Reese Kaplan -- The Catcher Turned Spy Part Two of Three

When you see a movie that contained a famous spy with seemingly unassailable talents to do things like fire weapons with extraordinary accuracy, hand fight with skills like a championship boxer or ferret out answers to amazingly complex puzzles without blinking an eye, it's all part of the cliche for a larger than life hero.  What if during his offseasons from his primary work he obtained an Ivy League law degree from Columbia University, additional graduate level studies at the Sorbonne in Paris and even went to work at a law firm?  That would just bend belief a tad too far, right?

Wrong.  Moe Berg did all of those things.

An author named Sam Kean who wrote a book about how various scientists and non-military professionals actively interfered with the development of atomic weapons during World War II went onto call Berg "astute and aware of international relations."  The footage Berg took in Japan was prophetic about how his career would evolve when he hung up his spikes at the end of his long tenure with the Boston Red Sox.  

His first career transition wasn't all that essential as he became a coach.  Showing his depth and breadth of understanding the game of baseball he wrote an article for "Atlantic" that was entitled "Pitchers and Catchers" way back in 1941 which as recently as 2018 the New York Times still called, "one of the most insightful works ever penned about the game."  Given his intellect and long experience observing the game from the bench, this brainy output was not all that surprising.  

However, within a single year he would formally become a part of the government's quiet fight in preparation for what would become World War II.  to take full advantage of his skill with languages, his analytical abilities and his deeply held protection of his own privacy.  Berg never married, never had children and disclosed nothing about his own life to anyone throughout his lifetime.  Nelson Rockefeller and Wild Bill Donovan from the Roosevelt administration introduced him to government service.  In 1942 Rockefeller appointed him to a post with the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OIAA).

Initially with his OIAA work he was sent traveling to make full use of his skill with languages.  Covering the Caribbean and South America he was able to conduct conversations in native French and Spanish, reporting back on the attitudes of the people there, the many soldiers deployed and assessing the probability of their involvement of the escalating and spreading World War efforts.  He reassured the folks in his home office that these locations were relatively safe and not likely to be part of the military actions, so he convinced them to move instead to Europe which was the epicenter of the action.

Moving on from OIAA to Donovan's new Office of Secret Services (OSS), Berg was seemingly more in his element with an organization that fostered a more raucous and loosely structured way of doing things.  Berg may have been brilliant but was not the military uniform type, seldom being predictable and on time as was taught to soldiers to ensure their success.  

Berg's first European assignment was to identify what the Austrians and Germans were doing with respect to the use of nuclear energy for military weaponry.  His first assignment was to pose as a graduate physics student and attend lectures in Switzerland where he understood what was being said and picked up on side conversations that would hint at military intentions for technology the scientists studied.  Berg's language skills and scientific knowledge were helpful in conveying this information back to the US government while also meeting most of the world famous scientists invovled in everything from theoretical academic work to the Manhattan Project.  

Just when you thought things couldn't get even stranger and more unbelievable for catcher-turned-spy Moe Berg, as they say you ain't seen nothing yet.