Cutch reunites with batting glove kids, 8 years later

LOS ANGELES -- Christopher, Elijah and Roger McCreary remember seeing the clip first begin to circulate on social media.

On May 30, 2015, following a Pirates win over the Padres in San Diego, Andrew McCutchen jogged over to the lone Pirates fans in the left-field bleachers, a pair of kids and their father. McCutchen handed the then-13-year-old Christopher his batting gloves, prompting Christopher to yell out, “I love you, man!” Elijah, 9 years old at the time, fist-bumped the five-time All-Star. Roger watched the interaction unfold with an ear-to-ear smile.

The clip went viral, one of many defining moments from McCutchen’s first run in Pittsburgh. Eight years later, ahead of the Pirates' 5-2 loss at Dodger Stadium on Monday, the McCreary family, at long last, had the opportunity to formally reunite with McCutchen.

“I didn’t think all that was going to happen,” Elijah said. “It brought tears to my eyes.”

The McCreary family’s love for the Pirates begins with Roger, 63, who became a fan when his mentor, the late Danny Brown, brought him to see the black and gold in 1969 at Dodger Stadium. One of Roger’s first memories was witnessing Roberto Clemente throw a ball from right field to home plate on the fly, and he’s stuck with the Pirates as his team since. When Roger and his wife, Stephanie, had Christopher and Elijah, there was no question as to which team the boys would represent.

“It was a prerequisite that they had to become Pirate fans,” Roger laughed.

Roger had been taking Christopher, who turns 21 next week, and Elijah, now 17, to Pirates games in Southern California well before their interaction with McCutchen. The yellow jersey that Christopher wore that night was the same jersey that Roger wore to Dodger Stadium three-and-a-half decades prior. Christopher, Elijah and Roger were just happy to see a win that night in San Diego. McCutchen’s gesture turned a great night into an unforgettable one.

“So many emotions were going through my head,” Christopher said. “I love the Pirates, so I was happy that we won. To top it off, I see Andrew McCutchen running up to us. He gave us the gloves. I’m the one that says, ‘I love you, man,’ in the yellow jersey. I was very, very emotional. It was a great moment. I loved it and I’ll never forget it.”

“I remember I was throwing my fist up,” Elijah said. “We were trying to get the Jolly Roger up. I remember a San Diego fan tapped us and we turned around and we see [McCutchen] running towards us. … We were cheering the rest of the night. I couldn’t go to sleep that night.”

Roger recalls that after the clip went viral, Elijah began insisting that he was a celebrity and that he would need security.

“I don’t know what people would want from him, but that’s what I remember from it,” Roger said.

The McCrearys planned on making their first trip to Pittsburgh to meet with McCutchen during his first stint with the team, but those plans were shelved when the Pirates traded him to the Giants. But the family’s respect for McCutchen didn’t fade as he wore different colors. When the Giants came to Los Angeles, Christopher, Elijah and Roger made a trip to Dodger Stadium, wearing Pirates jerseys and Giants hats. When McCutchen re-signed with the Pirates this offseason, all the memories came flooding back.

“I’m a diehard Pirate fan, but I’m definitely a diehard Cutch fan,” Christopher said. “Over the years when he was gone, I kept up with him. Probably the only other player that’s not a Pirate that I kept up with really heavy. When he came back, I was so excited. I was really happy. I knew the first thing people were going to say was, ‘Oh, this is a farewell tour.’ I thought in my mind, ‘This is not a farewell tour. He’s going to help this ballclub win.’ Sure enough, the next day, he said it’s not a farewell tour. … It really meant a lot to me. It showed me who he is as a player and kind of proved everything that I knew.”

Prior to the Pirates arriving in Los Angeles this time around, Roger got in contact with AT&T SportsNet’s Robby Incmikoski, who had helped coordinate the McCreary family’s trip to Pittsburgh before plans fell through. Roger asked if it would be possible to reunite with McCutchen. Incmikoski did the family one better.

“You don’t realize the impact you can have on people just by something small that doesn’t seem like much to you,” McCutchen said. “Being able to realize what that may have done for them in the moment and maybe for them in the future, it’s really cool.”