RUSTY STAUB (1944-2018):Daniel Jospeh Staub got his nickname almost as soon as he was born (on April 1, 1944) when a nurse commented on the red-orange fuzz on his head. His father, a minor-league catcher for a few years, gave him a bat when he was three. By the time he was a teenager, Rusty was a star first baseman at Jesuit High in New Orleans and after leading his team to the 1961 Louisiana State AAA championship, he signed a $100,000 bonus with the then-National League expansion Houston Colt 45s.
By 1965, he'd become a full-time major leaguer and soon developed into Houston's first star. But salary disputes after his All-Star season in 1967 led to him getting traded to the Montreal Expos for the 1969 season. He blossomed there, becoming the best thing about the team. After hitting a two-run homer and making a specular game-ending catch to break a 20-game Expo losing streak, Montreal Gazette sportswriter Ted Blackman began referring to him as "Le Grand Orange." It stuck with him the rest of his life.
With the Expos, a close friendship with team owner and whiskey magnate Charles Bronfman helped get his foot in the door as a restauranteur and "foodie". But friendship couldn't get in the way of business. Staub was traded to the Mets at the start of the 1972 season for a trio of young players. He and New York fell in love with each other; helping the Mets get to the 1973 World Series (where he led the team in hitting) added to the mutual love fest.
Rusty gives the Mets the lead in Game 4 of the 1973 World Series:
The Mets stupidly traded him to the Tigers after the 1975 season. But after becoming a free agent in 1980 (after quick stops back with the Expos and with the Rangers), he signed with the Mets. There, he became a pinch-hitter extraordinaire (tying records for most consecutive pinch hits and most RBIs in a season by a pinch hitter) before retiring after the 1985 season. A six-time All-Star, he's the only player to collect at least 500 hits with four different teams. He finished with a solid .279 batting average (and a .362 on base percentage), with 2,716 base hits, and 292 home runs.
Could have easily been 3,000 hits and 300 HR if he had more regular playing timeHis work wasn't done, though. Sportswriter Bill Madden recalled an interview in 2001. "My mother's brother was a policeman killed in the line of duty in New Orleans. I was just a little kid, sitting on my bed with my mom and my brother saying the rosary, and I never got over that. Then, in 1984, I was sitting in my old restaurant when a cop I knew was killed, leaving a wife and three kids. I remember saying to Frank: 'Someone needs to do something about this.'"
The Rusty Staub Foundation, which in 1986 established the New York Police and Fire Widows' and Children's Benefit Fund, distributed over $11 million in the first 15 years of its existence to the families of New York area police and fire fighters killed in the line of duty, and since the September 11, 2001 attacks, received over $112 million in contributions. On January 8, Staub announced that, in conjunction with Catholic Charities, his foundation had also served 9,043,741 meals to the hungry at food pantries throughout New York over last 10 years, with funds though his annual wine auction dinner and foundation golf tournament.
“For more than thirty years, Rusty dedicated his life to helping others," said Stephen Dannhauser, the foundation's chairman, in a statement. "He worked tirelessly on behalf of the widows, widowers, and children of New York City's fallen heroes.
"There were better hitters than Rusty Staub, but far fewer than you might think. There may have been more beloved baseball figures than Staub, but that number is even smaller." - Craig Calcaterra, NBC Sports