Of the first fourteen players on the all-time games played list in Major League Baseball history, only three are not in the Hall of Fame-Pete Rose because of his ban from the game for gambling, Rickey Henderson because he is not yet eligible, and Rusty Staub. Nicknamed “Le Grande Orange” because of his red hair when he was a popular star of the fledgling Montreal Expos, Daniel Joseph “Rusty” Staub was a professional hitter if there ever was one. Rusty Staub is the only player in the annals of baseball to collect 500 hits for four different teams. Only Rusty Staub and Ty Cobb could boast of hitting a homer before age twenty and after age forty.
Born in New Orleans in 1944, the left-handed batting Rusty Staub was signed by the expansion Houston Colt .45s in 1961. The MVP of the Carolina League in 1962, Rusty Staub joined Houston the following year and played just about every day at first base or in the outfield. Only 19 years old, Rusty Staub struggled mightily his first two seasons, batting less than .225 in both of them. At 21, Rusty Staub began to find his stride, hitting a respectable .256 and driving in 63 runs for the ninth place team, now named the Astros. In 1967, Rusty Staub hit for the highest average of his career, batting .333 in almost 550 at-bats. He was traded to the Expos in 1969, and the power numbers of Rusty Staub increased, now that he was away from the cavernous Astrodome. Rusty Staub hit 78 homers in his three Montreal seasons, batting over .300 in two of them.
His attempts to learn French endeared him to the French-Canadian fans of the Expos, as did his play; Rusty Staub’s number 10 jersey was the first Expos’ number to be retired. While with Montreal, Rusty Staub walked over 100 times in two of his seasons; for his career he had 367 more bases on balls than strikeouts. The Mets acquired him from Montreal in April of 1972 for Kenny Singleton, Tim Foli, and Mike Jorgenson. That trio would contribute for years to the Expos. Rusty Staub made his own contributions to New York, but not right away. In June of 1972, Rusty Staub suffered a broken hand when struck by a George Stone pitch, costing him most of the season. He returned in 1973 and helped the Mets to their second World Series. He had already hit three homers in the Mets’ Game Two and Three wins over the heavily favored Reds in the NL Championship Series when he injured his right shoulder making a catch while running into the wall in Game Four, which the Mets lost. New York won the NL pennant the next day without him, but Rusty Staub still played in the World Series against Oakland, throwing the ball from the outfield, when he had to, underhanded. Rusty Staub batted a remarkable .423 with a homer and a team leading six runs batted in as the Mets lost a thrilling seven game World Series to Oakland, endearing himself to Mets’ fans for the rest of time with his gutsy play.
Rusty Staub set the New York Mets’ record for RBI in a year when he knocked in 105 runs in 1975, a standard that stood until 1987. The Mets dealt him to the Tigers the next year for washed up Mickey Lolich, one of the typical disastrous Mets’ trade blunders that drew the wrath of fans. He became the first player to play all of his 162 games as a designated hitter with the Tigers in 1978; the position was a perfect fit for Rusty Staub. In Detroit he collected 358 RBI in three plus seasons, knocking in over 100 runs twice. The Tigers then sent Rusty Staub back to the Expos for a brief stop. He played for the Rangers in 1980 before returning to the Mets, where Rusty Staub became an extraordinary pinch-hitter. His eight pinch-hits in a row in 1983 tied the National League record, and his 25 pinch-hit runs batted in tied the major league mark. After the 1985 campaign, Rusty Staub retired from baseball at the age of 41 with over 2,700 hits, almost 300 home runs, and 1,466 runs batted in to go with his lifetime batting average of .279.
Rusty Staub’s charity work over the years in New York has raised and distributed over 120 million dollars through his “New York Police and Fireman’s Widows and Children’s Benefit Fund”, further cementing his place in the hearts of his fans. Although Rusty Staub never led the majors in homers, RBI, or won a batting title or an MVP, he is worthy of Hall of Fame consideration. Rusty Staub knocked in over 72 runs in a year a dozen times. That kind of consistency with a bat should count for something.
