Step aside for a moment, Andrew McCutchen. It has taken eight years, three college stops, four June drafts and a July deadline deal, but right-hander Daniel McCutchen finally made his big league debut yesterday.

What a circuitous route to Pittsburgh it has been. McCutchen pitched for three colleges before signing a pro contract. That would include the University of Oklahoma in his hometown of Norman, where he earned an economics degree. He also is one of a select few who have been drafted by major league clubs four times, which he admits sparked occasional anxiety and some second-guessing about staying in school.

Playing baseball in college wasn't even a given when McCutchen graduated high school in 2001. Primarily a shortstop at Norman High, he drew no attention from college programs and walked on at Division II Central Oklahoma, where he moved to the mound. That's when his baseball career began to take flight.

It was as a freshman at Central Oklahoma that the 6-foot-2 McCutchen matured physically, adding 25 pounds and discovering the mid-90s with his fastball. He transferred to Grayson (Oklahoma) Community College the following year, but was limited to two innings of work because of injury. Still, the Yankees took notice of his radar readings and promise, and made him their 27th-round pick of the 2003 draft.

Unhappy with where he went in the draft, McCutchen chose to return home to Norman to pitch for his hometown university. He was one of Oklahoma's top relievers as a sophomore in 2004, and Tampa Bay selected him in the 28th round of that spring's draft.

McCutchen improved steadily over his three seasons pitching in the Big 12, but he returned to Oklahoma each fall, frustrated by his draft position. Being passed over in the early rounds became a motivational tool for an already-driven athlete, who departed the bullpen as a junior and became the Sooners' No. 1 starter.

St. Louis made McCutchen a 12th-round selection in 2005, and he had a tentative deal in place with the Cardinals late the following spring. Oklahoma was still playing in the NCAA's Norman Regional in his final days of eligibility leading up to the 2006 draft, however, and as long as the Sooners were playing, McCutchen couldn't sign.

On the night before the draft, Oklahoma squared off against Wichita State in the regional final, and McCutchen's draft status hung in the balance when he came into the game in relief. The senior worked 5.2 innings for the Sooners, and he was protecting a 7-6 lead with one out to go.

"We were up by one run, runners on second and third, two out," McCutchen explained in an August 2008 interview with this writer. "If I give up a hit, Wichita States wins, I sign the contract with the Cardinals that night, and I get a lot more money than I ended up signing for. If I get this guy out, I go back into the draft pool.

"I threw a 2-2 breaking ball the guy hit pretty hard to our third baseman, and he came up with it and threw the guy out. I was not going to be a Cardinal and went back into the draft."

The Yankees chose McCutchen with their 13th-round pick the following day, and his professional career began soon after Oklahoma lost in a super regional matchup with Rice, the No. 1 team in the country at the time.

Nearly 24 years old when he signed, an age when most prospects are flirting with big league opportunities, McCutchen climbed quickly through an organization known more for dealing prospects than calling on them. His opportunity suddenly seemed infinitely closer last summer, when he was dealt by the Yankees to the Pirates in a late-July trade that shipped Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte to New York.

McCutchen’s long-awaited big league debut might have come a year ago with the perpetually rebuilding Pirates, but it took another 13 months. And after all those years of working hard and waiting for a chance, it was a debut to remember -- for a number of reasons, both positive and strange.

After posting an International League-leading 13 wins, a 13-6 record and a 1.90 ERA in eight second-half starts for Triple-A Indianapolis, McCutchen debuted on Monday in the first game of a day-night doubleheader in Cincinnati. It was a makeup of an April rainout, and fewer than 2,000 fans showed up. The chatter of both players and fans could be heard throughout the stadium, an occurrence that the minor league veteran may not have experienced since his Class-A days with the Yankees.

It might have been a disastrous day. McCutchen served up a home run to Cincinnati leadoff man Drew Stubbs on his second big league pitch, but he put the Pirates up 2-1 with an RBI single to shallow right in his first major league at-bat in the second inning.

McCutchen settled down and worked a quality start, allowing five hits, a pair of walks and three runs over six frames. He fanned five and left with the Pirates trailing 3-2. Pittsburgh tied the game after McCutchen’s departure, but the Reds prevailed, 4-3, when Cincinnati right fielder Darnell McDonald dashed home on a two-out wild pitch from Jesse Chavez in the bottom of the ninth.

“I was a little antsy, trying to block that crowd out,” said McCutchen, breaking into a grin during a postgame interview. The rookie also had the rare major league experience of hearing shouts of encouragement from the handful of family members and friends who drove 13 hours from Oklahoma to witness his big day.

It didn’t appear that the other McCutchen in Pittsburgh, who turns 27 on Sept. 26, would even be given a big league opportunity in 2009. He had been invited to pitch for Team USA in the World Cup later this month, and not being on Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster, a September callup seemed unlikely. Now he’s a good bet to get a handful of September starts. No doubt it’s been worth the wait.