RIP Rusty Staub, 1944-2018

[batmagadanleadoff]

Could've been better. If I didn't read the press articles, I never would've figured out on my own that the patch said Rusty. Just great. An illegible signature as a tribute. This forum could've come up with 30 better ways to do this.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I can imagine young fans wondering who "Punf" is.

[batmagadanleadoff]

It's a good thing that Rusty didn't sign his name with an "x".

[Guest 41Forever]

G-Fafif wrote: Mets will wear a patch for Rusty: black circle, his autographed first name (Rusty, not Daniel) in orange. Would look better against a field of deep Mets blue, but the thought is a good one. Kinda wish the Glider were getting his due as well, but I suppose there are perceived levels to franchise royalty.

I like the patch. It's something different. Wearing the number would have been a challenge since he wore two of them, and they are in service. Probably have to save that for retired numbers. Making it orange was a nice touch.

[Edgy MD]

My Grande Orange with a Black Band didn't quite work out.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Ugly patch, at the very least the black should be Met blue.
Disappointed but not surprised they'd fuck it up.

[A Boy Named Seo]

What a nice thread this sad new has turned into. Great page 2 posts by FK and Edgy. Rusty pt II is how I think of Staub the Met, so I much appreciate those insights.

Also, the Rusty/autograph patch is a nice sentiment, but it doesn't look good. Yall are right, the orange armband (edit: or just a big round orange, duh) with numbers 4 and 10 would look so, so nice.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I sorta get the message about the "signature" it helps signify Rusty's uniqueness. Doing a double-number thing would have been a disaster.

I still think the single band would be better, but you gotta understand the Mets are trying to appeal to young families, they don't care much about long time fans like us who they know they already have on the bag.

[Frayed Knot]

I have no problem with the patch. If that's Rusty's signature than that's Rusty's signature and altering it so as to make it more readable would be a worse alternative, as would simple block letters.
My first thought also was orange on a field of blue (or a blue sig on an orange background). But instead it's black for mourning with the orange representing both the team and his nickname, and that's fine.
Met fans will all know what it means and if other fans don't then their announcers will explain it to them in games against the Mets and then hopefully also give them an education as to what Rusty was all
about both on and off the ball field.

[Guest d'Kong76]

cooby wrote: Opening Day many years ago. I think it was the last year of Shea. I was the guest of metfairy and her family in a warm comfort controlled (section? Inner sanctum?) area. KC can concur or dispute. He was there too. We were sitting in our indoor cozy nook with our friends when someone looked back into the interior area and saw Rusty chatting quietly with metfairy’s daughter who had no interest in the game (I kid you not) and was reading a book. Whoever it was said ‘Rusty!!’ And we just moved, en masse, out to the inner sanctum. A bunch of 40-somethings Like a herd of buffalo. Rusty and his (bodyguard?) were prolly used to it

I don't remember what year that was or if it was Shea's last. I kinda think not.
I think Shea's last OD I sat out in the bleachers with a NYPD party bus group.

I don't remember the details of Rusty's actual arrival but do kinda remember
goofing around about S sitting around with her nose buried in a book haha.

I have pics somewhere, not sure if they're digital or prints. I'll look for them
this week. I also kinda remember my friends Antknee and Tony coming to
the suite to say hi and they got to meet Rusty and then I had to tell them
to vamoose because uninvited low-life's weren't allowed to hang out in the
D'Knight's luxury suite haha.

[Edgy MD]

Memorial Mass slated for St. Patricks on Wednesday, April 25 at 2PM. Mets will be on the road in St. Louis.

[seawolf17]

Anyone know if they're selling the patches yet? I feel like I should have purchased the KID one when it was available too.

[G-Fafif]

seawolf17 wrote: Anyone know if they're selling the patches yet? I feel like I should have purchased the KID one when it was available too.

Yup, in at least a couple of the stores at Citi Field, $20, with a portion going to charitable causes (from what I've read).

[G-Fafif]

Tribute to Rusty from Canada's House of Commons.

[Edgy MD]

Most Canadian thing ever?

[G-Fafif]

Edgy MD wrote: Most Canadian thing ever?

The Nordiques sweaters push it over the top.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I think they're all wearing sweaters for the Humboldt kids.

I was more shaken up with that tragedy than most, I think its because like any sport or event (after school track meet, marching band away game) etc. you can relate to the long bus ride to get there and that in retrospect the bus ride is the best part. Canadians playing hockey especially since there are literally hundreds of miles of plains between places where they play.

[G-Fafif]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I think they're all wearing sweaters for the Humboldt kids.

I didn't realize. Very touching (and still quite Canadian).

[seawolf17]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I was more shaken up with that tragedy than most, I think its because like any sport or event (after school track meet, marching band away game) etc. you can relate to the long bus ride to get there and that in retrospect the bus ride is the best part. Canadians playing hockey especially since there are literally hundreds of miles of plains between places where they play.

I was thinking about that too. High school and college athletes must log millions of bus miles every year.

[Edgy MD]

Pipers from the FDNY, NYPD, and PAPD join together in opening Rusty's memorial Mass with "The Dawning of the Day."

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[Edgy MD]

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[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Forgive the question but did he ever come out?

[Edgy MD]

No, sir!

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

but he totally was, right?

[G-Fafif]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Forgive the question but did he ever come out?

Fairly often, assuming there was a pinch-runner available.

[Benjamin Grimm]

The rumors have been out there, but haven't there also been stories of him being quite the "ladies' man"?

Not that the two are necessarily mutually exclusive, I guess.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

G-Fafif wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Forgive the question but did he ever come out? Fairly often, assuming there was a pinch-runner available.

lolooollloooolol

[Guest d'Kong76]

G-Fafif wrote: Fairly often, assuming there was a pinch-runner available.

Hah! Good one!

[G-Fafif]

Among the baseball people on hand, according to Newsday's Laura Albanese, were Franco, Darling, Mazzilli, Omar, Bobby V, Larry Dierker, Jim Beattie, Rob Manfred and the Wilpons. From the world of hockey, Mark Messier and (according to another person) Rod Gilbert.

[Edgy MD]

“He was such a good human being, it didn’t matter if he never got any hits, any runs scored, any RBIs,” said Ron Darling, who called Staub his guardian angel for the way he took care of young players like Darling, who made his major- league debut in 1983 during Staub’s second stint with the Mets. “All that was in his heart was to do good, to help people less fortunate and I think he’s a beacon for ballplayers today . . . [As players] we have such an opportunity to do good works. Some do, some don’t, and Rusty did it the best.”

Good writeup by Laura Albanese.