Rusty Staub, beloved Mets and Expos icon, dies at 73

Rusty Staub, a beloved icon of both the New York Mets and Montreal Expos franchises, died early Thursday morning at the age of 73.

The Mets confirmed his death on Twitter.

"(Rusty) was almost as well known for his philanthropic work as he was for his career as a baseball player," the Mets wrote in a statement. "There wasn't a cause he didn't champion.

"He will be missed by everyone."

"Rusty will be missed but the legacy of his humanity and compassion will live on," MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark added.

Staub, who would have turned 74 on Sunday, had been hospitalized earlier this month due to kidney failure. He had struggled with health problems in recent years, including a heart attack during a 2015 flight.

A six-time All-Star, Staub compiled a .279/.362/.431 career slash line with 2,716 hits, 499 doubles, and 292 home runs over his 23-year career with five teams. Though he also spent six seasons with the Houston Colt .45s/Astros and four as a designated hitter with the Detroit Tigers, it's in Queens and Quebec where Staub remains a unique baseball icon.

The New Orleans native was dealt from the Astros to the expansion Expos in 1969 and quickly became Montreal's first baseball star. An All-Star during each of his first three seasons with the Expos, he became beloved in the city after making an effort to learn French, and the redheaded Staub was affectionately dubbed "Le Grand Orange" by the Expos faithful, a second nickname (after "Rusty") that would stick for life.

"I was in Quebec - I couldn't talk to a child," Staub told Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette during an interview six years ago. "I couldn't say something encouraging. I felt like I was not doing my job - not being able to respond to the media at least in some basic form.

"There's not a question that my making that effort (to speak French) is part of the reason that whatever Le Grand Orange represented to Montreal and all those fans, they knew I cared and I tried."

So beloved was Staub in Montreal that when he was re-acquired by the Expos during the 1979 season, fans welcomed him back to Olympic Stadium with a five-minute standing ovation before his first at-bat.

The Expos traded Staub to the Mets in 1972 and he quickly became just as beloved by their fans. He was a critical member of the surprising 1973 pennant-winning squad and hit .423 in the seven-game World Series loss against Oakland. Staub played a total of nine seasons with the Mets across two separate stints, first from 1972-75, and again for the final four years of his career from 1981-85, where he served as a pinch-hitting specialist.

The only player in history to record at least 500 hits with four different teams (Astros, Expos, Tigers, and Mets), Staub came up to the majors with the then-Houston Colt .45s in 1963, playing in 150 games as a 19-year-old rookie. He'd go on to make two All-Star games as an Astro and led the majors with 44 doubles in 1967 before moving to Montreal. Later, he was a valuable DH with the Tigers, where he was an All-Star in 1976, finished fifth in AL MVP voting in '77, and won DH of the Year honors in '78. His 2,951 games played still rank 13th all time.

Staub's No. 10 was the first to ever be retired by the Expos in 1993 (they'd later retire it again for Andre Dawson), and before the franchise moved to Washington, he was an inaugural member of their Hall of Fame. He was elected to the Mets Hall of Fame in 1986, the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006, and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2012.

As the Mets' statement reflects, Staub was also well known for his charity work, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to support families of 9/11 first responders, and also ran his own Rusty Staub Foundation.