Staiger was born & raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and was a standout athlete at Will Rogers High School. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the fifteenth round of the 1969 Major League Baseball Draft, but opted to attend Bacone College in nearby Muskogee, Oklahoma, instead. Seven months later, he was drafted by the New York Mets in the first round (24th overall) of the 1970 January Secondary Amateur Draft.\n', '

After a subpar first season with the California League\'s Visalia Mets in 1970 (.239 avg., 7 HR, 34 RBI in 76 games), Staiger displayed the power that led the Mets to make him a first round pick his second season in Visalia. In 139 games, he clubbed nineteen home runs & eighteen doubles, while driving in 83 runs with a .282 batting average & .445 slugging percentage.\n', '

As a franchise, the Mets were notoriously unstable at third throughout their brief history. This improved production prompted the Mets to use Staiger, who had split the 1970 season pretty evenly amount second, third & shortstop, primarily at third base in 1971. Likewise, he was used exclusively at third in 1972 with the double A Memphis Blues. Injuries limited Staiger to just 81 games, in which he hit three home runs & once again batted .282 with 38 runs batted in. His slugging percentage dropped to .379, and he registered an on-base percentage of .306.\n', '

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