Q&A with Andrew McCutchen
— -- This is an online exclusive from ESPN The Magazine's March 31 MLB Preview Issue. Subscribe today!
Buster Olney: We already know how talented you are on the baseball field. So I want to ask you about your interests off the field.
Andrew McCutchen: I mean, I do basically everything. I draw every time I get the chance. I've got this little music program I always play on; when I'm thinking of a beat or something. I like to just play around on that. I just like to have a lot of fun. I don't really have a set time when I do things. Whatever I'm doing is just something that came up -- I do it just to do it.
Olney: So there's no rhyme or reason to it? Do you have certain things that you're more likely to do based on how you're doing or how the team's doing?
McCutchen: Yes, I really try to think about what type of mood I need to be in to perform at my best. I'm a big believer that if you're in a positive mood, that's going to create great days at the plate, and you can handle situations differently -- strikeouts or whatever it is. You take it in a different way when you're in a good mood. So from the moment I get up in the morning, I'm listening to music. I really like Christian rap -- Lecrae is one guy, Andy Mineo. I like to listen to those guys. Actually, that "Happy" song by Pharell, that's a really good one. It puts me in a really, really good mood when I get up in the morning. That's what it's all about.
Olney: You remember last year when we did the piece on you, it came out that you drew. A friend of mine who does graphic design and uniform design for a number of different teams tweeted you and said, "Hey can you do this one?" It was like a 1958 Pirates logo and in a half-hour you sent it back and you had it nailed. Do you remember that?
McCutchen: Yes, I remember that. I was in Milwaukee. [Laughs] It just happened to be another one of those boring days. I was just sitting around, waiting to go to the field and I was on Twitter going through my comments. I saw his tweet -- "I know you can draw a Pirate P, but can you draw this?" And I looked at it and said, Hey, I'm going to draw it. So I picked up one of the notepads that's always at the hotels and a pen, and I just sketched it right there. It seemed like he got a good kick out of it.
Olney: So you'll intentionally pick upbeat songs?
McCutchen: Yes, I wake up and pick a positive song regardless of how I feel that morning. If you're a little sore and a little tired that morning, that's an automatic red flag, because subconsciously you're already telling yourself, I don't feel good today. And when you're showing up to the ballpark just not in the best mood, you handle situations differently. You go out and take BP, and it's not that great because your attitude isn't the same. So I'm a big believer on just being consistent with your attitude and getting up to some positive music to get you going.
