Jaffe: RIP Rusty Staub, hitter and humanitarian
From SABR member Jay Jaffe at FanGraphs on March 30, 2018:
A celebrity chef and restauranteur, a philanthropist, an icon in two cities, an All-Star in three, and the only player to collect at least 500 hits with four different franchises — Rusty Staub was all that and more. “Le Grand Orange,” who played in the major leagues from 1963 through 1985 and collected 2,716 hits including 292 homers, passed away on Thursday, hours before the start of the 2018 season and three days shy of his 74th birthday. If he wasn’t quite a Hall of Famer as a player, he most certainly was as a humanitarian, raising more than $100 million to combat hunger and to benefit the widows and families of police, firemen, and first responders killed in the line of duty.
“He was a George Plimpton character who didn’t have to be invented,” wrote Faith and Fear in Flushing’s Greg Prince.
A native of New Orleans, Daniel Joseph Staub — the son of a minor-league catcher — gained his first nickname from a nurse at the hospital he was born, for the red fuzz covering his head.
Read the full article here: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/r-i-p-rusty-staub-hitter-and-humanitarian/
- Related link: Read the SABR biography of Rusty Staub, by Norm King
Originally published: March 30, 2018. Last Updated: March 30, 2018.