Bill Borst Brownie Bits
*** Early in my one-man play, The Last Memory of an Ol’ Brownie Fan, I recreated a similar conversation I had many years ago with a guy in a bookstore. We were talking for several minutes about the Browns. Everything was going fine until, he mentioned his favorite quarterback, Bernie Sipe. We weren’t even talking about the same sport.
*** Deja vous? Here’s an excerpt from an article in the paper: The Browns executives went to Atlanta for the interview, the second officially conducted by the Browns in their search to replace Eric Mangini.
On Friday, the St. Louis Browns asked offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur in Cleveland. Next week they plan to interview New York Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell Philadelphia and perhaps offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg.
It is also possible that Browns talk to Jon Gruden and John Fox – that is, if the Browns have not already. The team is now looking for the fifth coach in Cleveland since 1999 very discreet, choosing only to confirm interviews after they have occurred. -In fact these real jobs...that the government busy work. http://usspost.com/pat-shurmur-25981/
*** A recent question about Hall of Fame players from Missouri prompted a review of the life of former football and baseball great, Cal Hubbard. Hubbard broke the stereotype about an umpire’s vision. He had the best-recorded eyesight with an outstanding 20/10 vision, even surpassing that of Boston’s Teddy Ballgame. The American League umpire is the only man who is in the baseball, college and professional football halls of fame. As an umpire his fame included being the first to eject a pitcher for doctoring the baseball in a game. Who was the umpire’s victim? Why Dr. Nelson Potter from the league champion St. Louis Browns of course!
*** I was sorry to see the passing of Brownie Perry Currin. I have to confess I was not familiar with his short-lived Brownie career. I was fortunate to meet him at our summer luncheon. The cold fact that now two of our players, who attended that luncheon have died since then, underscores how fragile the future is for our surviving players. Of the 795 players to wear a Brownie uniform, there are only 35 left to us. So anytime we can get a few of them together is not only a blessing but also a golden opportunity.
*** It is always good to see the St. Louis Browns pop up unexpectedly in the New York Times or Wall Street Journal. A few months ago the WSJ published a short list---just six teams, who had the “longest consecutive streaks of winning teams losing series against sub-.500 teams.” Got that? Sounds like something a Sabermetrician made up---like WHIP. Of the teams listed, the St. Louis Cardinals set a new record last season by dropping 8 series to losing teams. They broke the record of the 1963 Orioles, followed by the Cards again in 1998. The last two teams were both Brownie renditions. Both the 1942 and 1929 Browns dropped six straight series to lesser teams. Bet you didn’t know that! Feel free to send us any tidbits that might be of interest to Brownie fans.
*** Thought he never played for the Browns, I think we should note the passing of former major leaguer, Dick Sisler, George’s last surviving off-spring, whose name is certainly recognizable to Brownie fans. A former executive at the brokerage house, A. G. Edwards, Dick died on January 9th of this new year. Though he spent most of his childhood in the shadow of his famous father, he was a high school standout who enjoyed seven seasons in the “Big Show,” playing with several teams, including Boston and Detroit. A magna cum laude graduate of Princeton, he was on hand when Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki broke his father’s long-standing record of 257 hits in a single season.
Bill Borst, Founder
Club Address:
St. Louis Browns Fan Club
P.O. Box 510047
St. Louis, MO 63151
314-892-8632
stlbrowns@swbell.net
