by Howie Mooney
Daniel Joseph Staub, son of Alma and Ray, younger brother of Chuck, became the first baseball star that played for the Montreal Expos. He would become not just a baseball star, but also a chef, a restaurateur and a humanitarian. He was nicknamed ‘Rusty’ before he even got home from the hospital, after he was born, for the mop of red hair on his head. The nickname was given to him by a maternity ward nurse. The moniker would stick with him for the rest of his life.
Rusty was born in New Orleans on April 1, 1944. Rusty’s father, Ray, was a schoolteacher during World War II. He also played ball in the Class D Florida State League and when Rusty was 3, Ray gave him a bat. Rusty had watched his dad, and his teammates play, and he began swinging at everything with that bat. It wasn’t long before he was playing ball on his own teams – and he was good.
Rusty went to Jesuit High School in New Orleans with his older brother. Chuck played in centre field while Rusty manned first base. In 1960, Jesuit won the American Legion national title. The following year, they won the 1961 Louisiana State AAA championship. Rusty had been scouted and there were several major league teams who were coveting him. There’s a famous picture of Ted Williams at the Staub home with 17-year-old Rusty. Ted was trying to convince him to join the Boston Red Sox.
But the Red Sox weren’t the only club trying to woo the young redhead. In 1961, there were ten teams in the American League and eight in the National that thought they were in the Rusty sweepstakes. Out of those eighteen teams, there were sixteen who made offers for Staub’s services. He ended up signing with a team that didn’t exist in 1961. The Houston Colt .45s offered him a $100,000 bonus to sign with them. They did not begin playing as a major league team until the following season.
Staub accepted their offer and immediately went down to Arizona and played in the Fall League there at the end of 1961. He impressed with a .299 batting average. In 1962, he played in the Class-B Carolina League with the Durham Bulls. He hit .293, rapped out 149 hits, 23 homers and drove in 93 runs. He won the league’s Rookie of the Year Award, and he got an invitation to spring training with the Colt .45s in February of 1963.
Harry Craft was the Colts’ manager from the team’s inception until the closing days of the 1964 season. Heading into spring training in 1963, he sat down with reporter Harry Grayson to talk about his team’s first season, in which they placed eighth out of the ten teams in the National League, and what he saw for the future of the club.
One of the players he discussed was a 19-year-old catcher named John Bateman. At 6’3” and 210 pounds, he was certainly big enough to play. His 21 homers at Class C Modesto caught a lot of eyes. Craft said that general manager Paul Richards was talking about Bateman as being “the next Gabby Hartnett.” Craft thought that Bateman could make the Colts as quickly as this coming season.
Another player the manager talked about was Rusty Staub. He figured that the 18-year-old Staub could possibly make the club as early as 1964. But he might not be able to make the club as a first baseman, given the presence there of Pete Runnells. So, Craft surmised that he would have to play an outfield position. But he had no doubt that Staub would be with the Colts at some point in the future.
As the month of February progressed, coverage of the young Staub seemed to grow almost exponentially. It even made news when he showed up early for training camp with some of the veterans in Arizona. A paper in suburban Houston compared Staub to a local legend. The Baytown Sun’s Fred Hartman watched the left-handed hitting Staub bat and thought he reminded him of “the one and only Tom Pyle”.
“Rusty is built just like Tom, long and lean. Both boasted pink cheeks and blond hair in their heyday. Both have a rhythmic swing of a bat that when it meets the ball, seems to propel it on a line drive axis. Watching Rusty Staub pepper that left field alley with line drives is mindful of Ol’ Tom. Rusty will be greater than Tom because he is faster and can field better. Sports writers have used up nearly every descriptive phrase in the book in describing the great Rusty Staub of New Orleans, Louisiana.”
The young man had yet to play a major league game, but the press around Houston had bought in on Daniel Staub! On March 31, the Associated Press had an article that speculated that Staub “may be the best young hitter in (spring training in) Arizona and California.” They also figured that Staub would be more likely to play every day if he spent the 1963 season in the minors.
The season was set to open on April 9, a Tuesday. On the Saturday before that, Colt .45s manager Craft told reporters that Staub and Ernie Fazio, both rookies, would likely start the season with the big-league club. Fazio, a second baseman, batted a sizzling .387 in spring training. Staub was likely to begin the season as the right fielder. “I would say that there’s a real good chance Rusty will be in right field opening day. Right now, he looks like the best hitter we have.” Staub batted .406 in the Cactus League season.
The day of the opener against the defending National League champion San Francisco Giants, the newspapers were full of reports trumpeting the fact that Staub would not just be starting the season in Houston, but that he’d be the fourth-place hitter. In fact, he was the first rookie in major league history to bat in the clean-up spot for a big-league team.
The starting pitcher for the team’s opener would be Dick “Turk” Farrell. Farrell had been one of Staub’s heroes when he was young, and in the team hotel, a couple of nights before the season started, Staub approached Farrell in the lobby. Now, Farrell had a reputation of being a guy who enjoyed the nightlife. When Staub walked up to Farrell, the pitcher didn’t want to give anyone the impression he was trying to sully the young star’s reputation. “Get away from me, kid,” Farrell shouted. “If they see you around me, they’ll trade me tomorrow.”
Farrell’s pitching that very hot day in Houston was not up to the all-star performance he had put up in 1962. The Giants, with Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Felipe Alou, Orlando Cepeda and a cast of other men who can flat-out hit, built up a lead of 6-0 before the game was four innings old. It ended 9-2. But Staub went 1-for-3 in the game against the veteran Jack Sanford and drove in the first Houston run of the game in the sixth inning.
Oh, and he and Fazio were the favourites of the fans, especially the youngsters, who mobbed the two rookies when given the opportunity before the game. How was Rusty Staub, who had just turned 19 the week before, feeling in that situation? “I was real nervous, I guess, until I went to the outfield. I expected more fast stuff from Sanford, but I guess I’ll see more of that later when it isn’t so hot,” Staub told the reporters after the game.
By the end of April, there were a few players who were still teenagers who were being touted for their strong play in those first few weeks of the new season. In an Associated Press piece on April 28, 18-year-old Ed Kranepool of the New York Mets was looking good and his manager, Casey Stengel, wanted to keep him on the big-league roster, while the team’s general manager, George Weiss, wanted to send him to the minors for seasoning.
Stengel acknowledged Kranepool’s youth, but he stressed to his boss that the youngster was a useful player. “Sure, he’s just a boy, but he swings a man-sized bat.” The article also mentioned Rusty Staub and a few other players who had not yet reached the age of 20. It then listed a whole bunch of Hall of Famers who also started their careers in their teen years. It wasn’t trying to say that Kranepool, Staub or the handful of other young players would ever be immortals, but it was implying that fans should not dismiss these youngsters just yet.
The reason a lot of these ‘bonus babies’ were on major league rosters was that it was difficult to just send them down to the minors if that was necessary. Major league rules stipulated that if any of these players were going to be demoted, they first had to pass through a waiver process. If a team made a claim on one of these players, they only had to pay $8,000 for the player and he would be theirs.
So, if the Colt .45s wanted to send Staub down to the minors, a player they signed for a $100,000 bonus, another team could just scoop him up for the much cheaper waiver fee. That prevented teams from even thinking about moving a first-year player to the minors. Oh, and 19-year-old John Bateman was the .45s’ first-string catcher.
By October, when the all-rookie team was announced for 1963, Staub was announced as one of the members of the group. There were ten players named altogether – one for each defensive position and two pitchers, a lefty and a righty. Staub was named as a first baseman. The Mets’ Jesse Gonder was named as the catcher.
Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds was the second baseman. His teammate, Tommy Harper, was named as one of the outfielders. The Chicago White Sox’ Al Weis, was the shortstop. His teammate, Pete Ward, was the third baseman. The other outfielders were the Cleveland Indians’ Vic Davalillo and the Minnesota Twins’ Jimmie Hall. The pitchers were the Philadelphia Phillies’ Ray Culp and the White Sox’ Gary Peters.
Despite the fact that Staub had been named to the All-Rookie team, there were people who looked at his 1963 season with a jaundiced eye. He did start the year off strongly, but, as we’ve all heard often, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. In 150 games, Rusty had just 115 hits and a batting average of .224. He drove in 45 runs, had just six home runs, a slugging percentage of .308 and an on base percentage of .309. If he was older, he’d have likely started the following season in Oklahoma City. But he was young, so he had a second chance in 1964.
But that season did not start off well for the youngster, and by June, there were conversations in the organization that perhaps Staub might benefit from a bit of seasoning in Oklahoma City, Houston’s affiliate in the Pacific Coast League. By early July, the deed was done. Staub went through a tough month of June – with the exception of a 4-for-4 day with a pair of homers on June 21 – and he finished the month with just four hits and a single run batted in in his last nine games.
After getting a single hit in three games in July, the decision was made to send Staub down. He was not thrilled with the idea, but he was realistic. “This may be the best thing for me. I know the club thinks it’s for my own good. Sometimes, it seems like the world comes to an end, but maybe it just starts over. I hope so. But it’s tearing me up right now.”
Staub seemed unsure of what his future held. “I believe I will be back, if not this year, then next. I hope I come back physically and mentally better equipped to play.” The way the rules existed in the major leagues, after July 31, no minor league player could be called up until September 1. The Colts’ manager, Harry Craft, felt that Staub had not been feeling like himself at the plate.
“He seemed to be pressing to the point where it was affecting him. We haven’t lost any faith in him. He could go out for a while, have a few good games, get some hits and be all right.” The plan was to have Staub play exclusively in the outfield in Oklahoma City. Craft figured that was the position Staub would be playing for the majority of his career.
Staub did return to the big club. On September 15, he made a pinch-hit appearance against Philadelphia, but he went down on strikes. The next day, he went 2-for-4 with a couple of runs batted in and two runs scored in a 6-5 Houston victory. That started the team on a five-game win streak. Staub was getting himself back on track as well. Also, every game he played in September, he was playing in right field, except for his first game back. After his pinch-hit strikeout, he played in centre.
The 1964 Houston season ended with a new manager. Harry Craft was dismissed in late September and Lum Harris was at the helm for the last thirteen games. This was also the last season the team played outdoors at Colt Stadium. In 1965, they would move into owner Judge Roy Hofheinz’ sparkling and incredible Astrodome. They would also go from being called the Colt .45s to being the Astros. The name change was a nod to Houston’s place in the aerospace industry.
On April 9, the Astrodome played host to the first baseball game played indoors when the Astros hosted the New York Yankees in a preseason match. Mickey Mantle stepped out of the visitors’ dugout and was awestruck. “This is unbelievable,” the Mick said, looking around at the stadium and the roof that enclosed it.
Harold Kaese wrote a column about the day in the Boston Globe. According to Kaese, “one Yankee after another looked around in disbelief.” Yanks’ utility man, Tom Tresh, looked upon the $31.6 million edifice with that same emotion. “It’s different, it seems unreal when you’re out there with the roof over your head.” One of their other utility men, Hector Lopez summed it up. “It’s beautiful, that’s all.”
The Yankees playing in Houston was big news. New York’s WABC-TV sent Howard Cosell to Houston to relate to residents of The Big Apple what was going on down in Hofheinz’ new baseball palace. Cosell engaged Rusty Staub to try to hit the roof with a fly ball. When Staub could not, Cosell petitioned Roger Maris to do it. He didn’t get as close as Staub did. Smiles and laughs abounded and Staub referred to Cosell repeatedly as ‘Howie’.
The only issue with the new stadium was that baseballs seemed to disappear in the roof when hit in the air. Numerous people came up with solutions to this problem. Lum Harris theorized about someone’s suggestion that players wear sunglasses. Someone else wondered about orange baseballs. “I don’t think dark glasses will do it, or coloured baseballs, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s up to DuPont now.”
But he figured he had a simple solution to the issue. “All they have to do is hang a black curtain over the glass above the plate and it will be all right.” But Kaese supposed that the best quote from the day came from an unidentified Chicago Cubs reporter. As the game started, the scribe remarked, “This is all pretty impressive, but I’ll still take Wrigley Field.” He might have had a bunch of people agreeing with him too.
*
There may have been some people who expected Staub to become a star in his third season with the Colts/Astros and they may have been expecting a little too much. 1965 was another step in his development. It was better than the previous year, but Staub was still far from a finished product. His home run total for the campaign matched his total for his first two at 14. He achieved season bests in a lot of different categories besides home runs, including doubles, runs batted in, stolen bases, batting average, on base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, OPS+ and total bases.
Staub’s 1966 season extended his upward trajectory as he posted his career best batting average, total hits, runs, runs batted in, on base percentage, OPS, intentional walks and he got votes for the most valuable player, finishing 22nd in the National League in the overall race. His WAR climbed from 1.6 in 1965 to 3.6 the following year. Staub’s name was now on the lips of even casual fans and by the end of 1966, he was still just 22 years old.
1967 would be his coming-out party.
Superficially, we can look at his seasonal stat line and see what he did number-wise. In 149 games in 1967, Staub pounded out 182 hits and batted .333. He pounded out 44 doubles to lead the major leagues. The Astrodome’s expansive outfield lowered his home run production – he had ten – but his OPS was .871. Opposing pitchers were loathe to pitch to him with runners on base. He was intentionally walked 21 times. Perhaps, most importantly, he was named an all-star, and he received more votes for the Most Valuable Player award. He didn’t win it, but he was getting a decent number of selections from the writers.
In August, in the Atlanta Journal, columnist Furman Bisher wrote extensively about Staub’s season to that point. Bisher suggested that Staub wasn’t yet a candidate for Cooperstown, but he was laying the groundwork to possibly get there. On August 11, the date of Bisher’s piece, Staub was batting .350 and his average had been as high as .368 earlier in the season. Staub loved baseball and lived it. As Bisher wrote, “what I mean is, there has never been anything else in his life.”
As a kid, Staub started out on his cub scouts’ team, then he played Little League, Babe Ruth League, high school, American Legion ball and in the New Orleans Recreation Department. His father was a schoolteacher and a baseball coach. As a result, the family didn’t have a lot of frills. Growing up in New Orleans, he and his brother, Chuck, didn’t see a lot of the minor league Pelicans’. They were too busy “playing their own games”.
Whatever games Rusty and Chuck saw were on NBC on Saturday afternoons on their Game of the Week. Bisher noted that some ballplayers used batting practice as a way to socialize with their teammates and friends or as a stage to show off. But Staub used his time in the cage “for research”. Over his first four years as an Astro, his batting averages were .224, .216, .256 and in 1966, .280. Every year there was improvement in his overall performance. His ‘process’ was showing results.
“I want to become a hitting machine,” Staub said. “Do everything the same way every time. That way, I’ll never have a slump.” To that point in 1967, he had hit in 92 of his 102 games. The night Bisher wrote his column, Staub went 3-for-5 with a run scored and two more driven in. But the Astros lost 6-5 in 16 innings.
This was the team’s sixth season in existence in the National League. Out of the ten clubs in the league, the Astros finished ninth. Again. They had finished ninth four times and eighth twice. Their team defence was the worst in the National League.
In 1967, he finished with ten homers and 74 runs driven in. His .333 batting average placed him in fifth place for the batting title. Since the Astrodome was a pitcher’s park with its massive dimensions, Rusty made a decision to strive for hits as opposed to power. “I stopped going for the long ball. I thought I was a home run hitter when I signed, but now I don’t go for the ‘pump’, especially since we play 81 games in the Astrodome.”
Staub had been one of Houston’s few bright lights. He had developed a league-wide profile and had worked himself into an all-star and one of the best players in the game.
Then came 1968.
In 1967, you saw the year that Staub had put up. But Jimmy “The Toy Cannon” Wynn had hammered 37 home runs and Bob Aspromonte had the best year of his career. During spring training, the three decided to hold out for more money. Staub’s ‘work action’ lasted eight days and he signed a contract for $45,000. That didn’t exactly endear him to ownership or his general manager, H.B. ‘Spec’ Richardson.
But Staub was an effective and durable player. He did get into 161 games in 1968. He would have played all 162 except for one thing – his conscience.
On June 5, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy, the leading candidate for the Democratic party in the upcoming November election, gave a speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He spoke the last words of his monologue about ten minutes after midnight. “So, my thanks to all of you and on to Chicago and let’s win there.” Kennedy was taken through the hotel kitchen, after some of his people were told that it was a quicker way to the press room.
As he and his entourage were being whisked through the crowded kitchen, Kennedy looked to his left and shook hands with a busboy, Juan Romero. At the same time, on Kennedy’s right, three shots were fired from a .22-calibre revolver by Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian who was upset at Kennedy’s support for Israel. It was also the first anniversary of the Arab Israeli War from the year before.
Former Los Angeles Rams’ defensive tackle Roosevelt Grier, Olympic decathlete Rafer Johnson and writer George Plimpton took Sirhan down and disarmed him. There were injuries to five other people in the room at the same time. As Kennedy laid on the kitchen floor bleeding out, Romero held Kennedy’s head and placed a rosary into his hand.
“Is everybody okay?” Kennedy asked Romero. Romero answered, “Yes, everybody is okay.” Kennedy responded with “Everything’s going to be okay.” Medical personnel arrived with a stretcher and placed Kennedy on it. “Don’t lift me,” Kennedy said. Those were the last words anyone heard him utter. He lost consciousness shortly after that.
Kennedy was first brought to the Los Angeles Central Receiving Hospital which was two miles away from The Ambassador. Then he was taken to the Good Samaritan Hospital which adjoins the Receiving Hospital. He was pronounced dead at 1:44 a.m. about an hour and a half after the shooting took place.
His funeral service was held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York at 10 a.m. on June 8. Following the mass, his body was taken to Arlington National Cemetery outside of Washington, D.C. The next day, President Lyndon Johnson declared an official National Day of Mourning for June 9, a Sunday.
The death of Robert Kennedy hit a lot of people hard and it reopened a national wound that was originally inflicted with the assassination of Bobby’s brother, John F. Kennedy less than five years earlier. Couple that with the murder of Martin Luther King back on April 4, 1968, and there were a lot of people who were feeling shell shocked.
On that Sunday, the Astros were scheduled to host the Pittsburgh Pirates. That morning, Astros’ utility man Bob Aspromonte went to an early mass and made his decision. Pirates’ infielder, Maury Wills, made a similar decision. Rusty Staub said nothing but got into his car and drove north from the city to his lake home near Cleveland, Texas. All three decided that they could not play and devoted their Sunday to mourning for the fallen Kennedy.
When asked about his players, Astros’ general manager ‘Spec’ Richardson told reporters that he had not “made up my mind” about whether or not he would “take action against Aspromonte or Staub.” When Pirates’ manager Larry Shepard was asked what he would do about Wills, he referred all questions to his team’s general manager, Joe Brown. Roberto Clemente had originally planned to spend the day away from the stadium out of respect for Kennedy but changed his mind and played in his team’s 3-1 win over Houston.
“I didn’t want to play, but I played because the team has been going bad, and I thought it might need me,” Clemente said after the game. Aspromonte was unapologetic. “I know I made the right decision. My conscience is completely clear. I know I did the right thing. It builds up inside of you for three days. It’s impossible to throw away.”
Wills made his way to the stadium but did not play in the game. He sat in the Pirate clubhouse and after the game, he voiced his opinions to the press. “I feel bad that I’ve been put in this position and that this had to come about the way it has. I’m acting on my own convictions and beliefs and these are the things that I have to live with throughout my life. Only time will tell the results. But, whatever the results, I feel satisfied that I have done what I had to do.”
He continued, “If there are any consequences, they are secondary to what I feel I must do. It seems today that if you don’t go along with everybody else, you’re not right.” Wills added that he had planned to help the Kennedy campaign later in the summer. Staub could not be reached that day for comment.
An early story claimed that Richardson had fined Staub and Aspromonte $3,000 apiece, but was found to have been untrue. Dave Giusti, an Astro pitcher and the team’s player representative at the time, said that the team had held a players-only meeting to discuss the issue. Giusti said that there was some “heavy economic pressure” from the front office to play. In the end, only Staub and Aspromonte decided not to play.
In the end, Richardson fined the two players a day’s pay. For Staub that was $300. For Aspromonte, it was $200. There were many Astros’ players who sympathized with their two fined teammates and, when all was said and done, Staub and Aspromonte spoke and acted for their brethren. They were the ones that paid the price. Richardson spoke about the two men. “After talking with the players Monday, I am convinced that these two fine young men had very strong convictions and deep feeling for the late Senator Kennedy.”
Interestingly enough, many politicians lauded the decisions of the three players to sit out the game. Kennedy’s press secretary, Frank Mankiewicz, also thanked them as well. On the 11th, the Astros defeated the Phillies 5-1 and Staub knocked in a pair of runs in the win.
And Richardson got what he wanted – for the game to be played as it was scheduled, despite the fact that two of his players did not participate.
A week after all this went down, the Astros fired manager Grady Hatton and replaced him with Harry ‘The Hat’ Walker. Walker had been the team’s hitting coach. Walker was not a fan of Staub, nor was he thrilled that Staub had sat out the game on the previous Sunday. As the team’s batting coach, Walker had always wanted Staub to follow his instructions. Staub was happier to work on his batting in his own ways. As the team’s only all-star, he figured that what he was doing was working for him. This had become a burr under Walker’s saddle.
By the end of the year, Walker, Richardson and management looked at the previous year and, given his holdout at the beginning of 1968, the day of mourning, and Walker’s general dislike of Staub, combined with the fact that the club figured that Staub was underachieving (despite the fact that he was playing in a park that was unfriendly to hitters), they would deal him away and get what they could.
That would fix him!
On January 22, 1969, the brains that ran the Astros traded their only all-star, Rusty Staub, to a team that had never played a game in real baseball – the Montreal Expos. Let’s see how that insubordinate does with a team that doesn’t even exist yet! Gene Mauch was the man who would manage these 1969 Expos. He was an admirer of Staub. And the way the Astros were framing this trade was quite – what’s the word – hilarious.
In 1967, Staub batted .333. In 1968, he hit .291. But he had bad feet. That was a fact. Well, bad ankles. It prevented him from being able to join the United States Army. When he played in the field, he wore rubber cleated soccer shoes. But when he would bat, as a lefthanded hitter, he would wear a regular spiked shoe on his left foot as a firm plant. But if he reached base, he’d change that shoe and put on one of his rubber cleated shoes to run the bases.
That was allegedly the reason the Astros dealt their biggest star away.
Walker had been named the Astros’ batting coach part way through the 1967 season. At that point, Mauch was still managing the Philadelphia Phillies, and he commented, “The best batting coach Houston ever had is Rusty Staub. That boy made himself into a hitter, and he did one hell of a job.” Mauch also looked at the stat sheet and he saw that Staub played in 161 games in 1968. Mauch was a realist. If a man could play that many games in a season, his ankles, his feet and his resolve were all strong enough.
The full trade had the Astros dealing Staub to Montreal for first baseman Donn Clendenon and outfielder Jesus Alou. The Expos had acquired both Alou and Clendenon in the expansion draft. Clendenon had played his entire career in the Pirates organization, having played with the big-league club from 1961 to 1968. Most of his 1961 season was spent in Triple-A Columbus but in September, he was called up to Pittsburgh.
His first full season was 1963. He was 27 when the schedule started. Danny Murtaugh was the Pirates’ manager. He remained in that position until the end of the 1964 season. His replacement was Harry ‘The Hat’ Walker. Yes, the same Walker who would become the Astros’ manager later in the decade. He and Clendenon did not see eye to eye on a number of things.
In 1966, on a visit to Houston, a couple of the Pirates had attempted to buy tickets to see a movie. They were unaware that there were businesses in that city that were for white customers only. Clendenon and Roberto Clemente were almost arrested for their ‘crime’. The Astrodome had similar policies in their fancy night club.
In 1967, the Pirates struggled and many of the players became disenchanted with Walker as their manager. Halfway through that season, Walker was replaced by the former manager, Danny Murtaugh. After the 1968 campaign, Clendenon was left unprotected by the Pirates. The Expos claimed him in the expansion draft in October and then, in January, traded him and Jesus Alou to Houston for Rusty Staub.
At the beginning of February, Clendenon headed down to Houston and posed for pictures after signing a new contract that would pay him $36,000 a season. But then, on February 28, he retired from the game to take a vice-president’s position with the Scripto Pen Company. His salary was reported to be at least $40,000 a year.
Bowie Kuhn, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, called a meeting of the Expos’ management, the Astros’ braintrust, Clendenon and his boss at Scripto, Arthur Harris. Harris was apparently told not to bother saying a single word. The Astros’ owner, Judge Roy Hofheinz, and their general manager, ‘Spec’ Richardson, accused Clendenon of being paid to retire. Harris later told Clendenon that Richardson threatened to buy Scripto and fire both Harris and his vice-president.
Eventually, Clendenon returned to Montreal at a reported salary of $50,000 a year. The Expos sent pitchers Jack Billingham, Drannon Guinn and $100,000 to the Astros to complete the transaction. Clendenon missed spring training and didn’t set foot on a ball field for a game until April 19 when the Chicago Cubs were at Jarry Park. He was out of shape and started the season slowly. On June 15, he was traded to the New York Mets and played a key role in their World Series victory that October.
When the Expos were awarded their franchise, they named Gene Mauch as their manager. Mauch had previously managed the Philadelphia Phillies from 1960 to the one-third mark of the 1968 season. When he took the Phillies’ job, he was just 34 years old. Now, into his 40s, he was older and wiser – at least baseball fans in Montreal were hoping so.
Mauch was thrilled when his general manager, Jim Fanning, told him that he had acquired Staub. “Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful!” was what Mauch said to Fanning on receiving the news. Mauch remarked that Staub was “one of the finest hitters in baseball” and that he “would not be surprised if Staub led the league once or twice in the next four or five years.”
Both Staub and Fanning felt that his production would improve by getting away from Houston. “We look for Staub to clear the fences at Jarry Park a lot more than he did in the Astrodome,” Fanning told Dan Rosenburg of the Montreal Star. “At Houston, he shortened his swing and went more for line drives and doubles. With us, he’ll hit his share of home runs.”
Fanning speculated on what kind of a future their new player could have in Montreal. “Rusty Staub will become as idolized here as he was in Houston. Put the right guys around him and he’ll carry this club.”
Well, that may have been a nice sentiment for the future, but in 1969, it might have taken a group of Rusty Staubs, or players of his calibre, to carry the Montreal Expos anywhere. In truth, the first two weeks of that inaugural season may have provided the brightest moments of the entire campaign for the club.
The team won its first ever game in Queens against the eventual World Champion New York Mets. They won the first game at their new home stadium, Jarry Park, against the previous World Series winning St. Louis Cardinals. And, in one of Staub’s best games as a major leaguer, an Expo pitcher achieved the near-impossible. Bill Stoneman tossed a no-hitter.
It was Thursday, April 17 – nine days after their very first game as a franchise. The Expos had a record of 3-5 going into this game at Connie Mack Stadium against the Philadelphia Phillies. Stoneman had two starts before this game. He had lost both of them. For most of his career, he had been a relief pitcher. At 5’10”, he had been considered too short to be even considered for a starting job.
Stoneman, in an interview, said, “I’m so short that my managers and coaches always said, ‘You’re a reliever’. I was successful at it, so I stayed there.’” But, in Montreal, his manager didn’t really have any other choices. And Stoneman had always wanted to be a starter anyway. Jerry Johnson would be going for the hometown Phils. Neither pitcher had been able to record a win to this point in the young season.
In the top of the first inning, the Expos went down in order. None of the Montreal hitters were able to get a ball out of the infield. Staub was third in the lineup, and he grounded out to the second baseman, Tony Taylor, to finish off the inning. In the bottom of the frame, Stoneman walked Taylor to start the game. He then retired the next three hitters, getting the last two on strikes. Deron Johnson was the last Phillies batter in the inning, and he absolutely smoked a ball down the third base line that was barely foul. Alas, he ended the at bat by striking out.
The Expos got a man on base in the second but couldn’t do anything with him. Meanwhile Stoneman, was keeping the Phils off the board in the bottom of that frame. After Johnny Callison popped up to Montreal catcher John Bateman, Don Money hit a fading looper behind second base. Centre fielder Don Bosch came barreling in toward the ball. He laid out and dove to make a great catch and retire the Phils’ shortstop.
The Expos’ righthander kept putting up zeroes in both the run and hits columns. In the top of the third, Montreal put up an unearned run. In the bottom of the third, Staub made a great running catch on a Tony Taylor line drive to end that inning. Then, in the fourth, Staub stepped up and hammered a Johnson pitch 420 feet over the wall in right field.
In the sixth, Staub got the rally started by doubling to right. Ty Cline then cracked a two-out single to score his right fielder. After John Bateman walked, Coco Laboy singled Cline home. The Expos held a 4-0 lead after six innings. In the bottom of the inning, Stoneman’s mastery of the Phils continued as he retired the top third of their lineup in order.
In the top of the seventh, Staub pounded out a two-out double. His teammates couldn’t bring him home though. In the bottom of the seventh and the bottom of the eighth, Stoneman kept the Phillies hitless. In the Expos’ half of the ninth, the Phils had a new pitcher. Bill Wilson was on the mound in relief of Johnson.
It was Bill Stoneman who led off at the plate. He earned a base on balls. The top of the order came around. Don Bosch laid down a bunt in an attempt to move Stoneman up. The Phillies couldn’t get the out at second and Montreal had their first two hitters on base. That brought Maury Wills up and his infield single loaded the bases.
So, with nobody out in the top of the ninth, and the bases loaded, Rusty Staub stepped in to face Wilson. He was 3-for-4 on the day with a homer and a pair of doubles. This time, he did what he did so often when he played in Houston. He went the other way and tagged a Wilson pitch into the left-centre field gap for a two-run double.
That was the last hitter of the game for Wilson. In came Turk Farrell to finish up the game. He uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Maury Wills to score for the game’s final run. It was 7-0 for the visitors at this point. The only drama left in the day was to see what Stoneman would do with the Phillies’ batters in the bottom of the ninth.
It would be the 2-3-and-4 hitters coming up for Philadelphia. Ron Stone came up first and went down on strikes. Stoneman got Johnny Briggs the same way. It was all up to the last man, Deron Johnson. He laced a pitch hard toward Maury Wills at short. For a moment, Wills bobbled the ball, but Johnson was not a fast runner. There was plenty of time for Wills to make the play, and that he did for the final out of the game.
Stoneman had fired his first ever no-hitter. Not only that. It was his first ever major league complete game. And what a way to achieve it! “It’s the best way to do it,” Stoneman told reporters after the masterpiece was over. He did it by mixing his fastball and his curve. He relied on his catcher, John Bateman, to call the game. He just executed.
“He knows the hitters,” Stoneman said of Bateman. “I had good stuff, and I was getting the ball where I wanted it, except for the walks.” He did give up five walks in the game. Bateman discounted his prior knowledge though. “You can know the hitters, but he has to make the pitches, get them in the right spot.”
The catcher credited his pitcher for doing exactly what he was supposed to. “He threw fastballs and curves and didn’t lose his stuff at any time during the game. His breaking ball helped keep the batters off balance.”
The obvious question came up. Was he thinking about the no-hitter as the game was going on? “I don’t think any pitcher who throws one will tell you he doesn’t know about it during the game.” Had he ever thought about throwing a no-hitter before? He said he had never done that “because I never came close to one. I don’t think there was any pressure. The nerves weren’t there. I guess I was an unconscious pitcher. I wasn’t as nervous as I should have been.”
Stoneman said he was content with the result, but he was more pleased to get the win for his manager. “I’m happy for Gene (Mauch). I hope we dent ‘em every time we come to Philadelphia.” Mauch had been the manager of the Phillies from 1960 to about a third of the way through the 1968 season. During the game, someone held up a huge sign that read “FORGIVE GENE. BRING HIM BACK.” Someone asked Mauch if he had seen the sign. He said he had and asked the reporter, “What did I do?”
Staub had had himself quite the amazing day. A home run and three doubles. Someone asked him if it was his best game ever. “I can’t truthfully say it was my most memorable night. Against the Cardinals one night, I hit two home runs and a double in Houston, and it was one of the biggest thrills of my life. Oh, I was pleased to have a big night here in Philly, but the big thrill was Stoneman!”
He went on, “From the sixth inning on, I was too excited over what he was doing to worry about myself.” Staub also talked about what the win meant for the team as it related to Mauch. “And, oh yes, I was particularly glad for ‘The General’.” After the way Mauch had been let go by the Phils in 1968, the Expos’ players wanted to defeat them for their manager.
When it came to Rusty Staub’s time in Montreal, the best word to describe him was ‘beloved’. Upon arriving in Montreal, he began taking French lessons and that endeared him to the Quebecois fans. Rusty loved Montreal and Montreal loved Rusty. There’s a great Sports Illustrated piece written by Mark Mulvoy and he talked about Staub making his way through Place Ville Marie and trying to get to a restaurant to have lunch.
A random man shouted at him, “Quand gagneront les Expos une autre victoire?” (When will the Expos win another game?) Without hesitating, Staub shouted back, “Ce soir, j’espere!” (Tonight, I hope!) At a restaurant called La Popina, people ventured over to his table asking for autographs on whatever they had that he could write on. “Mes Meilleurs Souhaits – Le Grand Orange, Rusty”, he would write.
In 2024, I wrote this about Staub in my book The Consequences of Chance:
Rusty Staub became a star in Montreal and in Canada in 1969. Staub was beloved. In 1969, he was the team leader in games played, hits, runs, home runs and batting average (.302). Staub’s career on-base percentage as an Expo was .402, the best ever by any member of the team. Coco Laboy was another guy who emerged as a fan favourite. The career minor leaguer led the team in at-bats and runs batted in in 1969.
From 1969 to 1971, Staub was the best player on the team and the club’s only All-Star each season. The fans loved him, and he loved them back equally. His nickname, ‘Le Grand Orange’, was reportedly given to him by the Montreal Gazette’s sports editor, Ted Blackman. Staub was one of those players who embraced his relationship with and responsibility to the fans and he did it with gusto.
Stu Cowan was one of those kids who loved Staub. He later worked at The Gazette as a sportswriter. In 2012, he wrote a nice column on Staub and his legacy in Montreal. Cowan was one of the kids in Staub’s Young Expos Club, a program started by the Bank of Montreal that encouraged kids to open accounts at the bank and get tickets in the left field bleachers.
“I went across the country each year during the offseason for three years to try to help promote Major League Baseball and the Expos,” Staub told Cowan. “It was a very special time and relationship. I look back upon it and I think I was very lucky to be a part of something that was so viable and so exciting at the same time.”
Cowan brought up his membership in the Young Expos Club and the stadium in Montreal at the time. “Parc Jarry,” Staub laughed as he spoke to the Gazette columnist. “I’m not going to get into all its frailties, because it had some hiccups – it wasn’t exactly the best playing surface in the history of baseball. But the greatest thing when I think back about it is the fans.”
Right before the 1972 season though, Staub was traded to the New York Mets for Tim Foli, Mike Jorgensen and Ken Singleton. He eventually made his way back to Montreal in 1979 and in his first at-bat at Olympic Stadium, the home crowd gave him a standing ovation which lasted his entire time at the plate. Staub said that outburst of love from the fans was “one of the most memorable moments of my entire life.”
When you look at those three seasons in Montreal, Staub put up WAR numbers of 6.2, 6.3 and 5.9. He was the team’s only all-star in each of 1969, 1970 and 1971. He played four seasons with the Mets before they traded him to Detroit at the 1975 Winter Meetings. Before the end of July of 1979, the Tigers dealt him back to Montreal. Just before the 1980 season, John McHale traded Staub to the Texas Rangers.
After that 1980 campaign, Staub became a free agent, and he played the next five years in Queens as a member of the Mets. He finished his career with New York. He would open two restaurants there – Rusty’s (at 73rd and Third) and Rusty’s On Fifth – and become one of the darlings of The Big Apple. His Rusty Staub Foundation benefited children, the elderly and the poor.
His number 10 was also worn by Andre Dawson and was the first jersey number retired by the Expos. Staub is the only player in Major League history to accumulate 500 hits with four different teams (Houston, Montreal, Detroit and the Mets). Staub is one of just three players to hit a home run before the age of 20 and after the age of 40. The others are Ty Cobb and Gary Sheffield.
He hit a home run in 23 consecutive seasons. Only Ty Cobb with 24 straight years and Rickey Henderson with 25 have longer such streaks. Staub played in 2,951 Major League games. That places him 13th all-time in the history of the major leagues.
On October 1, 2015, Staub was on a flight returning from Ireland back to the United States. He suffered a heart attack and fortunately, there were two doctors on board the plane and they resuscitated the ex-ballplayer. The flight turned around and headed back to Shannon Airport. Staub passed away in West Palm Beach, Florida on March 29, 2018. He would have turned 74 three days later. He had suffered multiple organ failure.
He will always be remembered as one the Expos’ all-time greats.
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Howie’s latest book The Consequences of Chance, seventeen new and incredibly detailed stories of outlandish and wild events that occurred in sports over the last fifty years,is available on Amazon. It’s the follow-up to his first books, Crazy Days & Wild Nights and MORE Crazy Days & Wild Nights! If you love sports and sports history, you need these books!
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