Reed Browning has a song in his heart, and in his mind he's working out the chord progressions. Take that as a metaphor for a man who puts his enthusiasms into practice: a history professor whose creative efforts range from eighteenth-century Europe, to the heroic age of baseball, to the timeless staff of a musical score.

A veteran teacher whom students praise for his engaging, well-organized lectures, Browning regularly offers a variety of courses in European and American history. One of the highlights of "British History 1485-2000" is his Gilbert and Sullivan celebration, when half a dozen other faculty members come to class to sing the duo's satirical classics while Browning plays the piano. "It's loads of fun," says Browning, a winner of the College's Trustee Teaching Excellence Award.

Browning has written a book about the War of the Austrian Succession and a biography of the Duke of Newcastle. But he has also brought his scholarly skills to bear on his love of baseball - "I was one of those nerdish kids who liked to memorize lifetime batting averages," he admits. His biography, Cy Young: A Baseball Life, won the Casey Award in 2000 for the best baseball book of the year. More recently, he has published Baseball's Greatest Season:1924, which vividly recounts the season's drama while analyzing the business of baseball and the subculture of the players.

Baseball figures in Browning's other passion, music. A strong baritone who sings with the Kenyon-sponsored Gambier Community Choir, he has composed songs about such baseball legends as Babe Ruth and Joe Dimaggio, as well as settings for texts ranging from the Nicene Creed and the Te Deum to Wordsworth's sonnet "It Is a Beauteous Evening." An eclectic oeuvre, but one that is true to the spirit of a multi-talented scholar.