At age 84, Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. is easing up. Bill DeWitt III is moving up to CEO, and will run the franchise on a daily basis.
The brilliant Anuk Karunaratne has titled up, taking over BD3’s important role of president of business operations.
And then there’s president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom, who isn’t moving anywhere … unless we’re referring to his family’s new home in St. Louis.
What does this all mean?
Not as much as we may assume.
These announcements, formally made Wednesday at Busch Stadium, were already in the work-in-progress stage, and for quite a while. This was hardly a stunning breaking-news event. This was not a shakeup, or a day of radical change, and no one – metaphorically speaking – was told to buy a bus ticket and get out of town.
All of the players involved here have worked extensively with each other, are comfortable teammates, and were doing their familiar jobs without the new titles. Imagine already having well over a year together to put the plan in motion, evolve as leaders, and give their adjusted responsibilities a test run.
This isn’t a seismic transition that will put the Cardinals into a state of confusion. There is no process to sort out. That’s been happening behind the scenes as DeWitt III, Karunaratne and Bloom getting plenty of reps.
DeWitt 3 has played an essential role in the family business for 20+ years (at least. He isn’t a nepo baby who is good-timing his way through some casual, no-pressure job, getting by easily and having no worries simply because he is his father’s son. You may not like BD3, but this is what I know: he works his ass off. And he’s served this franchise in a meaningful, valuable capacity.
Karunaratne, a Wash U alum, accepted a substantial job here after a successful turn with the Toronto Blue Jays. He’s had more than two years to assimilate, build relationships, study the challenges in TV and marketing and demographics and the ballpark experience. Just to name a few.
Heck, Bloom has already rebuilt an entire player-development and farm system, made several dozen new hires, and swiftly modernized the entire Cardinals’ baseball structure … and it seemingly took him about 37 minutes to get it done. Oh, and Bloom’s club – expected to lose maybe 90, 95 games – has the sixth-best record among the 30 MLB teams.
This Cardinal leadership council – BD3, Anuk and Chaim – know what the problems are, what improvements must be made, and they’ve aggressively gotten after it.
As for Mr. DeWitt, the elder statesman …
He isn’t going anywhere.
DeWitt may be in the shadows a bit more, and we may not see him as much – but don’t assume that makes him invisible or a man of diminished authority or reduced interest in all things in all things Cardinals.
DeWitt is still the Chairman of the franchise and the team’s principal owner. But as he said back in January: he won’t be around forever. So. Why not get on with the succession plan?
This particular succession plan does not include the boss fading into history. Not right away … if ever. Not as long as DeWitt is still here on this planet, watching the Cardinals play ball.
DeWitt has kept a more low-key profile in recent years. And as a longtime DeWitt watcher, I viewed it as the beginning of a pattern, a routine, that led to Wednesday’s news release and media session. It was just a formality … even if DeWitt plans to have a more informal existence.
“Well, I stay,” DeWitt said Wednesday, when asked what the announcements meant for him. “Nothing's really changed. I stay in touch with, obviously, Bill III. Baseball stays in touch with me.
“I talk all the time, so, you know, I may or may not be here, but I'm here in spirit and available 24-7. So, you know, I'm in touch with all the things we're looking to do, and, you know, it’s working out pretty well. Right?”
DeWitt still has the title of Chairman.
But this is who he is now: the Franchise Compass. He is the one person in the organization who doesn't need to look at the daily box scores or the immediate bottom line to know if the organization is moving in the right direction. Younger readers may not get the references I’m about to make …
But think of the late Red Auerbach in Boston, Pat Riley in Miami. The late and legendary Walter O’Malley (Dodgers.) Cooperstown Hall of Famer John Schuerholz, the retired and venerated Braves executive. Even though they weren’t front and center all of the time, their influence endured, and their guidance mattered. It was also a lot like that in the NBA with the late Jerry West. In the NHL, Scotty Bowman.
DeWitt has gravitas. That’s why – for many years – he’s been sought out by his fellow baseball owners and multiple MLB commissioners as a touchstone.
To repeat: DeWitt Jr. isn’t going anywhere, even if you don’t see him or hear from him as much.
“I will continue in my role as Chairman and Principal Owner and will continue to have involvement in significant baseball and business decisions,” he said Wednesday when reading his prepared remarks.
I’m sure that some readers snickered when I cited DeWitt’s gravitas. Hey, you don’t have to like him, and the DeWitt haters can’t be reasoned with. But the man has plenty of gravitas. Abundant gravitas.
Listen, I’ve covered plenty of unsuccessful, uncaring and otherwise incompetent sports franchise owners in my 40+ years in the sports-media profession.
Bob Irsay, who owned the Baltimore Colts. Bill Bidwill, who owned the St. Louis football Cardinals (I liked Bill personally, but) …. Bum Bright, a football agnostic Texas oil man who owned the Dallas Cowboys before Jerry Jones purchased the team … how about some of the St. Louis Blues owners during my time here? Especially Harry Ornest and Bill Laurie … I covered the Washington Capitals and Washington Bullets when Abe Pollin owned both of those teams and lost his touch and alienated fans in a bunch of ways.
I covered the Cardinals when August Busch III became team owner when his father Gussie Busch passed away. But August III disliked baseball and didn’t care about the Cardinals. He was in the beer business, right? But Busch made sure to have an Anheuser-Busch henchman or two in a baseball office to slash the payroll and lower costs.
Do you think the 2023, 2024 and 2025 seasons were bad for the St. Louis Cardinals?
I would say, without hesitation, that Cardinals baseball was much worse from 1988 through 1995. Not even close. The Cardinals didn’t make the playoffs one time during those years. Their regular-season winning percentage ranked 20th among the 28 MLB teams that were in place during those lost years, when Busch III had a hostile view of baseball – local or otherwise.
Look, 1988 through 1995 were sad for Cardinals fans. Bleak and boring. Mauve even hopeless.
And then Bill DeWitt Jr. and his partners bought the franchise in late 1995, and took over before the 1996 season.
And everything changed.
No more sadness. No more ownership who hated baseball. This was an owner with deep roots in Cardinals baseball.
So with all due respect, you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t see Bill DeWitt as the devil incarnate just because he let the Cardinals slip from a dominant position in the majors over the last few years.
In my opinion, he made up for that by recruiting and hiring Chaim Bloom. It was a full-circle kind of moment; DeWitt revived the Cardinals at age 54, and at age 84, his hiring of Bloom is rejuvenating the Cardinals again.
Here’s some perspective on DeWitt’s 30+ seasons as Chairman.
From 1996 through 2025 …
– The Cardinals ranked third among National League teams in regular-season wins behind the Dodgers and Braves.
– They ranked second in the NL with 75 postseason wins; the Dodgers have 86.
– Most NL pennants since 1996: Dodgers 5, Cardinals 4, Giants 4.
– Most World Series titles by a National League team since 1996: Giants and Dodgers with 3; Cardinals with 2.
– Most seasons making the playoffs by an NL team since 1996: Braves 18, Dodgers 18, Cardinals 17.
– Most winning seasons by an NL team from 1996 through 2025: Dodgers 27, Cardinals 25, Braves 23.
– That ain’t so easy to do. The other 11 National League teams that have continuously been members of the circuit since 1996 have averaged 11.5 winning seasons over that time.
– Fewest losing seasons by a National League team since 1996: Dodgers 3, Cardinals 5, Braves 7. The other 11 NL teams that averaged 17.8 losing seasons over that time.
– Most postseason home games by an NL team since 1996: Dodgers 85, Cardinals 71, Braves 70.
– Most postseason wins at home by an NL team since 1996: Dodgers 51, Cardinals 43, Braves 35.
– Cooperstown Hall of Famers who have played, managed or coached for the Cardinals during the DeWitt Era: Ozzie Smith, Scott Rolen, Larry Walker, Carlos Beltran, Dennis Eckersley, John Smoltz, plus managers Tony La Russa and Red Schoendienst. Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina will join that list soon.
– Cardinals Hall of Famers who were part of the DeWitt Era as a manager, coach, player or broadcaster: Ozzie Smith, La Russa, Rolen, Dave Duncan, Walt Jocketty, Jose Oquendo, George Kissell, Jack Buck, Mike Shannon, Chris Carpenter, Jim Edmonds, Jason Isringhausen, Matt Holliday, Willie McGee, Mark McGwire, Ray Lankford, Matt Morris and Edgar Renteria. Pujols and Molina will be inducted later this season. And Adam Wainwright and Matt Carpenter will get there soon.
– During the first 30 seasons with DeWitt as chairman, Cardinals players won four National League MVP awards, a Cy Young award, 23 silver slugger awards, 41 gold gloves, one Rookie of the Year award, several Manager of the Year awards, two World Series MVP awards, one NLCS MVP award. And Cardinal players were collectively chosen as NL All-Stars 77 times.
Without Bill DeWitt Jr., there’s no …
Busch Stadium III …
No Cardinals Hall of Fame …
No World Series parades in 2006 and 2011 …
No Tony La Russa as manager for 16 years, and he became the second-winningest manager in MLB history.
No McGwire vs. Sosa in 1998…
No Chris Carpenter vs. Roy Halladay in the 2011 NLDS Game 5 …
No David Freese in the 2011 postseason. No Game 6 of the 2011 World Series …
No beautiful Wainwright curveball to put away Carlos Beltran to win Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS …
No Michael Wacha in the 2013 postseason …
No Matt Adams clubbing a Clayton Kershaw curve ball for a home run to clinch the NLDS in 2014 …
No Jim Edmonds scaling the center field fence to take a home run away …
No Fernando Tatis Sr. hitting two grand-slam homers in the same inning at Dodger Stadium.
None of those remarkably great trades made by Walt Jocketty. Trades that brought in Edmonds, Rolen, Darryl Kile, McGwire, Walker and so many others …
No Albert Pujols, who spent 12 years in a Cardinal uniform during a career that made him the only player in MLB history to have 3,000 plus hits, 2,000 plus RBIs, 700+ home runs, and multiple league MVP awards …
No Yadier Molina, the greatest catcher in Cardinals franchise history …
No Edgar Renteria or David Eckstein …
The only questions that matter:
As a baseball team, were the Cardinals better because of Bill DeWitt Jr.? Yes.
Was the entire franchise better off because of Bill DeWitt Jr.? Yes.
Did the Cardinals playing all of those October postseason games at Busch Stadium put the city of St. Louis in a positive light? Yes.
Did the Cardinals get a new ballpark because of DeWitt? Yes. And he paid for nearly 80 percent of it.
Did the Cardinals have one of the greatest eras in franchise history because of DeWitt? Yes. We’re talking 27 years of virtually non-stop winning, followed by three down seasons in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Did Cardinals fans get to see and cheer for a lengthy and illustrious list of Hall of Famers and award winners and big stars because of Bill DeWitt? Yes.
It hasn’t been perfect over the last 30+ years. But all in all – without a doubt – baseball in St. Louis has been special. And for much of the time, it’s been spectacular.
“Everybody aspires to winning the World Series and we've been fortunate enough to have two of those and we've been there additional times,” DeWitt said. “So, you know, at my age I can look back – and as well as look forward – and know this is a great baseball town and it's helped to continue the baseball spirit to have one like that.”
Yes. A great baseball town. And DeWitt wants to complete that full circle and make the Cardinals a dominant team again.
“Our family goes back pretty far [with the Cardinals] and we're all in,” DeWitt said. “We're excited about not only what's occurred to date, but what the future is.”
At age 84, the Chairman isn’t retiring. He’s reloading.
DeWitt may be stepping back. But he isn't stepping away.
Thanks for reading …
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach. Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil on a daily basis.
Bernie has covered and written about many great St. Louis sports team athletes including Albert Pujols, Kurt Warner, Brett Hull, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jim Edmonds, David Freese, Marshall Faulk, Scott Rolen, Mark McGwire, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Al MacInnis, Brian Sutter, Bernie Federko, Chris Pronger, Dan Dierdorf, Jackie Smith, Keith Tkachuk, Aeneas Williams. Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues, Saint Louis U, and Mizzou football and basketball. Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STL Sports Central, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.