Staub, one of baseball’s most underrated players, died Thursday at 73 from multiple organ failure. He was two days shy of his 74th birthday.
He played a pivotal role in establishing two expansion teams in the 1960s, the Houston Colt 45’s and the Montreal Expos. During the New York Mets impossible comeback and National League pennant drive in 1973.
It was with the Expos, the future Nats franchise, where Staub became a legend. In his three full seasons in Quebec, he was an All-Star. Not because the team needed to have one, but a legitimate star on both sides of the Canadian border.