Andrew McCutchen emerged from the on-deck circle and took a couple of quick steps toward home plate. He then paused to fiddle with his batting gloves and helmet. Yeah, there was no way he was doing this quickly. Have to slow down.
McCutchen had maintained in the hours before his first at-bat as a Pirate since 2017 that he didn’t think about how he’d react to the ovation he was to inevitably receive at PNC Park for the home opener against the White Sox, explaining that he felt like he was doing everything else a disservice by thinking that way.
“I didn’t want to cheat myself from the experience by thinking too much about it,” McCutchen said. “I like to go into it fresh, new.”
The fresh, new experience that unfolded on the North Shore was obviously a special one, a moment many anticipated — McCutchen back with the Pirates, the team that drafted him, in the city where he lives, where he helped to make baseball relevant again.
After McCutchen bought himself a little time, he turned to the crowd, removed his helmet and showed his appreciation for a group of adoring fans, people who have been thinking about this moment since news of his return broke in January.
The celebration lasted more than a minute, as expected. To kill time, White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal walked out in front of home plate and wiped his brow. Home-plate umpire Ryan Wills, instructed during spring training to let the moment breathe, stood back and did exactly that.
Speaking after the Pirates' 13-9 victory, McCutchen gushed about the fan response, the job Wills did and the day as a whole.
"I love these fans," McCutchen said. "It was great. I was able to re-live in the past a little bit, which isn’t a bad thing to do. Just the whole experience was special."
Of course, McCutchen quickly gave the fans something else to cheer, as he singled on a ground ball to the right side, a picture-perfect swing that he put on an outside fastball from White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito.
"Definitely was welling up, but I knew I needed to hit," said McCutchen, who finished with two hits. "So I couldn’t be too watery. It was good. A good day."
Another thing that made McCutchen so happy was hearing his, mom, Petrina, sing the national anthem as a last-minute replacement for Donnie Iris.
Standing along the third-base line, Andrew began thinking about riding in the car with his mom as a kid, hearing her sing songs she was rehearsing for church.
“It’s nice to be able to see her shine,” McCutchen said. “She always got to see me do it. It’s nice that I’m able to sit back and watch her be amazing at her craft. It was a special moment.”
The ovation McCutchen received was everything he expected it to be. Probably a little bit more, honestly. It felt different than when he was back with the Giants in 2018, mostly because this time McCutchen felt like he was finally home, not on the other side.
When looking at the day in totality, McCutchen's smile said it all.
"From the intros to my mom singing the anthem, being there in those moments as much as I could, living through it, it was somewhat of a surreal feeling, honestly," McCutchen said. “I’ll think about it more when it’s quiet, when I'm not amped up from the game and I’m actually able to be home and relax when the kids are sleeping. I’ll be able to sit there and really think about it.
"It was emotional. It was good. It was positive. It was awesome.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: April 7, 2023, 8:53 p.m.
Updated: April 8, 2023, 1:11 a.m.