Andrew McCutchen

with you, it's hard to keep up. Things are changing constantly, and even Adam Silver admits now with coming up on ten percent positive tests in the NBA, there's no running from the virus. And all this is happening while the country continues to seek justice and equality, opening its eyes to the struggle black people of face. Since what feels like the beginning of time, it's a lot to handle. What what? Oh? Okay? Another positive? Well, I'll post it

on the board when I'm done with this intro. Quite a workload these days, mostly because I'm still talking to athletes and sports and just sup professionals about what they're doing during this very weird time because even they have no idea what's gonna happen. Trust me, it's all in the sports bubble. One of baseball's best players, Andrew McCutcheon is also one of the league's best assets when it

comes to personality. Anyone who's followed the five time All Star in two thousand fifteen and l m v P on social media knows he's hilarious and witty and thoughtful, all attributes that have made him a fan favorite. But I've often wondered why his sense of humor hasn't sent him into mainstream orbit, like say, how Blake Griffin did

with the NBA during quarantine. He's even created a hilarious alter ego named Uncle Larry, a mustachioed elderly man in sunglasses and a ridiculous wig who also appears to hate Andrew's guts. It's super funny. And then there's this new viral Tops Baseball card the debuted last week that you just have to google to appreciate. The guy is a

meme machine that everyone should know about. So in this conversation, Andrew and I talked about the culture of baseball and why maybe his type of swagger isn't necessarily appreciated enough. We also chat about returning from injury, conforming for the Yankees, baseball's need for African American outreach, and how or if Major League Baseball locker rooms can actually adapt to Black

Lives matter. Move man. Listen. If this gets you to at least follow Andrew and uncle Larry on social media, well my job here is done, so let's chop it up. On this episode of the Sports Bubble with Jensen Carton from Andrew mccushion to accept press one. Hello Andrew, nice to meet you. Thanks for doing this. Oh yeah, no problem, Thanks for having me. I wanted to start off. I know you went viral in this new rental house. You took a picture kind of playing off the Will Smith meme.

I wanted to talk to you for a second before the move. Where did you spend quarantine? Okay, so there was a couple of places I spent my quarantine. Of course. I was in clear Water, continuing my rehab there at the Strange training facilities. And then I left clear Water and went and went back home to to my hometown. When I'm at hometown, but where I live in Pittsburgh. So I was at those two places. And yeah, I'm

in Philadelphia. Yeah. I don't mean to be your uncle Phil here, but I'm nervous that you won't be able to furnish the house during a quarantine and get a sofa. Oh yeah, so yeah, I uh what I mean. And my wife we we purchased some furniture last year in Philadelphia and we just left it in storage here. So whenever we rent, when we come back the Philadelphia for the season, we just get that stuff out of storage.

So I had the moving company and get our stuff out of storage and bring our things the next day after I posted that that picture. So so that's that's kind of what we do. It just right when I came to the house. Right, it gave me that feel of of that episode. So I just figured out, I'm by myself not doing anything, might as well just just posted a picture of it. Good. You've you've, you've well, you've you've saved my fears of what you're gonna be

doing in Philly. But you're you're coming off a season ending injury in two thousand nineteen, a torn a c L Did the break in working? Did it help or hurt the schedule you had in mind? This is obviously the longest you've probably went without baseball by a long shot. Yeah, you know, there there's definitely a silver line with it for me. It did help me because you know, I wasn't going to be ready come March. Whatever day it was at the opening day, was going to be happening

this year. So for me us having this this break, it definitely helped me be able to to rehab and take my time through the rehab process and um, you know, so it was it was good for me. And yeah, it helped me get to feeling ready and ready to go and ready to play. Well, we have to talk about my favorite thing from baseball stop down now. It is the baseball card. I assume this is all you've been texted about, all you've been emailed about, because it

truly brings a smile to my face. Tops revealed their big Series two set and there's a picture of you that a lot of people are calling the greatest baseball card ever produced. You are wearing a bandana under your hat, your double cupped in the dugout jersey, half open, chains exposed. It is truly beautiful. Can you please tell me the background of this photo? Oh? Yeah, So basically that day, you know, I was probably a month post stop from

my my a c O surgery. So I had just got back to Philadelphia after my surgery, um and just to be around the fellows again. And I was just trying to bring, you know, a little bit of light to the season, trying to be positive, trying to you know, find ways to to be able to make a difference even though I can't like be on the on the field and playing. So we had to throw back any day um of wearing those uniforms, and uh, you know,

I thought there were some pretty dope uniforms. You know, they had a big zipper in the middle, and I was like, man, you know, I need to make this just a retro day. I need to look like, you know, how I feel in this uniform. So I, you know, I got what people didn't see. Where the sneakers. The sneakers were the best part of the of the whole the whole outfit. What were those? There are just some throwback nikes that I had. They kind of give you

the feel of the old cortez Um shoe. But yeah, they were some pretty dope shoes that I was wearing. So I just I just made the whole outfits you to down put the chain on, and those uh sunglasses were actually gave Kapler's um aviators. I guess they're pretty pretty good pair of sunglasses, and so he was like, you know, you got to complete the outfit with these sunglasses. So he gave them to me, and um, double cut red Bull, and uh I was I was out there

just enjoying myself having a good time. So, yeah, the card is going for two on ebie. I don't know if you know that. I'm sure those prices will go down there. So uh, Now, I wanted to talk a little bit about your sort of persona on Instagram and and and Twitter and social media in general. What tell me how Uncle Larry started? You know, funny thing, I've always been the type of person to be kind of quite the the jokester of my family, loving to make people laugh. Um, I don't know if you did here.

I mean, it's not that far off, but pretty familiar with buying when buying videos are red big. I used to love watching buying videos, so I used to make I used to make uynes all the time and send them to my family, send them to my wife all the time, and friends that always say how crazy I was and how stupid I was. And so once this quarantine hit my my wife is like, you know, you should you should do something, you know, make make fun make light of the situation that you're in. You know,

you you always like to make funny videos. Why don't you do that? Keep doing it? So I kind of set with her, talk to her about it, and talked to my PR guy about it, and and then that's

how Uncle Larry came about. And Uncle Larry, you know, for people who don't know, it was because of basically, the way the name came about was because I was taking bandon frantice during spring training and someone posted a video of me taking ban in practice and they straight up watched my name called me launched mc cutcheon, and I was like, you know, I'm going to take that around with it. And so that's that's kind of how it all, how it all came about, the name came about,

and the character came about. I bring up all this personality stuff and how much fans enjoy seeing you, especially me your your personality and and and and what you do online to get to some heavier stuff because with COVID and the murder of George Floyd and the resulting response from America finally opening their eyes to the struggles that black people have been facing for hundreds of years. I was genuinely moved by Ian Desmond's Instagram post this past week. Did did you get to read it? Yeah?

I definitely ran through that and it was it was definitely moving to hear and read some of the things that he had to talk about, for sure. Yeah, and a lot of stuff stuck out to me. I mean, honestly, it's been sort of plaguing me all week, and and it's been mentioned by a Mere Garrett, a former guest on the show as well, and a sort of roundabout way on Instagram. But one part I can't shake it involves Ian bringing up sort of a good old boy culture that exists in baseball, and what he describes is

quote unquote white rules to the sport. Don't have fun, don't pimp home runs, don't play with with your character, don't do anything fancy. It's kind of the opposite of what the NBA has sort of found popularity within. And it started to hit me that this eye for an eye. You know, you you throw your bat, you get hit or it feels kind of racial, and it obviously did to Ian Desmond as well. What did you take out

of that angle on it? Yeah, I mean there are some unwritten rules to this game and to this sport that we play in. There's so many rules that are unwritten, so many things and uh, so many creeds and guidelines that that you know, that that you're a part of and that you have to be taught in this game. And you know, there are a lot of the there's ways that they people take things. They take things too different ways, you know. You know, I definitely like to

look at it. And you know, Adam Jones has said this before as well. He said, Uh, if I if I get mad or if I throw my back, um, I get heated in the situation, I'm being angry. Um. But they said, you know, if there was a white guy who does the same thing, he's being the gamer, um, you know. And he was like, and there are certain situations like that where you do see two different sides taken in two different ways even though there's two people

doing the same thing. And that does happen in this game. Uh. And the unwritten rules in this game that we feel like we have to abide by and um, at the same time, I just feel, you know, there's there's there needs to be changing it, and there needs to be an understanding of what we're talking about in ways that we need to go about it here, coming from here and moving forward in the future. Yeah, I mean I

thought about you know, the Yankees came to mind. You played there obviously, the shaving of the beard, requirements, not overshadowing the jersey, letting that kind of be the star. Uh. You know, this morning before we talked, the Yankees organization said that they look forward to sort of the Black

Lives Matter movement showing itself in the game. It's difficult for me to accept those rules in even the shaving of the beard, which seems so miniscule, but it's like the individualism of baseball and and the issues with black representation in the league. It seems like they're not catering to what maybe the black community might be looking for in baseball back in the day with Ken Griffey Jr. And people me and you looked up to. Yeah, I mean, it was definitely a great organization to her part of

you know, to to gon those Finch tribes. For me, it was an honor. It was it was something that I felt I would never have the opportunity to do so, even though it's the same game Um, you definitely feel a sense of you know, like you feel a little more in a sit powerful when you put that uniform on. But um, yeah, those policies shaving and U let New Jersey speak for ourselves. UM, I definitely do think it takes away for them from our individualism. Um as players

and as people. Um, we we experienced ourselves in different ways. For me, when when I was on the Pirates and me having my dreadlocks, I'd be blind to you if I said, if I had to go to the we got traded over to the Yankees, and I said, you gotta shave your hair. You know, for me, that was a very tough thing to do because that was who I was. That's that's how I expressed myself. That's who made me Andrew McCutcheon, That's how people notice who I was. Um,

you know, it made me unique. Um So UM, I think especially in this year, the year of I think, um, you know, I just feel like these these things are it should be things that people should take at heart and realize that, you know, we we have a way of expressing ourselves in different ways. And I definitely feel like maybe there should be some change there in the

in the future who knows when. But yeah, it those are just one of the many things, um, in this game that I feel, um that just that just needs it needs to be talked about, It needs to be addressed. I mean, what can we do? So so Desmond brings up only one black GM two black managers, now less than eight percent black players. I'm a forty year old who idolized. I mean I was laying in bed last

night sort of thinking over this interview. I was thinking of the Dwight It into the Darryl Strawberries, the Ken Griffy's obviously even down to the Kevin Mitchell year in the Giants, Like these guys, we were top of their game. What happened? It seems like a trickle down from from the front office down that that that the African American culture just hasn't gravitated towards baseball. Yeah, you know, you

don't have to try and pinpoint this. And believe me, I've been trying to pinpoint this for quite some time and quite from the years now. Um, the game in itself, because I remember I had guys who I admired as a little kid when I sat down in front of the TV and I would watch someone who looked like me and someone who I wanted to play the game, like being someone like King gerse Jr. Watching him play this game with a flare that stood out amongst so

many other people. You know, I wasn't looking at his color as a young kid. I wasn't saying because he's black, like I have a chance. I was just looking at him because he just was different and he played the game with a flare that no one had, and for me that that resonated with me because I wanted to do that same thing as a kid. So I tried to emulate him in so many ways. And I just feel like with the game now, you know, there there's

so many, so many different outlets. And I and I talked about this before in an article UM talking about the game and the access to the games, the amount of money that has to be spent, and realizing that it is so hard for families to be able to provide for UH kids, especially kids of color Um inter city kids, kids of families that are making lower income, that this game has just become a game that is expensive, so it it kicks those kids out at a certain point,

it kicks them out to where they can't keep continuing to to play this game if they want exposure, uh, if they want to be on these teams that are that are the teams to be a part of. Um, it gets to a point that where there's a line that they can't cross because it just the game just becomes too expensive, the accessibility of it becomes too hard.

So I think that's just what happened over time, is you know, these these games, the tournaments, these teams is starting to cater to an upper class of people who can afford to to play the game and uh, to be able to to make it further and to be seen. Um, it just starts to cater to a certain class. So I think that's what's starting to happen. Honestly, that's just one of the things. And we know the statistics, especially

in black families. You know, the single family home is pretty big in the black family, in the black in the black community, and um, it's hard for those fams still provide for those kids to play this game. After this more with Philadelphia Phillies All Star outfielder Andrew McCutcheon.

Right now, Feeding America is working tirelessly to ensure our most vulnerable populations like students who are out of school, the elderly individuals whose jobs are impacted, and low income families continue to have access to food and other needed resources during the COVID nineteen pandemic. The Feeding America Food Bank Network is committed to serving communities and people facing hunger in America, and their greatest need is donations and

support of local food banks. This podcast is committed to donating a portion of the proceeds from the show to Feeding America and we hope that you can join us in this effort to find out how you can help Feeding America dot org backslash COVID nineteen. Now let's get back to Andrew. You going back this season. You know, whatever it ends up being in obviously, Black Lives Matter will still be on the minds of of of players.

And you know, no one would ever call baseball you know, a kind of friendly nature when it comes to politics. I mean, we said the same thing about NASCAR, and they look great right now. There's a lot of progression there. Do you expect to walk into a locker room that understands what's went on the last few months? Yes, And though I feel that there will be some people that understand it, um, but I do feel that it needs

to continue to be talked about. And with the amount of African Americans that are in this game being that it is only not even eight percent, that it's something that will if we don't talk about it, it will easily be swept under a road. So it's just because it's just we don't have many people that represent us in this game, and you know, there aren't and there's

some guys who aren't in my position. You know, there's some guys who feel you know, they may want to say something or speak up or talk about it, but

at the same time they don't. They don't want to feel that the oversteps in their boundaries or feel like they're making people uncomfortable considering that they're they're one of maybe three African Americans in the clubhouse if that um So, if it's not addressed amongst the team or the clubhouse, then it's something that more than likely won't be talked about.

And so it takes people like myself and and others in this game to be able to speak up and to be able to make this a public um and not just in the in clubhouses from one team to the other, hoping that these things that happened if we don't make them happen, and more than likely you won't. Yeah, I hope. I hope to see baseball of all that way. Truly as a fan. I it has bothered me in the past, and I think this is the time for

a lot of sports to finally face it. I wanted to ask kind of in closing, and then I'll do a fun little game with you about Uncle Larry, some questions I have about him. With with COVID numbers rising, guys like Desmond making the decisions and woman still on the fence, have you questioned returning at all? Um, They're definitely had more times where I question returning. Um myself considering my family and knowing the difficulties of the season

and how it's gonna be. Um, you know, my family is gonna have to She's been my my wife and she's gonna have to uproot her the kids and move from one place to the other. After we've already moved, you know, a couple of times already this year. So that's gonna be difficult in itself. Um. So there's so

many different variables that go along with this season. But I love the game and you know, I haven't played since June fourth last year, and you know, I want to play this game as much as possible because I know there's a time that's gonna come where you know, I won't be playing anymore. So, you know, with all of that, and we're thinking things through, I was, you know, we made the decision that you know that this is something you know that I want to do. And my

wife m of course, she she supports that. And yeah, I mean I thought about it at first, but after talking about it and really going over things, Uh, this decision that we made and we feel, um, we feel good about it. Great. Well, I wanted to play a game with you, something I feel passionate about. If that's cool. It's called would Uncle Larry? Okay, I'm gonna give you some situations and you tell me if Uncle Larry would or would not do this thing? Is that cool with you? Okay,

let's go all right, here we go. My number one, would uncle Larry ask for someone's phone number at a family reunion? Uh? Yeah, it depends, It depends on it depends on what he gets out of the out of the deal. But it's always it's always all about him, Okay. Would Uncle Larry order a whopper at McDonald's and then laugh at his own joke for twenty minutes, even though he's been doing it for decades, Um, No, he's probably

not gonna order order a whopper. Um, he has a sweet tooth, so on the more un like you'd be like a mixed Larry or something like that. Okay, well, he's definitely gonna you're going that, okay, alright, So this plays into it a little because it's still food related. Would Uncle Larry eat sunflower seeds in his car? And would he spit him in a cup or put him out the window when he's done with the shells? All right? So if there's his car and I'm in the car

with him, he's just gonna spit him in my face. Um. And if it's someone else's car then yeah then uh yeah, he'll probably be nice about it, and and um you know, okay, good a couple of left. Would Uncle Larry talk about how easy you have it all the time and repeatedly remind you that his parents used to whip him for coughing too loud? Um? Yeah, he definitely, he definitely would Yeah, he's gonna stress the truth. He keeps he keeps stressing

the truth. Okay, Yeah, that's something he definitely do. I like that. Okay. Would Uncle Larry watch Unsolved Mysteries with a pen and pad because he thinks he can solve them? Um? Noca. He doesn't. He doesn't like crime, so all right, he's gonna avoid that one last one. Would Uncle Larry go to a roller rink in twenty and bring his own Joda see tape for the DJ to play? Yeah, he's definitely. He's all about and that whole genre. So he's gonna bring and probably a couple of other good a couple

of other albums. Um. But yeah, that's that's all about that. He could definitely do that. To me, it was crucial it was a tape. I felt like Uncle Larry's definitely a tape guy. Yeah, he's all about tape, right vrs. So that's in camp orters Andrew stay safe. It was such a fan can't wait to see you back on the field. And I'll stay on your social media because it truly is one of my favorite things going. All right, I appreciate that's happen. The Sports Bubble is produced and

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