For Andrew McCutchen, watching Pirates Hall of Famer Barry Bonds 'was like watching a superhero'

Barry Bonds was must-watch viewing for a young Andrew McCutchen, who would be glued to the television when regularly scheduled programming was interrupted to show the chase for the home run record.

McCutchen was but a teenager, four years from becoming a Pittsburgh Pirates first-round pick, when Bonds broke the single-season record for homers with 73 in 2001. So McCutchen watched Bonds’ at-bats as a fan who “didn’t know anything past ‘see ball, hit ball’ at that point.”

“I was watching it as a kid in awe of someone who seemed bigger than what he was, you know?” McCutchen told TribLive. “Just watching Barry as a kid was like watching a superhero, man. It was just something you didn’t see. It didn’t feel real.”

Bonds, now 60, will join former Pirates manager Jim Leyland and catcher Manny Sanguillen as inductees into the franchise’s third Hall of Fame class before Saturday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds.

“I don’t know how it is or what it’s going to be like, but I’m sure it’ll be good for him,” said McCutchen, who is on the 10-day injured list with left knee inflammation. “His name is etched in history. It’ll be cool to see him and to have his name in the stadium.”

They met before the 2014 season opener at PNC Park, when previous Pirates MVP winners Bonds (1990 and ’92) and Dick Groat (1960) presented McCutchen his 2013 NL MVP trophy. McCutchen was the first Pirates player to win the award since Bonds, so that made the moment even more special for the players and the city.

“That actually was pretty cool,” McCutchen said, “because he didn’t come back to Pittsburgh a whole lot.”

Then-Pirates president Frank Coonelly called it “time for some healing” as the club attempted to repair its relationship with Bonds, who left in free agency to sign with the San Francisco Giants after the 1992 season. Where McCutchen conjured up memories of Bonds as a rookie by batting leadoff and playing center field, he rarely heard comparisons.

“It’s hard to know because he was not talked about as much when I was here,” McCutchen said. “They talked more about Andy Van Slyke than they did Barry Bonds.”

Inducting Bonds into their Hall of Fame is another step in that direction for the Pirates, especially considering that McCutchen said he got to know Bonds better after being traded to the San Francisco Giants in 2018. By then, Bonds had broken Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record and set major league marks for career walks (2,558) and intentional walks (688) — all symbolic of how feared a hitter Bonds became — and was working as a special assistant to the general manager.

“It’s cool to go through that as a kid and the feelings you used to get when you’d see him and, now, to be on the same field in San Francisco,” McCutchen said. “To see him in San Francisco, too, and talk to him more there was pretty awesome. A lot of people would love to have that opportunity.

“When he played there, it was like, ‘Man, he used to make this place look like a Little League field.’ And it’s a huge ballpark. Thinking about what he would have done if he’d played in a cookie-cutter ballpark, in a place like Cincinnati when they moved into Great American Ball Park. He’d have 900 homers. It’s really crazy to think about.”

That Bonds broke those records under a cloud of suspicion that he was using performance-enhancing drugs cost him on the ballots of the Baseball Writers Association of America, and he fell 36 votes short of election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his final year of the 10-year eligibility window in 2022.

McCutchen believes Bonds belongs in Cooperstown, calling him a unicorn before baseball borrowed the term to talk about a rarity. That’s further evidenced by Bonds being the only player in baseball history to eclipse 500 homers (762) and 500 stolen bases (514) in his career.

“If you ask me, he should be in the Hall of Fame,” McCutchen said. “Say what you want about him or whatnot, the guy was able to do some things that have never been done. It’s great that they’re doing that here, that they’re honoring him here, but I don’t think anyone in this clubhouse would feel any different or indifferent towards that. I can’t speak for everybody, but it’s great that he’s getting that opportunity as a Pirate. It would be cool for him to get that recognition throughout baseball.”

McCutchen hopes that Bonds will receive a warm response from Pirates fans as a two-time MVP and three-time winner of Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards who led the team to three NL East titles and within one game of the World Series during his seven seasons here from 1986-92.

McCutchen knows he won’t forget the impact Bonds had on him.

“Now that I’m here and in this position, remembering what it felt like to watch a person like Barry Bonds on TV, remembering to not take things for granted when I’m out there on this field when I’m talking to or interacting with a fan or a kid because they could be having those same feelings, as well,” McCutchen said. “At the end of the day, we like to look at ourselves as being human beings. We are doing something that most people can only dream of doing. To have the opportunity to do it and put on the stage to do it, I try not to take it for granted.”