Rusty Staub (The Mets Years- Part One) From the 1973 World Series to the Trade (1972 - 1975)
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The Mets Perusing Rusty Staub: The New York Mets needed a bat badly after the 1971 season & the Montreal Expos needed to fill some position players with young solid talent. In the 1971 -1972 off season even as late as Spring Training, Mets manager Gil Hodges was after Rusty Staub. He wanted him bad & even told Staub about it during a March exhibition game. The two teams got together and began talking about a blockbuster trade, just before the start of the 1972 season. Shockingly toward the end of Spring Training & during a brief Players strike, Mets manager Gil Hodges suffered a fatal heart attack in Florida. The team was devastated, upper management named Yogi Berra the popular choice as the team's manager. On April 6, 1972, four days after Gil Hodges fatal heart attack, Staub was Traded to the Mets in exchange for Ken Singleton, Tim Foli, & Mike Jorgensen. This turned out to be a good trade for both teams. Rusty was a true hitter with power, who would