Pirates

In Focus: A giant McCutchen

Andrew McCutchen stands in the on-deck circle at PNC Park and puts the finishing touches on his Marucci “Cutch22” bat as the chunky sounds of “The King’s Motorcade” blare from the ballpark’s sound system. The song is Mr. McCutchen’s signal. Time to go to work. As he makes his way to the batter’s box, his image appears on the giant screen of the scoreboard. That image was filmed in a massive tent at the team’s Bradenton, Fla., facility during spring training. The tent serves as headquarters for the PNC Park scoreboard crew. There, Mr. McCutchen spent an hour being filmed against a green screen to produce images for a season’s worth of computer graphics to be played across PNC Park’s big screen. Function and management of the screen requires the efforts of more than 25 employees, including a full TV production crew that controls the video feed. So the next time you’re at PNC Park and you see a giant image of Mr. McCutchen flash across the scoreboard with the city skyline as a backdrop, you’ll know who to thank. — Peter Diana View The Gallery >