Breaking: Baseball icon tragically passes away
Baseball icon Daniel “Rusty” Staub died Thursday morning from multiple organ failure at the age of 73.
During a 23-year major league career with five different teams, Staub was a six-time All-Star, compiling 292 home runs and 2,716 hits, and driving in 1,466 runs.
In recent years, Staub had battled numerous health issues, the New York Daily News reported, including an October 2015 heart attack that nearly killed him. Earlier this year, Staub was diagnosed with cellulitis, which eventually led to a blood infection that shut his kidneys down.
Staub died early Thursday morning after being admitted nearly two months ago to the Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach.
At 6-foot-2, Staub was a force to be reckoned with in his prime.
In 1973, at the age of 19, he broke into the majors with the Houston Colt .45s, then a newly formed expansion team. Staub made two All-Star teams with Houston before being traded to the Montreal Expos, where he became the team’s biggest star.
Staub played just three seasons in Montreal, but was an All-Star every year. Fans lovingly bestowed on him the nickname “La Grande Orange” due to his orange hair.
Following the 1971 season, Staub was traded to the New York Mets, where he is best known for having been a huge part of the 1973 team that shocked the world and won the National League pennant.
He hit three home runs in that year’s NLCS, and batted .423 in the World Series, which the Mets lost in seven games to the Oakland Athletics.
After 4 years in New York, Staub was traded to the Detoit Tigers. He also spent time with the Texas Rangers and the Expos once again, before finding his way back onto the Mets, where he played the last five seasons of his career.
Staub was a popular figure among New York sports fans, and not only because of his baseball skills. An excellent chef, he opened up two restaurants in Manhattan.
“You know how they say, ‘He could flat-out hit’?” former Mets pitcher and current TV broadcaster Ron Darling said, according to MLB.com. “With Rusty, you can say, “He can flat-out cook, too.'”
Staub was also a humanitarian who devoted much of his retirement to philanthropic causes.
“His 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,” the Daily News reported.
And over the last 10 years, his foundation also served more than 9 million meals to the hungry via New York food pantries.
Following news of his death, the Mets released a statement mourning his loss, which comes the same day that the team opens up the 2018 season.
The #Mets family suffered a loss earlier today when Daniel “Rusty” Staub passed away. The entire organization sends its deepest sympathy to his family. He will be missed by everyone. #RIPRusty pic.twitter.com/fFymLOAqhr
— New York Mets (@Mets) March 29, 2018
“The Mets family suffered another loss earlier today when Daniel “Rusty” Staub passed away in a West Palm Beach hospital after an illness,” the statement read.
“He was almost as well known for his philanthropic work as he was for his career as a baseball player, which spanned 23 seasons. There wasn’t a cause he didn’t champion. Rusty helped children, the poor, the elderly and then there was his pride and joy, The New York Police and Fire Widows’ and Children’s Benefit Fund. A six-time All-Star, he is the only player in Major League history to have collected as least 500 hits with four different teams. The entire Mets organization sends its deepest sympathy to his brother, Chuck, and sisters Sue Tully and Sally Johnson. He will be missed by everyone.”
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