McCutchen has already surpassed the hype Superstar status can't be achieved without one moment when it all comes together. It's a pre-requisite of sorts, a moment in time when talent meets opportunity and creates legend.
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the July Issue of
Andrew McCutchen's moment came in grade school, and was accompanied with the sound of shattered glass.
It was the result of his first ever homerun – as a 10-year-old in his hometown of Fort Meade, Florida. It cleared the fence, crashing through a windshield and landing in the front seat of a car that was surely parked without any thought of receiving a souvenir from a 4th grader.
"You could really tell that this kid was going to be something…"
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 Pine-Richland High School graduate Neil Walker was the Pirates top draft pick in the 2004 MLB Draft. Walker has moved from catcher to third base to outfield to second base during his minor league career, and is getting his shot as the Pirates every day second baseman this summer. He hit his first major league homerun June 1 against the Cubs, a two-run shot in the eighth inning that ultimately gave the Pirates a 3-2 win. PSR's Joe Giardina chatted with Walker in the Pirates clubhouse last month, shortly before another No. 1 draft pick, Pedro Alvarez, made his major league debut.
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 Sandy Herzlich still enjoys telling the story about his son Mark as a sixth-grader, when he won a basketball game with a half-court buzzer-beater and casually walked off the court as if it were no big deal.
Growing up in Wayne, Pa., everything came easy to Mark Herzlich. Whether it was academics, athletics or an altruistic attitude, the kid was a natural.
But life ceased being easy for Herzlich in the spring of 2009.
"I woke up in the middle of the night with a sharp pain," said Herzlich, a 6-4, 240-pounder. "I thought it was just soreness from practice." It wasn't.
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The Pirates still have fans. The 90,000 people that poured into PNC Park late last month to watch a team with 12- straight losses play a bad Cleveland Indians club proves as much.
Many of those fans are of the typical "hope-they-win-but-laugh-off-a-loss" variety. The rest are divided into two distinct camps: Idiots and Maniacs.
Look at these Idiots: I feel bad for this group. Many are good-hearted souls who are simply naïve. They are so starved for a winner that they've created a deluded reality. Who are these Maniacs? These are the ones who call radio talk shows and populate internet message boards, ridiculing their mortal enemies: fans stupid enough to actually attend games at PNC Park.
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I'm going to admit something you can't quite come to terms admitting: I'm enjoying the World Cup.
I don't know if a soccer ball is blown up or stuffed. Actually, I do, if we consider what those 10 year olds use, but not so if we consider those in South Africa.
Also, don't look for me to sell you on the world-wide craze that is the World Cup or the game. That's a sales job for somebody else.
What did motivate this column, however, is just that—the game—and not knowing anything about it.
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