FORMER METS SLUGGER RUSTY STAUB, DIES AT 73
NEW YORK » Rusty Staub was a huge hit on both sides of the border.
Instantly recognizable for his fiery orange hair and gregarious personality, the outfielder who charmed baseball fans in the United States and Canada during an All-Star career that spanned 23 major league seasons died Thursday. He was 73.
Staub died after an illness in a hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida, hours before the start of the baseball season, the New York Mets said in a statement. The team learned of his death from friends of Staub who were with him at the hospital, a spokesman added.
Affectionately dubbed “Le Grand Orange,” Staub was a sixtime All-Star and the only player in major league history to have at least 500 hits with four teams. Popular with fans and teammates in two countries, he was most adored in New York and Montreal.
“He could be as tough as hell and as soft as a mushroom,” said Mets teammate and close friend Keith Hernandez, who choked back tears as he spoke about Staub at Citi Field before New York hosted the St. Louis Cardinals.
A savvy, reliable slugger with left-handed power and a discerning eye, Staub played from 1963 to 1985 and finished 284 hits shy of 3,000. He had 3½ great seasons with the Detroit Tigers and batted .300 for the Texas Rangers in 1980.
He broke into the majors as a teenager with Houston, lasted into his 40s with the Mets as a pinch-hitter deluxe and spent decades doing charity work in the New York area.
“There wasn’t a cause he
didn’t champion,” the Mets said.
Staub, who would have turned 74 on Sunday, survived a 2015 heart attack on a flight home from Ireland. Years earlier, the gourmet cook owned and operated a pair of popular restaurants in Manhattan that bore his name. He also authored a children’s book titled “Hello, Mr. Met!”
“What a unique personality he was. I never met anyone like him,” former Mets pitcher Ron Darling said. “He was a renaissance kind of man.”
The Mets saluted Staub on the stadium video board before Thursday’s season opener. The number 10 he wore during some of his time with the Mets (he also wore No. 4) was painted in white on the back of the pitcher’s mound.
“Rusty was a superb ambassador for our sport and a generous individual known for community efforts,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.
Staub was the first star for the expansion Montreal Expos in 1969, embraced by French-Canadian fans at Parc Jarry who appreciated that he learned their language.
He made three straight All-Star teams with Montreal and hit a careerhigh 30 home runs for the last-place Expos in 1970. Though he spent only three full seasons in Montreal, plus a 38-game reunion in 1979, his No. 10 became the first uniform jersey retired by the team in 1993.
Long after the Expos moved to Washington and were renamed the Nationals before the 2005 season, he remains one of the most beloved players in franchise history.
“He gave his heart and soul to the franchise and to the city of Montreal. He immersed himself in the city’s culture as much as any Expo and the fans loved him for it,” Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame director of operations Scott Crawford said in a statement. “We’ll miss Le Grande Orange, but we’ll never forget him.”
Staub was traded to the Mets in 1972 and one year later helped lead them to a surprising National League pennant. Spurred by a nowfamous rallying cry from reliever Tug McGraw — “Ya Gotta Believe!” — the Mets upset heavily favored Cincinnati, with Staub socking three home runs in the first four games of their best-offive NL playoff.
Staub separated his right shoulder when he crashed hard into the outfield wall to make a fantastic catch in the 11th inning of Game 4. He sat out Tom Seaver’s decisive win in Game 5 and missed the World Series opener against Oakland, yet returned to the lineup the following game.