R.I.P. Bob Oldis Expos coach and long-time scout

Bob Oldis, who had been the oldest surviving uniformed member of the Montreal Expos, died on Sunday at the age of 87.

September 24, 2025

By Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

Until his death at the grand age of 97 on Sept. 21, Bob Oldis had been the oldest surviving uniformed member of the Expos.

That honour will now be passed on to Elroy Face, who is the oldest surviving Montreal player.

Oldis was one of the longest running scouts the Expos ever had for 35 years.

The only year he didn't scout for the Expos was in the first season of operation when he served as a coach under Gene Mauch in 1969.

Oldis had been one of Mauch's coaches for Philadelphia in 1964 when the Phillies blew a big lead in the NL pennant race.

Oldis played 135 MLB games in a career that included stints with the Washington Senators, Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates. He was a member of the 1960 Bucs team that won the World Series.

Scouting was where Oldis blossomed, bringing pitchers such as Bill Gullickson and Scott Sanderson into the Expos fold in the 1977 draft.

Gullickson went second overall in the draft out of Catholic Academy in Joliet, Illinois behind Harold Baines who was taken by the Chicago White Sox. Sanderson went in the third round. Gullickson signed for $75,000 after the original negotiating point was $60,000.

“I knew he was going to be a high pick,’’ Oldis told me a few years ago. “I had a good report on him. He had good size, first of all, and he had an outstanding curveball. He had good arm strength and he had outstanding spin on his curveball – that’s what really impressed me.

"He had great control. I was really high on him the first time I saw him. I saw him four or five times. There was a lot of talk about him in the newspapers and on radio and TV.’’

When the Expos were relocated to Washington after the 2004 season, Oldis scouted for many years for the Miami Marlins.

Oldis was born in Preston, Iowa and died in Gilbert, Arizona where he lived for many years with his wife Mary Pat.