Al Oliver's 1982 season

[Shotgun Shuba]

I am a huge fan of Al Oliver, but even those baseball fans who have ignored his obvious Hall of Fame credentials would have to admit his staggering numbers in the 1982 campaign are some of the finest we ever saw in the pre-steroid era:
204 hits- league leader
43 doubles- league leader
22 homers- not too shabby in the real baseball world before steriods
109 rbi- league leader
.331 batting average- league leader
.514 slugging average
only 59 K's

If Al wasn't the finest ballplayer to ever wear the home whites at Stad Olympique then certainly there were few finer performances witnessed by its fans.

Do you agree?

[Augustin_"Gus"]

Oliver don't get mentionned a lot among all time Expos great in large part beacuse his stint with the team was so short (only two seasons).

Personally, my choice for most talented Expo ever goes to Vladimir Guerrero. Then again, I only saw a fraction of all the men who wore the Expos uniform in action. I don't even remember ever seeing Oliver play (I was only 5 when the 83 season came to an end). But that 82 season, on paper at least, sure is one of the best ever by an Expo.

[Shotgun Shuba]

Vlad is great but his discipline at the plate is non-existent. He will swing at ANYTHING but he does connect quite often. The Dominican credo though is that "you dont walk your way off the island" so most Dominicans are free swingers. Its a shame you were so young and missed all the real Expo greats. In the early 80's they were one of the most entertaining and talented teams in the league. It was s shame they never broke through. 1980 was their best team in my opinion, losing the division by 1 to the wimpy Phillies.

[Augustin_"Gus"]

That's the thing with Vlad. He swings at everything, wich causes him to strike out/ground out/pop out often on bad pitches. Then again, pitchers cannot throw a pitch far enough from the plate that there's not a chance he might put it over the wall. And he walks a lot more than one would think. He's got 4 of the 7 highest totals of walks in a season in Expos history.

Not too shabby I say.

[Augustin_"Gus"]

In my previous post, did I mention that Vlad holds 4 of the 7 highest totals of intentionnal walks in Expos history? Might have forgotten the intentionnal part. :p

A walk is a walk. He was disciplined enough not to swing at the intentionnal balls...

[parrish15]

I am a huge fan of Al Oliver, but even those baseball fans who have ignored his obvious Hall of Fame credentials would have to admit his staggering numbers in the 1982 campaign are some of the finest we ever saw in the pre-steroid era:
204 hits- league leader
43 doubles- league leader
22 homers- not too shabby in the real baseball world before steriods
109 rbi- league leader
.331 batting average- league leader
.514 slugging average
only 59 K's

If Al wasn't the finest ballplayer to ever wear the home whites at Stad Olympique then certainly there were few finer performances witnessed by its fans.

Do you agree?

Judging by my avitar you remember who Al was traded for:)
He had an incredible kick ass season but Texas made out better on the trade even though Al was 82 M.V.P. .Carter would have been better and without a doubt Vladdy is #1,I was there when MLB umpires disallowed his 40the HR when it clearly made it and prevented him from being the 2nd 40-40 batter in MLB history.Just another thing MLB did to sabotage the Expos in Montreal:noidea :noidea
I still dont understand what happened to Ala great all round ballplayer but being a 12yr old kid and having your idol traded from you #1 team was devistating!