302 average with 29 home runs – offered respite from chronic failure on the scoreboard.ĭespite sometimes woeful play, including a numbing 20-game losing streak, fans flocked to Jarry Park, lured less by the play on the field than by the carnival in the grandstand. Staub, armed only with a wooden bat, seemed a figure of medieval chivalry. In the face of adversity and almost certain defeat, Mr. The Expos won only 52 games in their inaugural season against 110 losses, a dismal performance. Staub served as the team's only representative in the 1969 All-Star Game, though he did not get a chance to take the field. He was a guest between periods on Hockey Night in Canada and represented the Expos in goodwill appearances.Ī slugging outfielder, Mr. Staub remained in frozen Montreal to promote the club. You know, he could speak pretty good French after a month." "He told people he was going to learn French and he took a crash course. "He was very friendly and he got involved with everybody," said former pitcher Claude Raymond, his Montreal teammate from nearby St-Jean who became a long-time broadcaster. The handsome outfielder took it as his responsibility to represent the Expos on and off the field. When the expansion Montreal Expos first took to the field at Jarry Park, a makeshift diamond for Major League Baseball's first franchise outside the United States, the lone star on a roster of rejects and castoffs was Mr. Staub, who died on Thursday morning at 73, only hours before the first pitch of the 2018 season, was a baseball player whose popularity in Montreal transcended his considerable talents. In Quebec, he was known as Le Grand Orange, three words which invoke nostalgia for fans of a certain age. Daniel Joseph Staub was described by sportswriters as a "carrot-topped slugger" and as a "young, red-headed Adonis." He was dubbed Rusty for his red hair by a nurse on the day he was born.
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