New York-born (March 2, 1902), Newark-bred, Moe was the youngest of three children. Precocious, he had his father's facility for languages. After attending NYU for a year, he went to Princeton, and graduated (in the top 10% of 211 students) in 1923. He was, and perhaps remains, Princeton's best baseball player.
Signed by the Brooklyn Robins upon graduation, Moe played in 49 games, and had 138 plate appearances. At the end of the season, having made some money, he travelled to Paris. 1924 and 1925 he played in the minors, then joined the White Sox. Never a starter, he lasted in the buig leagues until 1939 as a player, his last 5 years in Boston, then coached. He was considered an excellent catcher, and some pitcher preferred him over other catchers.
Then came WW2. Through contacts, Moe was recruited by the OSS, and sent to Europe. His assignment was to help figure out if Germany was developing an atom bomb. His facility with languages, his proclivity for secrecy, and his charm, all combined to make him an effective operative. He was ssigned to figure out of Germany's leading phycisist, Werner Heisenberg, had the necessary resources for building the bomb. He didn't.
Once the war ended Truman disbanded the OSS, and the CIA retained about 10% of its operatives; Berg was not one of those. For the third part of his life, Moe defined his own existence, even if a shabby one at times.
Fascinating is an overused word (I'm guilty as charged), but Moe Berg was a fascinating individual. It would be difficult to botch such a book, and Dawidoff did a very nice job of it.
Dawidoff writes that a good piece on MB was written by Ira Berkow in the NY Times, 24 June 1972: The Catcher Was Highly Mysterious
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