#Rusty staub series

45s’ second season, in a similar position to the role that David Clyde filled years later for the Texas Rangers - an attractive, young player for a team that needed a drawing card.

Smith said Staub arrived in Houston in 1963, the Colt. “We would have had Jerry Grote, who was an All-Star, catching and Bob Watson or Rusty at first, Joe Morgan and Sonny Jackson and Doug Rader in the infield, Jimmy Wynn, Cesar Cedeno and Jose Cruz in the outfield and myself, Jerry Reuss, Mike Cuellar and Don Wilson pitching,” Dierker said.

#Rusty staub series

A native of New Orleans, he gained his colorful nickname in Montreal and after retirement was a successful restaurateur in New York after playing with the Mets, including a 1973 World Series appearance in which he had six RBIs against the Oakland A’s.įormer teammates Dierker and Bob Aspromonte and former executive Tal Smith, though, still cluck their tongues over what the Astros could have accomplished had the ballclub kept Staub and other future stars such as Jerry Grote, Joe Morgan and Mike Cuellar rather than losing them in ill-fated trades engineered by Richardson. Traded from the Astros by general manager Spec Richardson before the 1969 season after a 1968 contract dispute, Staub benefited from his major league travels. “He was a cornerstone of what we had here.” “He was a larger than life figure with the red hair and being as big as he was (6-2, 190 pounds),” said Larry Dierker, who, like Staub, came to the big leagues as a teenager in the first years of Major League Baseball in Houston. Known as “Le Grande Orange” for his flaming red hair, he had 2,716 hits and 292 home runs in 23 seasons as a first baseman, outfielder and designated hitter, totaling more than 500 hits for four of the five teams for which he played - the Tigers, Expos, Mets and, during his first six seasons in the majors (1963-68), the Colt.