Rusty Staub

Sport: Baseball

Induction Year: 1989

Induction Year: 1989

“I just adjusted to the conditions,” New York Mets outfielder Rusty Staub said on Oct. 17, 1973.

Considering the conditions, that was quite an accomplishment.

The previous year, his tenth in the big leagues, a pitch by the Atlanta Braves’ George Stone caromed off Staub’s right wrist and forced him out of action for 25 days. Later, after X-rays showed a broken bone, an operation put him out of action for two months.

Early in the 1973 season, Staub was hit on the left hand by a pitch thrown by Pittsburgh ‘s Ramon Hernandez. He was out of action from May 12 to mid-August, but he still led the Mets in runs batted in with 76.

“There is only a small fraction of time when there is not a hurt somewhere,” Staub said.

The Chicago Cubs led the National League East Division at the 1973 All-Star break, and the Mets were in last place as late as Aug. 17. But they outlasted the Cardinals in the stretch drive, and beat the Cincinnati Reds in the National League Championship Series as Staub hit three home runs.

The series between the Mets and Reds is best remembered for a melee in Game 3 that was ignited by a fight between Bud Harrelson and the Reds’ Pete Rose. When angry Mets fans in the left field stands showered Rose with debris, Staub, Willie Mays (playing his last season) and Tom Seaver visited the area to calm nerves and avert a possible forfeit.

Staub missed the final game of the NLCS because he tore a muscle in his right shoulder slamming into the right field fence as he caught a long fly ball by Dan Driessen in the 12th inning of game 4.

On the eve of the only opportunity he would ever have to participate in a World Series, Staub didn’t know if he would be able to play.

In the World Series between the Mets and Oakland A’s, the hottest topics of conversation were Staub’s shoulder and Oakland utility infielder Mike Andrews.

When Andrews made two errors in the third game, A’s owner Charlie O. Finley tried to fire him by placing him on the disabled list. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn blocked his move and ordered Andrews reinstated, but that was the straw that broke the camel’s back for A’s manager Dick Williams. He told his team that – win or lose – he was leaving.

Game 4 would’ve been just another day at the office for Staub if Ken Holtzman had thrown him a pitch he could bunt in the first inning. Wayne Garrett led off with a single, and Felix Millan beat out a bunt single. Staub squared around to bunt twice, but the first two pitches were high. Then manager Yogi Berra took off the sacrifice sign. One pitch later, Staub hit the ball over the left field fence.

Before the game was over, he drove in a total of five runs – one short of the World Series record held by Bobby Richardson of the Yankees – as the Mets evened the series with a 6-1 victory.

Staub was four-for-four and walked in his other time at bat, trying a Series record first set by Babe Ruth by reaching base five times in one game.

“This is the greatest thing that ever happened to me,” Staub said. “People were getting down on me. I could just feel it. They wondered whether I could throw off all those injuries. They wondered if I was breaking apart.”

Oakland won the World Series, four games to three, by winning the last two games in its own park. But Staub led both teams at the plate with 11 hits, batting .423.

Staub was “shocked and disappointed” when Montreal traded him to the Mets in 1972, thinking his world had collapsed. But after the 1973 World Series, he was thankful for the opportunity to make a lifetime dream come true in the Big Apple.

Although the Mets were disappointed after losing the Series to the A’s, they were proud of their comeback. Reserve infielder Ken Boswell put it in perspective after the final game when he asked a Chicago writer, “What did the Cubs do today?”

Montreal fans called him “Le Grand Orange” (the big redhead), but nurses who attended the birth of Daniel Joseph Staub in New Orleans on April 1, 1944, gave him the nickname that would stick – “Rusty.”

During his 23-year career with Houston , Montreal , the New York Mets, Detroit and Texas , Staub had a .279 batting average and drove in 1,458 runs. Along with the four postseason homers in 1973, he had 291 homers and 2,704 base hits.

He started his baseball career in New Orleans Recreation Department play at Bunny Friend Playground, and continued to develop at Jesuit High. In the 1961 Class AAA baseball finals, Staub’s 400-foot home run gave the Blue Jays a 3-2 victory over Istrouma of Baton Rouge in the final game of a best-of-three playoff series for the state championship.

Hitting .474, Staub shared “Outstanding Player” honors with Istrouma’s Dalton Jones on the Louisiana Sports Writers Association All-State team.

Jesuit coach Kevin Trower said Staub “would have hit .300 if you just counted his home runs.”

In basketball, Staub played with Pat Screen, who later starred in football at LSU, on teams that bowed to Shreveport-Bossier City teams in the playoffs two years in a row. The Blue Jays were eliminated by eventual state champion Bossier (a team that included future big leaguer pitcher Cecil Upshaw) in 1960 and by Byrd’s Yellow Jackets in 1961. In that game, Gordon Gibson led a late Byrd rally as the Yellow Jackets erased a 13-point deficit to knock the Jays out of the playoffs.

Rusty Staub and his brother, Chuck, led the Tulane Shirts to the American Legion World Series championship in the summer of 1960. The following year, Rusty hit .553 in Legion play.

In September of 196, Staub signed a contract with Houston General Manager Paul Richards for $125,000 – one of the largest at that time.

Staub, who retired after playing in 54 games in 1985, is now the owner of Rusty’s, a popular New York restaurant.