Bucco Fever has hit the Steelers locker room pretty hard.
I mean, that’s what happens when the hometown nine are atop the National League Central standings and carry a six-game win streak into Tuesday night’s game with the lowly Oakland A’s.
That’s also what happens when you’re a guy who, as a college kid, used to park Andrew McCutchen’s Range Rover.
Confused? Well, it all ties together with Steelers longsnapper Christian Kuntz, a young man --- he’s 29 --- from Chartiers Valley who went to Duquesne and, not unlike many of us, found himself needing a job in college.
That’s when he hooked on as a valet at a Downtown restaurant, whipping those luxury rides in and out of the garage on Fifth Avenue.
For a Pittsburgh Kid like Kuntz, already born into fandom for the teams from here, seeing a guy like McCutchen --- especially as the Pirates were playing great baseball a decade ago --- was something that transfixed him.
“When Cutch was here the first time around I was working as a valet at Capital Grille,” Kuntz said. “And I’m like ‘man, that’s the NL MVP!’ and now he’s back. That’s just the coolest thing. I still have his jersey, I never got rid of it. He’s great for the city, nicest guy out there.”
And McCutchen, who has been the one emblematic and representative force of these Pirates for Kuntz’s generation, has this town really into baseball again. So much so that Kuntz’s eyes lit up when I approach him after Steelers OTAs yesterday and simply asked, “so, are you into the Pirates right now?”
He was all about it.
“Especially when they are winning, for sure man,” Kuntz said. “Even if they’re like .500 but they are on a winning streak and have some momentum, we want them so badly to be good here in Pittsburgh because we know how crazy it can be down there … When the Pirates were in the Wild Card it was crazy. I was at Duquesne and it was crazy. I’ve never seen it like that. For me, when they’re winning, I got the Bucco Fever in a big way. I mean, I’m always into them, but when they’re winning, that’s something even more.”
And being from here, Kuntz can fully digest what it means to have a viable baseball team.
He knows the consequences and understands the buzz it generates from April through a pennant chase. Not to get ahead of anything, but this taste of being at or near first place is something we chatted about in a civic sense.
“The city needs them to be good,” Kuntz said. “We want them to be good. Everybody does. The North Shore is more lively, just totally rocking … it’s just good for the city. For people to make more money, everything.
“This truly is a historic baseball town. You have ’79. You have Clemente. Our ballpark is the nicest in baseball. For them to be good is a Pittsburgh Guy’s dream.”