Montreal's love affair with Rusty Staub was not always so strong. In 1972 Staub held out for a three-year deal at $100,000 per season, which would have made him one of the highest-paid ballplayers in the majors. He also reportedly asked for part of the gate. The Expos traded him for Mike Jorgensen, Tim Foli and Ken Singleton. He was welcomed back in a later sunset-of-my-career trade and is seen here reminiscing about his time in what he describes as "one of the greatest cities of the world."
He said he cried when the Expos traded him. "It hurt me as a person," he said.
What a great video! No doubt about it, Jarry Park was something special.
ReplyDeleteMy dad took me to Opening Day in 1970 and we had seats way down the first base line about 3 rows up. Bob Gibson was pitching for the Cardinals, there was snow in foul territory in some spots, but the place was packed with people who were just gaga to be at a major league ball game. Our seats were kind of neck bending for the first 6 innings or so but got very interesting when the Saint Louis bull pen started warming up right in front of us. Chuck Taylor was one the guys warming up and by then more than a few beers had been served in our section and a couple of guys were riding Taylor at a level that I thought for sure would get them thrown out. Taylor barely winked and just kept throwing. Finally one of the guys took off his glasses and threw them at Taylor's feet. Taylor just looked up at the guy, smiled, stepped on the glasses and kicked them to the side mangled and broken, and started throwing again. No one laughed more heartily that the owner of the glasses who now seemed to believe Taylor was one of the greatest guys that ever lived!
Jarry Park was just so full of spontaneity. I don't even know if you could get that back if you tried!
Excellent, Rusty's doing a fantastic job.
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