Bill DeWitt

William Orville DeWitt Sr. (August 3, 1902 — March 4, 1982) was an American professional baseball executive and club owner whose career in Major League Baseball spanned more than 60 years. His son William DeWitt, Jr. is currently the principal owner and managing partner of the St. Louis Cardinals, while grandson William O. DeWitt III is the Redbirds' president.

The senior DeWitt grew up in St. Louis. He began his baseball career with the Cardinals as a protégé of Branch Rickey, legendary business manager (later general manager) of the club from 1916 to 1942. One of DeWitt's first jobs, in 1916, was selling soda pop at the Cardinals' park (Robison Field); as a young man, he received a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis and became treasurer of the Redbirds.

But DeWitt ultimately joined the city's underdog American League team, the St. Louis Browns, in November 1936 as minority owner (initially in partnership with majority stockholder Donald Lee Barnes) and general manager.

The Browns were cash-strapped and struggling to survive as the second team in one of the smallest cities in the Major Leagues during The Great Depression. They had drawn only 93,267 fans during the entire 1936 season.

"We operated close to the belt. We had to", DeWitt told author William B. Mead in Mead's 1978 book, Even the Browns: Baseball During World War II. "Once we ran out of cash. Barnes tried to get the board of directors to put up some money. They said, 'No! That's money down the rat hole.' A lot wealthy guys, too ... The Browns had a hell of a time because the Cardinals were so popular and the Browns couldn't do a damned thing. We didn't have any attendance money to build up the ball cub with. Most of the clubs had players in the minors that were better than some of the ones we had on the Browns."

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