He was a flame-haired six-time All-Star who set records on the field and later etched his personality into our collective consciousness with sparkling color commentary.
But celebrants at a special Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for late Met Rusty Staub remembered him Wednesday not as baseball royalty, but rather as the down-to-earth humanitarian whose post-career life was dedicated to philanthropy.
Not to mention ribs and fine wine.
“It wasn’t about an abstract notion of kindness and charity — it was about interacting with another human being,” Monsignor Kevin Sullivan told a packed house that included former teammates Bobby Valentine and Lee Mazzilli, the city’s police and fire commissioners, and Cardinal Timothy Dolan.