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► — — : ; . DeWitt Denies Report Veeck Syndicate Purchased Browns s Neither Ex-Cleveland Boss * Nor Commissioners Office Know of Sales Transaction ST. LOUIS, Mo., May 31 CUP.— President Bill DeWitt of the St. Louis Browns vigorously denied a report in the New York Post today that the club has been sold to a syndicate headed by Bill Veeck. The report was a special dispatch from Chicago by columnist Jimmy Cannon, who wrote he had been informed exclusively that negotiations for the sale of the Browns to Veeck and his associates were completed last week. .» "Mr. Veeck did not buy anything from me," DeWitt insisted. "There is no deal that I know of," he added. "The Browns are not sold and there is no deal pending with Mr. Veeck/ In Cincinnati, George Denman, executive secretary to baseball commissioner A. B. Chandler, said his, office had heard nothing about a sale of the Browns to Veeck. Veeck, contacted yesterday in Chicago, said there was "absolutely nothing new" when questioned about recurrent reports that he was negotiating to purchase a controlling interest in the Browns. Would Stay in St. Louis Cannons story said Veeck and his syndicate will keep the Browns in St. Louis. There was, a report last week that Veeck would purchase the St. Louis franchise and transfer it to Milwaukee, where he made his start as a baseball executive. According to Cannon, the deal also will include the Browns San Antonio farm team in the Texas League. "Veeck likes a change," Cannon quoted an intimate friend of Veecks. "He knows the other owners in the American League hate him. He gets a kick out of it. Putting over the Browns would give him the kick of his life." Veeck, probably the most enterprising club owner in baseball when he was president of the Cleveland Indians, has been out of the game since he sold his interest in the club to a syndicate headed by Ellis Ryan in 1949. The colorful ex-Marine, who lost a leg from an infection acquired in the Pacific, took over control of the Indians in 1946 and produced a world champion in 1948. While he headed the Indians, their attendance reached an all-time high largely because of the pre-game vaudeville shows, baby-sitters, orchids-for-the-ladies, baseball clowns, special "days" and other innovations.
