The New York Mets Hall of Fame has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for twenty-three years with five different teams including Houston Astros, Montreal Expos, New York Mets, Texas Rangers, and Detroit Tigers.
Rusty Staub was born on 1st April 1944, in New Orleans, Florida. His father, Ray Staub, was a school teacher whereas his mother, Alma Morton Staub, was a homemaker. He attended Jesuit High School.
Rusty Staub net worth is estimated to be $4 million. He owned two restaurants in Manhattan which were opened in 1977 and 1989 sadly, both have collapsed now.
At the age of 17, Rusty began his baseball career professionally, signing his first contract with the Houston Colt.45s organization. The following year, he played for Class B Carolina League. In 1963, he was signed to a $100,000 Major League contract under Bonus Rule.
After playing five seasons for the Houston, Staub was traded to the Montreal Expos. In his three seasons with Montreal, he appeared in 480 games, gathering 508 hits and earning an on-base percentage of .402.
In 1972, Staub was purchased by New York Mets, making a blockbuster trade of the time. He was brought to the club in exchange for Mike Jorgensen, Tim Foli, and Ken Singleton. He ended the following season, batting .341 with 4 home runs and 11 runs batted in.
Prior to the 1976 season, Staub was traded to the Detroit Tigers along with his teammates Bill Laxton in exchange for Billy Baldwin and Mickey Lolich. In his three-plus season with the Tigers, he recorded 358 runs batted in, 70 home runs, and .277 hit.
In 1980, Staub was bought by Texas Rangers. He played altogether 109 matches with the club, with 102 hits in 388 plate appearances while having 9 home runs as well as fifty-five runs RBIs for a .300 batting average. On 23rd October 1980, he was granted free agency.
On 16th December of the same year, Staub penned a contract with New York Mets. He played 418 games, making 702 plate appearances while hitting magnificently 169 times and earning 13 home runs with .276 batting average.
Staub made his last MLB appearance on 6th October 1985 and ended his playing career at the age of 41 in 1985.
In 1986, Rusty Staub was inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame. In 2004, he earned an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree through Niagara University. Later two years, he was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame and in 2012 he was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
On 4th April 1986, Staub founded an organization named “Rusty Staub Foundation”. The organization aids educational scholarships for youth as well as fight hunger. The same year, he established the “New York Police and Fire Widows’ and Children's Benefit Funds, which support the families of New York City an emergency medical personnel, firefighters, police officers, and Port Authority.
In 2006, he published his first children’s book titled Hello, Mr. Met.
Talking about his personal life, Staub was in a relationship with a lady named, Candice Laflamme. As per the report, the duo met in 1969 and dated until he was traded in 1972. Besides this, there is no information about his love life.
On 29th March 2018, Rusty Staub took his last breath before his 74th birthday, at the Good Samaritan Medical Center, spending a total of weeks in the hospital. He was initially admitted with an infection, pneumonia, and dehydration.
