His love of baseball history led him to write and edit several articles and books about baseball, especially the old St. Louis Browns. Baseball history was the original reason that he began 22 years as a talk show host on WGNU radio. The first two years he did sports and his Ph.D. helped him land his own weekly call-in show on every subject known to man for the following 20 years. He published two books, Liberalism: Fatal Consequences (1999) and The Scorpion and the Frog: A Natural Conspiracy (2005) that were inspired by his radio broadcasts.
But baseball was in his blood. His major claim to fame has been the St. Louis Browns Historical Society that he founded in 1984 after a visit to Cooperstown for the induction of boyhood hero, Pee Wee Reese, the old Brooklyn Dodger captain. In October it will hold its 25th anniversary banquet. The club allowed him to more deeply immerse himself and the legend and lore that were the perennial doormats of the American league throughout their 52-year history in St. Louis.
It was while reading the New York Times in June of 2007 that inspiration hit him again. In reading about “The Philly Fan,” a 70-year-old actor who did a one-man show about the Phillies history and culture, he knew he could do the same thing for the old Browns. However after starting his new project, the story transcended the pure history of the team and became more about an elderly man struggling with the beginning signs of memory loss. This everyman
character’s entire life paralleled the team’s losing historic performance on the field. A quarter century after their move to Baltimore, he realizes that his memory, and therefore his life are beginning to ebb away from him. The Last Memory of an Ol’ Brownie Fan is the result.
Two more inspirations closely followed, including A Perfect Choice, scheduled to be produced by The Theater of the Word in October at the Rigali Center, and his latest play, A Moment of Grace, which is still in development.
In his “spare” time he writes the monthly Mindszenty Report, devoted to cultural issues, (mindszenty.org), contributes regularly to the St. Louis Review and is a regular substitute for Phyllis Schlafly’s weekly program on KSIV radio. Most importantly he has been married to Judy his wife of over 42 years and they have three adult children* who really seem to like them and four grandchildren that make it all seem worth their trouble.
*Someone once wrote that insanity is hereditary. You catch it from your children. Perhaps his interest in the theater is like that. His daughter, Michelle Borst-Hand is one of the founders of the Orange Girls and a winner of the 1st Kevin for Best Actress for her 2005 role in Separate Tables.
