Montreal, Canada mourns loss of legendary Expo, Staub
6-time all-star dies at age 73
MONTREAL — The Montreal Expos’ first year in baseball was a joyous time, and at the centre of it all was Le Grand Orange.
Rusty Staub, who died Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla., of multiple organ failures, was the Expos’ first superstar when major league baseball moved into Canada in 1969 with an expansion club playing out of a temporary stadium in Jarry Park.
Staub power bat, the bright orange hair that gave him both his nicknames — Rusty and Le Grand Orange — and his openness to francophone culture in Montreal made him the darling of a city getting its first taste of big-league ball.
“Everybody loved Rusty,” said Claude Raymond, the pitcher from St-Jean-SurRichelieu, Que., who was Staub’s teammate in the Expos’ early years. “He was young. He was a redhead. He was always trying to help people.
“I remember when he came back in 1979, he was so happy. He really enjoyed Montreal and I think Montreal enjoyed him too.”
Born Daniel Joseph Staub, the New Orleans native would have turned 74 on Sunday. The New York Mets issued a message confirming his death hours before the start of the baseball season.
Staub, a six-time all-star, played 23 seasons from 1963 to 1985 with Houston, Montreal, the Mets, Detroit and Texas.
The left-handed hitter spent nine seasons with the Mets, where he is equally revered as a player and a humanitarian, but Canadians remember him most from the Expos’ first three seasons in the National League.
On a bad Expos team in 1969, Staub hit .302 with 29 home runs, while using his powerful arm to produce 16 outfield assists.
For show, he would sometimes make spectacular-looking sliding catches on routine fly balls.
There are conflicting reports on why the Expos traded Staub to the Mets in 1972 for Ken Singleton, Mike Jorgensen and Tim Foli. One was that he wanted a $100,000 salary, the other that the Expos were tired of losing and wanted to shake things up.
Staub was a hit in New York, helping the Mets to an NL pennant in 1973.
He was dealt back to Montreal by Detroit in July 1979, with the Expos in a pennant race with Pittsburgh. He went in as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning of the first game of a doubleheader against the Pirates and was given a five-minute standing ovation — before he popped up.
Staub debuted with the Houston Colt 45s, who became the Astros in 1965, as a $110,000 bonus baby. He was traded to Montreal ahead of the 1969 campaign.
The Expos, who relocated to Washington after the 2004 season, retired Staub’s No. 10 jersey in 1993. He was named to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2012.
“Rusty Staub was our country’s first major league superstar,” Hall of Fame director of operations Scott Crawford said.