumni of the Alaska Goldpanners have played in Major League Baseball. (Jessica Shobar/ESPN)
Randy Scott pans for gold. (Jessica Shobar/ESPN)
Randy visited the Trans-Alaska Pipeline system. (Jessica Shobar/ESPN)
Look who Scott bumped into in North Pole, Alaska. (Jessica Shobar/ESPN)When anchor Randy Scott touched down in Fairbanks, Alaska, earlier this month, it wasn’t just another stop on SportsCenter’s “50 States in 50 Days” tour – it marked the final chapter in a journey nearly 40 years in the making.
“I celebrated the assignment more than I should probably admit,” Scott said. “Alaska was my last infinity stone.”
The Midnight Sun Game, a century-old baseball tradition played without lights at 10:30 p.m. on the summer solstice, offered the perfect setting for Scott’s final personal quest to visit all 50 states.
The game, which takes place annually in Fairbanks under near-constant daylight, will be the focus of a SportsCenter feature airing Monday, June 30 at midnight ET.
“It felt oddly romantic,” Scott says. “That might sound dramatic, for a kid whose first true sports love was baseball, covering that game in Alaska, my 50th state, felt like home, even from 4,900 miles away.”
A LIFE IN MOTION
Scott’s cross-country milestone didn’t happen overnight. It was the result of a career in television and a family background built around flight.
“I grew up in an airline family. My mom was a flight attendant, and my dad was a Navy pilot who later flew commercial,” he explains. “Because of that, we could fly for free. For a family of five, that was huge.”
With relatives scattered coast to coast, and career stops in places like Georgia, Oklahoma, and Florida, Scott slowly filled in the map.
“I’ve driven across the country three times. My oldest is 12 and has already been to 20 states,” he adds. “That blows my mind, but that’s how I was raised. You don’t let distance be a reason not to go.”
THE ASSIGNMENT OF A LIFETIME
When the SportsCenter team began mapping out the 50-state tour, Scott didn’t hesitate.
“A huge credit goes to [Coordinating Producer I] Andrea Pelkey, [VP, Production] Scott Clark, and their team for the planning and logistics,” he said. “They had such a strong vision, even down to the order of the states.”
While the stops weren’t hand-picked by the anchors, Scott and fellow co-anchor/partner-in-crime Gary Striewski landed some memorable ones.
“They told us, ‘You’ll be covering ‘The Ocho’ in Florida and whitewater rafting in Arizona.’ We were like, ‘Wait, there’s rafting in Arizona?’ Turns out, yeah – at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.”
But Alaska? That was personal.
MIDNIGHT BASEBALL AND BEYOND
On June 21, Scott found himself in Growden Park, home of the historic Midnight Sun Game and recently recently nominated for inclusion to the National Register of Historic Places. The annual event often draws overflow crowds to the stadium that has a listed capacity of 3,500.
“It was like a sixth of Fairbanks was there,” Scott said. “The sun never really set. It just got dusky between midnight and 2:30 a.m., but still bright enough to play.
“There was hometown pride, there was trash talk with Anchorage, there was love for the game. Baseball was the throughline. The thing that made Alaska feel familiar.”
Next up for Scott and sidekick Striewski is a visit to ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida on Friday, Aug. 1, for “The Ocho,” a celebration of wonderfully weird and unconventional sports.
“We’re not just covering, we’re competing,” Scott says. “Slippery stairs look impossible, but we’re all in.”
The Alaska finale of Scott’s 50-state quest airs on SportsCenter on ESPN, Monday, June 30 at midnight ET.
