Before he became the returning hero of the Pittsburgh Pirates, before he was named the National League MVP and even before the baseball world dubbed him “Cutch,” Andrew McCutchen was simply a 15-year-old Florida kid playing far from home.

And he was homesick. Horribly so.

His parents, who were 17 when he was born in tiny Fort Meade, Florida, had to work multiple jobs. They couldn’t afford to pay for travel ball — let alone for an elite league that sent him across the state to live and play for the whole summer. But they knew their son had a special gift — and he had a coach who was so impressed by that talent that he covered the teenager’s expenses for the elite league.

After two months of living in Panama City, more than 6 hours away from home, in Florida’s panhandle, McCutchen called his father, Lorenzo, and begged. “I don’t want to be here. I want to come home.”

Lorenzo replied gently, “Just stick with it. You’ll be all right.”

Fast forward 17 years to 2018. Andrew McCutchen is homesick again, but the man and the circumstances are very different.

He is standing in the batter’s box at PNC Park in his Giants uniform as a 90-second standing ovation washes over him. He had circled May 11 on the calendar, dreading his first appearance in Pittsburgh since being traded to San Francisco. He’s still stinging from the trade. He had wanted to be a permanent fixture for the Pirates, the way Derek Jeter was for the Yankees. But the gods of baseball had other plans.

Fast forward to the present: McCutchen is no longer homesick.

The all-star center fielder who led the Pirates to playoff runs in 2013, 2014 and 2015 is home again. After bouncing to San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia and Milwaukee across five seasons, he boomeranged back to Pittsburgh for the 2023 season. Now 37 and in the second year of his return, he has just inked a $5 million, one-year contract for 2024 as a designated hitter/outfielder.

McCutchen is happy to be back in Pittsburgh, a city he fell in love with when he was in his 20s. It’s why he kept his house in the North Hills even after he was traded. To him, Pittsburgh is like a perfectly fitted outfielder’s glove.

“Pittsburgh has been my second home. It’s where my heart is.”

For his devotion to the city, for his athletic feats on the field, for his philanthropic deeds and for reigniting excitement for the Pirates among fans and players upon his return, Andrew McCutchen has been named Pittsburgher of the Year for 2023.

2023 SEASON PHOTOS BY HARRISON BARDEN AND ALYSA RUBIN | PITTSBURGH PIRATES

Play Ball!

The rookie outfielder who would soon propel the Pirates to their first winning season in 21 years arrived in Pittsburgh with dreadlocks, a dazzling smile, a soft-spoken coolness, a hot bat and the lightning speed of a sprinter.

At an early age, McCutchen showed he was blessed with many athletic talents. As a ninth-grader, he won a state title as part of a 4×100 relay team; he was also a top football recruiting prospect. In high school, he was the baseball team’s star, hitting .709 his senior year.

In 2005, the Pirates made him their first draft pick. When the teenager walked into the press conference after the announcement, he had a rare confidence and presence, recalls veteran Pirates play-by-play man Greg Brown. “He just had this aura.”

McCutchen quickly lived up to his billing as a future star and became an instant fan favorite. He finished his rookie season with a .286 batting average, 12 home runs, 54 RBIs and 22 stolen bases.

He hit for power and average. He protected PNC Park’s center field like he owned it. He stole bases. He went on to make five All-Star teams — and, in 2013, win the National League’s MVP award behind a .317 batting average, 21 home runs and 84 RBIs.

But McCutchen’s value to the Pirates organization was far greater than his impressive stats.

To the city’s long-suffering baseball fans, the 22-year-old was a jolt of energy and hope. “After 20 losing seasons, Pirates fans hid their faces,” says Brown. “Andrew made it cool to be a Pirates fan again.”

Sacrifice Play

McCutchen could never have made the journey from his economically depressed town in Central Florida into Major League Baseball and the hearts of Pittsburghers without a pair of strong parents.

Petrina and Lorenzo grew up in the rural citrus town of Fort Meade, population about 5,200. After Andrew was born, they went off to separate colleges — her to community college, him to play football at Carson-Newman University in Tennessee.

McCutchen says his mother gave his father a choice: “Keep doing what you are doing or come home and help raise your son.” So they both put off their college dreams and got married, vowing to do it right with help from extended family.

To save money, the young couple lived in a two-bedroom trailer in the nearby town of Bartow for eight years so they could save up for a house in Fort Meade. Getting Andrew to school in Fort Meade involved handoffs worthy of an Olympic relay team. Petrina would drive him to the nearby hospital, where he would wait in an office for her cousin to finish an overnight nursing shift and drive him to school. Then, after school, Andrew would walk to his grandmother’s house until his mother would pick him up. “It took a village,” he says.

Petrina often worked double shifts at the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, where she was an office worker, crime prevention specialist and HR person. Lorenzo juggled being a youth pastor with gigs in landscaping and the local anthracite mines.

Early on, Andrew saw the sacrifices his mother and father were making. When he was about 8, he asked for a PlayStation for Christmas. His parents scrimped to buy him one, but on Christmas morning he insisted they take it back because he knew they couldn’t afford it.

“I was just shocked,” his mother says. “We thought we were doing a really good job of keeping certain things away from him.”

McCutchen remains close to his parents and shares their deep faith. Three years ago, Petrina and Lorenzo opened their own church in Fort Meade, a town where a welcome banner proudly proclaims, “Home of Andrew McCutchen — Pittsburgh Pirate All-Star,” leaving no doubt that Cutch is the local hero. And the baseball field at Fort Meade High School, where he caught the eyes of scouts, has been dedicated to him.

Petrina always wanted to set up a local Boys & Girls Club. To make that happen, Andrew enlisted his major-league friends to donate signed jerseys and hats; an auction raised $50,000. In Pittsburgh, he has done charity work with UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Light of Life Mission, Habitat for Humanity and other nonprofits.

Today, he’s still in awe of the sacrifices his parents made for him at an age when they were trying to figure out their own lives. He’s grateful that they always saw a vision for him beyond their small town. “I always tell them, ‘I don’t know how you guys did it.’”

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Celebrating our Previous Pittsburghers of the Year

Love and Baseball

McCutchen not only fell in love with PNC Park, he fell in love there. Maria Hanslovan, of DuBois, was a member of the Bucco Brigade, the exuberant squad that launches T-shirts and hotdogs into the stands with air guns. One fateful summer day in 2009, she was assigned to assist at a baseball camp held at the ball field. A kid overthrew a ball behind McCutchen, and Hanslovan was there to retrieve it. Wow, he thought when she threw it back. Nice throw. He was smitten.

McCutchen would see her outside the stadium, and he eventually got the guts to ask her out. She said no. “I was persistent,” he says with a laugh. Now they’re married with three kids — and a fourth on the way. The oldest boy is named Steel.

McCutchen is a soft-spoken, thoughtful small-town guy, but he’s not afraid to go a little Hollywood once in a while — like the time he proposed to Maria on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” on NBC. For a recent interview, he was comfortable wearing ripped flared gray denim pants with the Louis Vuitton pattern running down the legs. Most of us couldn’t pull it off, but on him, with a faded denim jacket and a bejeweled cross, it just works.

No matter how he’s dressed, though, the Major League Baseball star is just as comfortable hanging with his friends from Fort Meade who call him Drew or taking his kids to the Ross Park Mall play area, where he spent an hour the other day. “It was packed. No one even came up to me.”

He likes how Pittsburgh embraces him without ever smothering him. “It’s a hard-working, blue-collar city and people are very respectful of your time,” he says.

Michael McKenry, the former Pirates catcher and current broadcaster, says when he would go out to dinner with McCutchen in other cities like Cincinnati and Denver fans tended to mob his friend, especially in his dread-headed days. “People just bombard him at times. It didn’t matter if he was mid-bite. There was really no line they wouldn’t cross. He would handle it well. But that never happened in Pittsburgh.”

The Ultimate Home Run

When McCutchen returned to PNC Park in a Pirates uniform again in 2023, his mother came with him — not just as a spectator. A talented singer, Petrina had performed at various Pirate games, including the 2013 Wild Card playoff game against Cincinnati.

On April 7, 2023, before the home opener against the Chicago White Sox, she belted out the National Anthem. In her son’s first at-bat, after the umpire had to suspend the new speed-up-the-game rules for the long ovation, McCutchen fought back tears — but still managed a single to right field.

That emotional moment might have never happened for McCutchen if Maria had not nudged him to take a meeting with the Pirates’ front office after his 2022 season in Milwaukee.

He was a free agent and was in talks with a playoff contender. He was ready to sign a contract, but he had previously set up a coffee date with Pirates GM Ben Cherington to talk about possibly playing for the Pirates again.

Though McCutchen’s feelings had been deeply hurt when he was traded to the Giants, he never expressed anger or burned any bridges with Pirates management. He knew it was business.

He told Maria things were moving fast with the other team and it was too late to meet with the Pirates. “Just have a cup of coffee first,” Maria told him. The phrase has become a running joke in their marriage: “Just have a cup of coffee.”

For McCutchen fans like Logan Skarupa, an 18-year-old baseball player from Canonsburg, the return of his hero has been thrilling. Milling around PiratesFest at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in January, Skarupa was double-Cutched up, wearing a black McCutchen jersey under a yellow McCutchen jacket. When he heard McCutchen was coming back to town, “I screamed. I cried.”

In the clubhouse, McCutchen is known for being chill and his sense of humor. “Everybody was pretty much jealous of Andrew on a daily basis, but his humility was through the roof and he made everyone laugh,” says Neil Walker, former teammate and current Pirates broadcaster.

He’s known for dead-on imitations of other players, movie stars, even Mickey Mouse. “Welcome to Disney World,” he says in a perfect cartoon-rodent impression.

He also stands out for asking to come back to the Pirates. “In this day and age of sports, loyalty is dead,” says play-by-play man Brown. “And yet here you find it.”

McCutchen, who notched his 2,000th career hit before a home crowd in June and almost reached the 300 home run milestone before an Achilles tear cut his last season short, has more to prove.

Of course, people ask him how much longer he will play. He refuses to put an expiration date on his career, saying he will play as long as he is healthy or as long as he plays well — or as long the Pirates still want him.

He has no interest in joining the Pirates coaching staff — “too stressful” — or putting on a tie and becoming an announcer. He wants to be present for his kids and be around for their T-ball games and other activities he always missed on the road. Who knows? Maybe he will become their youth coach.

Of one thing, he’s sure.

“When I’m done, I’m not going anywhere else. This is it.”

Andrew McCutchen
Designated Hitter/Outfielder
5′ 10″      190 pounds
Right-handed

Career baseball stats

7,425
At Bats

1,173
Runs

2,048
Hits

299
Home Runs

1,045
Runs Batted In

216
Stolen Bases

.276
Batting Average

.369
On Base Percentage

Source: MLB.com