Le Grand Orange

Today I was thinking about Met hitters. I have been discussing pitching, both past and present, as well as some teams of the past. Well, today I was thinking how the Mets offense for this coming year will compare to last year. I have seen some stuff written on this and honestly, I do not think their offense will be as potent next year as it was this year and this year it was not as strong as it was last season.

Still, thinking about the offense situation got me thinking about hitters of the past. I think, perhaps, one of my favorite hitters to watch growing up was Rusty Staub (Le Grand Orange). Rusty was a throw back. He was a student of the game. By watching pitchers, he would pick up on tip offs and know what pitch was coming. Stuab was a master. He was fun to watch as an everyday hitter and when he came back to the Mets and became a pinch hitter at the end of his career, he was a pinch hitter extraordinaire.

Of course Rusty was not great in every aspect of the game. Staub was perhaps the slowest runner the Mets have ever had. Still, in between stints with the Mets, Staub played with the Detroit Tigers. During that time I remember reading a quote from Ron Leflore, the Tigers speedy outfielder. Leflore said he learned more about stealing bases from Rusty Staub then from anyone else.

Leflore was not being sarcastic or obnoxious. He indicated that Rusty learned to read the pitchers on the base paths as well, just as he did at the plate. Stuab knew when a pitcher was going to throw over, when you could get a jump off him and when you should stay close.

In a previous post, I talked about numbers the Mets should have retired. Perhaps they should have retired either #4 (the uniform number he wore during his first stint with the Mets) or #10 (The uniform number he switched to and the number he wore in Montreal) in honor of Rusty Staub.