With relatives visiting this weekend I took a couple of days
off from work and at one point it was with great anticipation we sat down to
watch a movie I’d recorded on the DVR entitled, “The Catcher Was a Spy” about
the exploits of former journeyman catcher Moe Berg. I was peripherally familiar with Berg’s story
– a catcher who was fluent in multiple languages who was subsequently recruited
by the US government to become a World War II spy.
During his career Berg didn’t do much to distinguish himself
during his 15 years mostly in the American League as a backup with a lifetime
.245 AVG. He actually entered baseball in
1923 as a shortstop against the Philiadelphia Phillies in the old Baker Bowl in
1923, playing a handful of games well
but only hitting .187. He was sent to
the minors and initially refused to report, considering what life would be like
outside of baseball. When he did, he hit
quite well initially where they inserted him in at third base, but after a
prolonged slump he was back on the bench.
He shuffled around the minors for awhile, never doing
another prolonged stretch during which a pro scout by the name of Mike Gonzalez
offered up a succinct evaluation which has entered the lexicon of scouts
everywhere when referring to Berg, “Good field, no hit.”
Eventually he had a good season playing for the Reading
franchise and the White Sox until playing for a White Sox affiliate where
he finished the season with a .311 AVG with 124 RBIs. By this point he’d already skipped a season
to spend a year studying at the Sorbonne, then enrolled at Columbia Law School
where he skipped his first Chicago spring training and lost his opportunity
when the shortstop they hired to replace him took over his job. He continued his studies at Columbia, missing
a lot more time away from baseball, but a series of injuries to three catchers
left the White Sox with nowhere else to turn and thus began Berg’s career as a
catcher.
Berg did pass the New York State Bar and completed his
studies at Columbia. He also took his
new found role as catcher seriously, spending one winter working outdoors at an
upstate New York lumberyard to arrive in his best ever condition. It worked as he led the league in assists,
double plays by a catcher and in the top echelon in all other defensive
metrics. A knee ligament injury derailed his career and
he never resumed hitting well, though he continued a fine career as a receiver.
During 1932 he, Lefty O’Doul and Ted Lyons took a tour of
Japan, teaching baseball skills all over the island nation. They visited all of the major universities to
demonstrate how professional baseball should be played. Berg enjoyed his time there, learned the
language and toured all over Asia and other parts of the world absorbing
various foreign cultures and learning additional languages.
Berg was tapped for a barnstorming tour of Japan against an
All Star team of local players. This
time his squad included folks like Babe Ruth, Earl Averill, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Gomez
and Charlie Gehringer. While there he
took movies with his own hand-held camera which provided the US intelligence
agencies footage showing the city from a high vantage point atop a
building.
Nicknamed “Professor” due to his Ivy League background and
his affinity for languages, Berg also made an appearance on a popular radio quiz
show called, “Information, Please” which was kind of the forerunner to today’s
Jeopardy. He won handily until the host
started asking too many personal questions which caused the fiercely private Berg
never to return.
In 1942 Berg began working in a variety of roles for the US
government, first helping South American and Caribbean troops stay in condition
for battle, but they soon realized with his skills he was being wasted in that
capacity. He subsequently joined the OSS
(predecessor to the CIA) and was in charge of keeping track of activity in Yugoslavia
and the Balkans during the war.
He later was recruited for his ultimate mission, to confer
with physicists all over Europe to ascertain whether or not the Germans had the
skillset to build a nuclear bomb. He was
in fact given permission to assassinate Werner Heisenberg, head physicist if he
was convinced the Germans were indeed ready.
(Most of us only know Heisenberg’s name as the alter ego of crystal meth
kingpin Walter White in “Breaking Bad”). For his efforts Berg was offered and refused the
Medal of Freedom, the highest honor that could be given to a civilian by the US
government.
The movie based on his life was oddly cast with comedy star Paul
Rudd in the lead role. It was
interesting to see someone tackle his life on film but the execution of the
project was not very good. Still, for
anyone unfamiliar with this interesting side note related to a ballplayer, it
might be worth a couple of hours of your time to see his life dramatized. For people with more time perhaps you’d be
better off reading one of the five books profiling his career as a catcher and
as a spy.
5 comments:
I did see the Paul Rudd flick - had not known the Moe Berg story before that. Truly amazing, in all respects.
On a baseball note, I sometimes wonder why one of a myriad of infielders doesn't convert to catcher like Berg did, in order to 1) get to the big leagues and 2) stay there for quite a while.
I haven't seen the movie, but I read the book with (1 think) the same title. He certainly was a larger-than-life character.
Thanks for the fine summary.
Good stuff.
Wow. Learn something new every day. Great piece of history. Thank you!
Dwight
Hey Reese- David Rubin here (having trouble signing in for some reason.) I read the book years ago, a gift from my dad. We know someone who had crossed paths with Berg a number of times, to be told that he was aloof and unengaging to chat with. I LOVED the book, but agree with you that the movie was just so-so.
There IS a documentary out by the same person, Akiva Kemperer, who did the great Hank Greenberg documentary, and it's playing in a few venues around the country before wider release. I hear that the documentary is FAR superior to the Rudd movie.
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