Bill de Witt - Another Pennant, Then Ownership of The Reds

Another Pennant, Then Ownership of The Reds

DeWitt, however, moved on himself shortly after the end of the 1960 season, replacing Gabe Paul as GM of the Cincinnati Reds. He made a number of deals for players such as Joey Jay (a disappointment with the Milwaukee Braves who became a 20-game winner in Cincinnati), Don Blasingame and Gene Freese, and the Reds went on to win the 1961 National League pennant. A few months later, DeWitt again became an owner when he purchased 100 percent of the Reds from the Powel Crosley estate.

He led the team for another five seasons. The Reds contended for most of that time, and enjoyed a productive farm system, but after the 1965 campaign, DeWitt controversially (and disastrously) traded future Hall of Fame outfielder Frank Robinson to the Orioles for two pitchers and a minor league outfielder; the outrage over the trade made it difficult for one of the pitchers, former Oriole ace Milt Pappas, to adjust to pitching in Cincinnati. (The trade has been made famous in the 1988 movie Bull Durham, where Susan Sarandon's character says, "Bad trades are a part of baseball; I mean who can forget Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas, for God's sake?") After announcing the trade, DeWitt famously defended the trade by calling Robinson "an old 30." In his first season with the Orioles, Robinson won the Triple Crown and was unanimously voted the American League Most Valuable Player.

The Robinson deal somewhat clouded DeWitt's Cincinnati legacy, although many of the players he had signed or developed became key members of the team's "Big Red Machine" dynasty of the 1970s. He sold the Reds to a syndicate led by Cincinnati newspaper publisher Francis L. Dale (and including William DeWitt Jr.) during the 1966 campaign. DeWitt's last official post in baseball was as chairman of the Chicago White Sox from 1975 to 1981, working with the flamboyant Veeck once again.

He died in Cincinnati, Ohio, of undisclosed causes on March 4, 1982 at age 79.