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Related: About this forum(Jewish Group) This Veterans Day Remember This Jewish Dodger
Fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers no doubt consider Freddie Freeman a hero for his MVP performance in the World Series. But with Veterans Day approaching, all Americans should take a moment to appreciate the valor of a former Dodger less well-known to todays baseball aficionados Moe Berg, a catcher who spied for the U.S. during World War II.
Morris Berg was born to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents in a tenement on East 121st Street in Manhattan on March 2, 1902. At seven, demonstrating a passion for both the game and secret identities, he played for a Methodist Church team under the pseudonym Runt Wolfe.
After graduating Barringer High School, Berg played shortstop for Princeton, where he majored in modern languages. He and another teammate would communicate on the field in Latin.
As Nicholas Dawidoff details in The Catcher Was a Spy, his definitive biography of Berg, after graduating magna cum laude in 1923, Berg was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers (known then as the Robins) and batted .186 in 49 games. St. Louis Cardinals scout Mike Gonzalez notoriously coined the phrase good field, no hit after watching him play.
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From a few years ago...
Story Of Moe Berg, Baseball Player Turned WWII Spy, Set To Hit The Big Screen
Moe Berg was, as a baseball player, unexceptional. He played in the Majors, bouncing around the league for between 1923-1939, but he was a career .243 hitter, and is the inspiration for this ignominious, traditional baseball scouting assessment: Good field, no hit.
What a scouting report might have missed: Berg had degrees from Princeton and Columbia Law, studied at the Sorbonne during one off-season, and spoke seven languages (But he cant hit in any of them, a teammate once said). A diligent scout might have found that, but heres something they certainly wouldnt have uncovered: Moe Berg was to become a spy for the O.S.S.
Thats the premise for The Catcher Was A Spy, a big screen adaptation of the biography of the same name, by Nicholas Dawidoff (reviewed here by Jordan Hoffman). Directed by Ben Lewin (The Sessions, among others), the film debuted at Sundance last month, and stars Paul Rudd as Berg.
Berg was born to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents in a cold-water tenement on East 121st Street in Manhattan, hardly the typical starting point for a professional baseball player. But after the Bergs moved to Newark, he began to excel at the sport, and eventually became a stand-out shortstop at Princeton (graduating magna cum laude, of course).
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It wasn't the greatest of all time, but it was a good movie. And it has Paul Rudd!
Timeflyer
(2,689 posts)Spies Who Sabotaged the Nazi Atomic Bomb," features Berg.
Behind the Aegis
(54,901 posts)If so, was it any good?
Timeflyer
(2,689 posts)nycbos
(6,382 posts)DeeDeeNY
(3,523 posts)He was the first major leaguer to join the armed forces after the U.S. joined WW II and he served close to 4 years.