Helping Nothing New for Staub

Each day, the heartbreak continues, played out in funerals and memorial services as New York City buries its dead.

When smoke and flames engulfed the twin towers of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, firefighters and police officers rushed into the buildings, ignoring death and destruction, trying desperately to save lives.

“Who knows how many they saved,” longtime major leaguer Rusty Staub said. “Who knows how many more would have died.”

When the buildings collapsed, so many of them were lost, killed by terrorists. The toll went well beyond the victims because so many of them left wives and children, turned by a moment of madness into widows and orphans.

That’s where Staub comes in. He founded the New York Police and Fire Widows and Children’s Benefit Fund, with help of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association and the United Firefighters Association.

Staub played major league baseball for 23 seasons, nine of them in New York, where he became one of the Mets’ most popular players. He never made it to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Instead, he is a charter member of the Humanity Hall of Fame. This is a man who cares about others.

“When I was a young lad, I had an uncle, Marvin Martin, a police officer killed in the line of duty,” he said. “I remember my mother saying the rosary on her bed. She had never said that before. I remember how sad it was for our family. That always stayed with me.

“My father was a teacher. He had a lot of friends who were policemen and firemen. I met a lot of guys around the ballpark, part-time workers who did that.”

Staub was in his final season with the Mets in 1985 when he read about a slain police officer who was survived by a wife and three children, none older than 5. The story struck him.

He remembered his uncle. He remembered how that death had affected his family.

“I decided to stop talking about it,” he said. “I decided to do something about it.”

The result was the benefit fund.

“Our only goal is to take care of the widows and children of those who make the ultimate sacrifice,” Staub said. “We are the first line of defense. We owe them a debt, something to make their lives better.”

Over the years, 451 families came under the umbrella of Staub’s organization, each getting $2,100 annually. He is the host at an annual picnic for the families at Shea Stadium and a dinner each fall.

When a Father’s Day fire killed three New York firefighters last summer, stunning the city, the charity gave their survivors immediate support.

And then came the World Trade Center tragedy.

“Since Sept. 11,” Staub said, “this has been my life’s work.”

The official toll, one month after the event, stood at 342 firefighters and 23 police officers. Aid was not limited to them.

“There were Port Authority officers,” Staub said. “There was an FBI agent, a Secret Service agent, a New Jersey firefighter. We don’t make distinctions, not when a person has the courage to do that.”

In the days after the event, there was an outpouring of donations. Staub’s old team, the Mets, donated $1 million. The club’s uniformed personnel -- players, manager and coaches -- donated one day’s pay, about $450,000. Other players like ex-Mets Rick Reed and Roger Cedeno sent money. There were major contributions from outside the baseball community, too.

“There are so many people out there with such generosity in their hearts,” Staub said.