'His legacy is going to live on': Pirates' Andrew McCutchen reflects on death of Willie Mays

Upon learning that the player known as the game’s greatest center fielder had passed, Andrew McCutchen thought about his interactions with the pioneer who called him “Pittsburgh” and whose personality and play paved the path for the likes of himself, Rickey Henderson, Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr.

“Before all these great center fielders even,” McCutchen said, “there was Willie Mays.”

Mays, the Hall of Famer who died Tuesday at age 93, befriended McCutchen after the Pirates traded the five-time All-Star and 2013 National League MVP to the San Francisco Giants in January 2018.

Mays was a two-time NL MVP who ranks sixth in major league history with 660 home runs, seventh in runs scored (2,068), 12th in RBIs (1,909) and 13th in hits (3,293), has 12 Gold Gloves and made a legendary basket catch to rob Vic Wertz in the eighth inning of Game 1 of the 1954 World Series.

“That was one of the things that had me pretty excited going to the Giants, was knowing I was going to be around people like Willie McCovey and Willie Mays and Barry Bonds and those guys,” McCutchen said of the unpopular trade. “His legacy is going to live on. Anyone who has ever come in contact with Mays for even a day is going to have a story, is going to have something.”

McCutchen shared one of his own while reminiscing about how he talked to Mays every chance he could in the Giants clubhouse, especially after a nine-game road trip that August.

“I remember I didn’t have a really good road trip offensively. I came back, and there he was that next day in the clubhouse,” McCutchen said. “I came in, I said, ‘Willie! What’s going on, Willie?’ He tried to figure out the voice. I was like, ‘It’s Pittsburgh.’ He’s like, ‘Ah, Pittsburgh. Well you left to go on the road for (nine) games, you had 10 home runs. You came back, still got 10 home runs.’

“I’ll never forget the disgust in his voice when he said that. Kind of like, ‘Come on man, you had a whole road trip. You had (nine) games. You couldn’t hit one home run?’ Obviously, I laughed. There was no laugh that came out of his direction. He was dead serious. Trying to motivate me in his way, to be better.”

McCutchen also recalled how the 5-foot-10, 170-pound Mays had “massive” hands and how he would tell McCutchen to squeeze them harder every time they shook hands.

“You kind of understand in that moment the player he was and how big of a player he was,” McCutchen said. “Not just by his stature necessarily — because he wasn’t the biggest guy — but he was a guy who played the game very big.”