Rusty Staub: Le Grand Orange from New Orleans

Le Grand Orange

Daniel Joseph "Rusty" Staub was born on April 1, 1944, in New Orleans, Louisiana — a redheaded kid who got his nickname from his hair and his baseball talent from his father, a former minor league catcher who put a bat in his son's hands at age three. By nineteen, Staub was in the major leagues with the Houston Colt .45s, making him one of the youngest players in baseball.

Staub played twenty-three seasons across five teams, but it was Montreal that made him a legend. When the Expos were born in 1969, Staub became their first star. He learned French to connect with the fans, and they gave him the name that stuck forever: "Le Grand Orange." He was the face of Canadian baseball before Canadian baseball had a face.

Twenty-Three Seasons of Hitting

With the Mets, Staub was a key player in the 1973 World Series run. With the Tigers, he started the 1976 All-Star Game. Over his career, he accumulated 2,716 hits — just 284 short of the magical 3,000-hit milestone — with 292 home runs and six All-Star selections. He was the kind of hitter who never stopped being dangerous, playing until he was forty-one because he could still get the bat to the ball.

The Expos retired his number 10. The Mets inducted him into their Hall of Fame. The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame enshrined him in 2012.

A Life Beyond Baseball

What Staub did after baseball matters as much as what he did during it. He founded the Rusty Staub Foundation, supporting food pantries and youth education. In 1985, inspired by a childhood memory of his uncle — a police officer killed in the line of duty — he established the New York Police and Fire Widows' and Children's Benefit Fund, which has raised millions for the families of fallen first responders.

Rusty Staub died on March 29, 2018, three days before his seventy-fourth birthday. The New Orleans kid with the red hair played baseball for a quarter century, made Montreal fall in love with him, and then spent the rest of his life taking care of people who needed it. That's a life.