Man of the People, King of the Road
Man of the People
Like many of our previous inductees, Rusty Staub seemed to be on a fast track to greatness. As the Houston Colt .45s were assembling a team for their first year, they saw fit to sign Staub as an amateur free agent in the fall of 1961. A year a half later Staub was the starting right fielder on Opening Day.
He didn’t put up flashy numbers in his rookie season. A .224 average was accompanied by six home runs, five of which were ledgers.
LEDGER ONE: June 3, 1963 vs Los Angeles Dodgers
LEDGER TWO: June 7, 1963 vs San Francisco Giants
LEDGER THREE: July 4, 1963 (Game 1) vs Cincinnati Reds
LEDGER FOUR: July 16, 1963 at New York Mets
LEDGER FIVE: September 21, 1963 vs Philadelphia Phillies
As is a Club inductee tradition, Staub’s next year was a minor league sandwich consisting of Houston and Triple-A Oklahoma City. In his time up with the big club he hit eight home runs which included two more ledgers.
LEDGER SIX: June 16, 1964 vs St. Louis Cardinals
LEDGER SEVEN: June 21, 1964 (Game 1) at Milwaukee Braves
Staub performed very well in the minors and in his latter stint in Houston. So in the Astrodome’s inaugural 1965 season he was back to up to the majors to stay. He maxed out his National League ledgers as he doubled his home run count from the previous two seasons.
LEDGER EIGHT: May 8, 1965 at Chicago Cubs
LEDGER NINE: August 17, 1965 vs Pittsburgh Pirates
Staub was propelling towards stardom. His last three seasons in Houston garnered him All-Star Game selections and MVP votes. But even with the success came tension between Staub and management. Not the same tension that was caused by other v-Club inductees such as loafing or fighting, but because Staub worked on his batting mechanics independent from the tutelage of hitting coach-then-manager Harry “The Hat” Walker. The Astros also felt they were overpaying for the number of home runs Staub was hitting, so it was off to the expansion Montreal Expos.
Staub was born and raised in Louisiana, a state steeped in French influence and culture. Outside of France, you will not visit a city much more French than Montreal. The relationship was already off to a good start. Staub was professionally and personally ready to please the newly established Expos fan base. He learned to speak French and he hit the baseball well. Fans loved him. He loved Montreal.
In his three seasons in Montreal, Staub held a .296 average, hit 78 home runs, garnered three All-Star Game selections, and showing remarkable durability, appeared in all but six games. Most importantly for our story, he maxed out his National League ledgers.
LEDGER TEN: June 12, 1969 at San Diego Padres
LEDGER ELEVEN: August 2, 1969 vs Houston Astros
In contrast to other recent v-Club inductees who were shipped out because of bad behavior and/or lack of production, Staub was traded to the Mets simply because the Expos needed to win more. Arguably, Staub was already doing all he could, but the victories were not there. Staub’s next four seasons were spent with the Mets. Those seasons were decent enough and he collected his last needed National League ledger.
LEDGER TWELVE: May 16, 1972 vs Montreal Expos
Now Staub stood at the v-Club crossroads, a place familiar to many. He was more than ten years into his major league career and while he was still producing, questions about his age and health began to creep in as his Mets years featured the first major injuries of his career. He still needed ledgers against the entire American League. So, like others, Rusty soldiered on in the role of designated hitter, starting with Detroit in 1976.
Within two years he had collected all ledgers except for the Tigers and this included the expansion Mariners and Blue Jays in 1977.
LEDGER THIRTEEN: April 21, 1976 at Oakland Athletics
LEDGER FOURTEEN: May 13, 1976 at New York Yankees
LEDGER FIFTEEN: July 3, 1976 vs Baltimore Orioles
LEDGER SIXTEEN: July 20, 1976 at Minnesota Twins
LEDGER SEVENTEEN: July 26, 1976 at Milwaukee Brewers
LEDGER EIGHTEEN: August 6, 1976 vs Cleveland Indians
LEDGER NINETEEN: August 9, 1976 vs Texas Rangers
LEDGER TWENTY: September 20, 1976 vs Boston Red Sox
LEDGER TWENTY-ONE: April 16, 1977 at Kansas City Royals
LEDGER TWENTY-TWO: July 11, 1977 vs Toronto Blue Jays
LEDGER TWENTY-THREE: July 26, 1977 at Chicago White Sox
LEDGER TWENTY-FOUR: August 20, 1977 at Seattle Mariners
LEDGER TWENTY-FIVE: August 22, 1977 at California Angels
Staub continued with the Tigers until mid-season 1979 when he was traded back to his beloved Expos. He spent the remainder of the season there pinch hitting and playing first base. But his Montreal revival was short as he was traded to Texas in the off-season.
His one season in Texas was rather unremarkable, except for nabbing his last needed ledger.
LEDGER TWENTY-SIX: August 16, 1980 at Detroit Tigers
Staub hit his last ledger in plate appearance number 37 against the Tigers. He would only have one plate appearance against them before moving back to the Mets to finish his career. This was the closest to being a miss of all inductees so far.
Staub retired in 1985 after a few more seasons holding down pinch hitting duties as a Met. He devoted the rest of his life to philanthropy and entrepreneurship. A noted lover of food and wine, he operated restaurants in New York. Truly, Rusty Staub made himself a man of the people wherever he traveled.
King of the Road
Speaking of travelling, let’s tell the Rusty Staub story again, but this time through the lens of a cousin to the v30 Club – the All Stadiums Club. But wait! Since Topps took the Stadium Club moniker for a line of baseball cards in 1991, we’ll call our version The Edifice Society1.
What does hitting home runs in a lot of different stadiums have to do with Rusty Staub? Well, it just so happens that upon his retirement at the conclusion of 1985, Staub and Frank Robinson held the record for the number of unique stadiums in which they hit a home run. Staub would hold this record along with several others2 until the year 2000 when the record was broken by notorious and prodigious home run hitter Gary Gaetti.
So let’s take a look at the 32 stadiums edifices in which Rusty Staub hit his home runs plus some others where he didn’t. Dates marked with a * indicate this was Staub’s ledger home run against the opponent.
Colt Stadium, Houston – June 3, 1963*. Staub did not hit a home run at Colt Stadium as a visitor. It would be closed when the Astrodome was opened during Staub’s tenure in Houston.
Polo Grounds IV, New York – July 16, 1963*. Staub just barely squeezed in the longtime home of the New York Giants (and sometimes New York Yankees) as the second-year Mets would abandon the venerable structure at the end of the year.
County Stadium, Milwaukee – June 21, 1964 (Game 1)*. Before it was home to the Milwaukee Brewers, County Stadium was home to the Braves until they moved to Atlanta in 1966.
Candlestick Park, San Francisco – September 29, 1964.
Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles – October 2, 1964.
Wrigley Field, Chicago – May 8, 1965*.
Crosley Field, Cincinnati – June 3, 1965.
Astrodome, Houston – August 17, 1965. Considering the Astrodome opened in April 1965 and Staub played consistently throughout the 1965 season, this home run came awfully late in the year. Turns out Staub hit all but two of his fourteen home runs away from Houston in 1965.
Forbes Field, Pittsburgh – August 27, 1965. Both this and Staub’s first Astrodome home run were hit off Vern Law and the Pirates.
Shea Stadium, New York – August 31, 1965 (Game 2). This was the Mets new home after leaving the Polo Grounds.
Missed Connection: Busch Stadium (née Sportman’s Park) in St. Louis hosted Rusty Staub for 68 plate appearances in his career, but he did not hit any home runs in the park. It closed permanently on May 8, 1966.
Busch Stadium II, St. Louis – July 10, 1966. Turns out Staub just barely missed that connection in St. Louis.
Atlanta Stadium, Atlanta – June 27, 1967. This was the brand new home for the relocated Braves.
Missed connection: Municipal Stadium, home of the Kansas City Athletics, closed temporarily at the end of the 1967. Because Staub had only played in the National League, he did not have an opportunity to hit one here early in his career.
Connie Mack Stadium, Philadelphia – April 17, 1969. Staub was now with the Expos.
Parc Jerry, Montreal – May 4, 1969. His first home run in front of the Montreal faithful.
San Diego Stadium, San Diego – June 12, 1969*.
Missed Connection: Sick’s Stadium, home of the Pilots (soon to be Brewers) for their one season in Seattle, closed at the end of the 1969 season. Because Staub played in the National League, he never had an opportunity to hit one here.
Be Our Guest: Staub hit his first home at the Astrodome as a visitor on August 14, 1970.
Missed Connection: Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium (née D.C. Stadium), home of the second iteration of the Washington Senators, closed at the end of 1971. Because Staub played in the National League, he never had an opportunity to hit one here.
Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia – May 19, 1972. Staub was now a member of the New York Mets. Players of this era had the “fortune” of being able to play on many of the new artificially surfaced, circular multi-purpose stadiums that had their boom in the sixties and seventies. While bad on the joints they gave players many extra chances to check stadiums off their lists.
Missed connection (again): Municipal Stadium, the first home of the Kansas City Royals and previous home of the Kansas City Athletics, closed permanently at the end of the 1972. Much like when he missed this stadium before, Staub was still a career National League player at this point and never had an opportunity to hit one here.
Be Our Guest: Staub hit his first home run at Parc Jerry in Montreal as a visitor on July 5, 1973.
Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh – April 13, 1975.
Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati – July 11, 1975 (Game 1).
Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland – April 21, 1976*. Now a member of the Detroit Tigers, Staub could begin checking American League stadiums off his list.
Tiger Stadium, Detroit – April 27, 1976. This was his first home run in his new home stadium, but was not a ledger since it was off Oakland where he had hit one earlier that week.
Yankee Stadium, New York – May 13, 1976*.
Metropolitan Stadium, Bloomington MN – July 20, 1976*. Suburban home of the Minnesota Twins.
Double the Ledgers: Staub hit another home run at County Stadium in Milwaukee, but this time against the Brewers on July 27, 1976. This would be an uncommon feat of hitting two ledgers in the same stadium.
Cleveland Stadium, Cleveland – September 29, 1976.
Royals Stadium, Kansas City – April 16, 1977*.
Fenway Park, Boston – April 20, 1977.
Memorial Stadium, Baltimore – July 4, 1977.
Comiskey Park, Chicago – July 26, 1977*.
Kingdome, Seattle – August 20, 1977*.
Anaheim Stadium, Anaheim – August 22, 1977*.
Exhibition Stadium, Toronto – May 30, 1979.
Stade Olympique – Montreal – August 5, 1979. Staub’s return to Montreal for a brief stint nabbed him two home runs in the Expos new stadium.
Arlington Stadium, Arlington TX – April 11, 1980. In his one season with the Rangers, Staub hit three home runs in Arlington.
Be Our Guest: While with Texas, Staub hit a home run as a visitor at Tiger Stadium in Detroit on August 16, 1980. This was also his 26th and Club-clinching ledger home run.
Missed Connection: Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis opened in 1982 during Staub’s last run with the Mets. He never had an opportunity to hit one here.
Be Our Guest: Staub hit a home run at Stade Olympique as a visitor with the Mets on June 19, 1983.
And that is the list of Staub’s hits and misses at all the stadiums that were in play at any point during his career. He continued to be a Man of the People as he showed his home run prowess in every city he visited. Just for that, let’s informally induct him into the “Stadium Club”.
SOURCES and FURTHER READING: Rusty Staub – Society for American Baseball Research
I’ll readily admit this post serves as a backdoor pilot to upcoming Features on this Substack. I mean, it’s a long off-season. Gotta write about something!
Along with Eddie Murray, Dave Winfield, Joe Carter, and Chili Davis
