Former Pirates star not center of attention here
guy,’ “McCutchen says. “Everyone is going to think that being from Pittsburgh is why we named him that. Not necessarily. I’m from Florida. It’s not like I’m from Pittsburgh. I could have been here in Phoenix, and I would have thought of the name Steel. Well, my wife would have, probably. So that doesn’t have a whole lot to do with it, but it does make it sound a little better with all that’s happening — all that happened.”
After the trade, the McCutchens faced the challenge of moving across the country with a newborn. Leaving Pittsburgh wasn’t easy, emotionally or logistically. Could Steel handle a plane flight? How fast could they find places to live? The pieces eventually fell together. They picked an apartment in Scottsdale, then started looking in San Francisco. They are “definitely” not buying in the Bay Area, according to McCutchen, and they’re also not selling their current home.
“Our place in Pittsburgh is our home,” he says. “That’s wherewe’re going to be.”
••• When McCutchen says, “I don’t know what I’m going to do yet when the season starts and I’m gone [from Steel] for seven or 10 days,” he’s not looking at the Giants’ schedule. But he’s aware their first road trip away from the West Coast this season ends in Pittsburgh, which now is McCutchen’s home away from home. Ready or not, his return to PNC Park will be May 11.
Watson, the reliever whom the Pirates traded to Los Angeles in July, grins when he hears the date. He expects an emotional homecoming for McCutchen. The Giants will be on the top step of the dugout watching, he says. “That’ll be Andrew’s moment. That’ll be really, really special.” Watson played alongside McCutchen for seven years in Pittsburgh. They were All-Stars in 2014.
“He’s going to be a Pirate forever, I think,” says Watson. “What he did there, and what he meant to that city and that organization, that’s forever. That’s never going away. A tremendous player. A tremendous guy. They’re going to miss him, obviously. You can’t just eliminate that and keep going. That first year is going to be tough [and] be different.”
McCutchen claims he hasn’t yet thought about May 11. He’s focused on what’s right in front of him, he says. “I’ll just be ready to show up, ready to play, ready to kick some butt.” That mindset extends to his looming free agency. McCutchen won’t rule out a reunion with the Pirates, as unlikely as re-signing seems, but it’s not something he’ll discuss either.
“Anything is possible in the game,” he says, “but it’s not fair to the Giants fans for me to be thinking, ‘Oh, I’ll go back to the Pirates.’ That’s out of my control right now. This year is about being in black and orange, representing this organization and team. That’s all I’m thinking about.”
McCutchen’s first day in a Giants uniform ends after three innings. He struck out, grounded out and hit the showers. Back at his locker, he grabs his backpack. It’s 2:58 p.m. Time to see Steel. McCutchen weaves past the table where Mays sat and exits toward the players’ parking lot.
Outside, he walks past a wall of autograph seekers, offering only a smile and a wave today, and climbs into his lifted black Ford F150. As the truck wheels out of its parking space, onlookers catch a glimpse of a yellow sticker in the rear window. It reads, “Baby on Board.” McCutchen flips on his left turn signal. He pulls out of the lot, blends into traffic and heads for home, for now.