I have a cool card this week that combines my love of the Durham Bulls with the Montreal Expos and a Topps oddball issue from the early 1970s. Let's break that down into pieces. Rusty Staub appeared for the Durham Bulls during the 1962 season and took home the Carolina League MVP that season. In his first season playing professional baseball Le Grand Orange posted a .293/.429/.483 line with 23 home runs, 20 doubles, and 93 RBIs. It was such a good season that Staub was brought up by the Colt 45s the very next season.
Staub had a handful of good seasons in Houston, but his career took off after the team traded him to the expansion Expos in 1969. He only played four seasons north of the border, but posted OPS+ of 166, 139, 148, and 137 during his time there. Or think about it this way, Kris Bryant has played two seasons and has OPS+ of 135 and 149. Staub was that good while with the Expos.
His career seemed to trail off after his time with the Expos ended, he was still a solid player for awhile closing out his career with the Mets in the mid 1980s.
As for the card itself, the 1970 Topps Super set is a pretty affordable considering the fact that Staub has some other oddball cards from that era that are quite pricy....
like his Topps Greatest Moments card which is ridiculously expensive. I'd love to find one of these for my collection, but this is way too much for a Rusty Staub card.....
The Topps Super cards are much more affordable and can easily be had for less than $10. There are a lot of these that are actually just a dollar or two, but I spent a little bit more to get a nicer copy. The edges of the cards are rounded, but there are all kinds of crinkles, dings, and dents that show up on these cards.
Overall, I am happy to have a cool card of an older Durham Bulls player on a cool old card. The whole Expos thing isn't bad either.
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