Product Description

The only Major League ballplayer whose baseball card is on display at the headquarters of the CIA, Moe Berg has the singular distinction of having both a 15-year career as a catcher for such teams as the New York Robins and the Chicago White Sox and that of a spy for the OSS during World War II. Here, Dawidoff provides "a careful and sympathetic biography" (Chicago Sun-Times) of this enigmatic man. Photos.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #337853 in Books
• Published on: 1995-05-30
• Released on: 1995-05-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 453 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Dawidoff uncovers the enigmatic life of former major-league catcher Berg, who, following his baseball stint, became a spy for the OSS assigned to find information on Nazi nuclear capabilities.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Baseball catcher, lawyer, and spy-Moe Berg was all of these, but first and foremost he was an enigma. All the ascertainable facts concerning Berg's life are presented here, including his 19 years as the most famous journeyman catcher in professional baseball; his stint at Columbia University and subsequent abortive legal career; his investigation of Germany's atomic bomb program for the Office of Strategic Services (a predecessor of the CIA) during World War II; and his postwar years, in which he lived off the kindness of friends. Dawidoff has done a lot of research on a fascinating subject but draws few conclusions, and his overall theme seems to be the impenetrability of his subject. In the end, Berg remains a mystery. A marginal purchase.
--Terry Madden, Boise State Univ. Lib., Id.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
For all his renown as a big-league catcher, wartime spy, and Renaissance man, Moe Berg emerges from the pages of this book as very much a phantom. He played 13 seasons in the majors but was never more than a third-string catcher. He earned the Medal of Freedom by spying on the German's A-bomb project for the OSS but was later dropped by the CIA as ineffectual. He could use his Princeton-trained intellect to associate with Nobel laureates, diplomats, and linguists (Berg spoke many languages but, as a teammate put it, couldn't hit in any of them), yet he never truly applied that intellect. Thus, readers are left with an intriguing plot and a cast of fascinating supporting characters but a disappearing protagonist. And as with any phantom, it's entirely fair for those readers who finish the book--however great in number they may be--to ask themselves, Was he worth looking for? Alan Moores

Customer Reviews

A REAL-LIFE JOHN LE CARRE CHARACTER
Moe Berg is truly one of the most interesting, and enigmatic, characters in sports history. What always fascinated me was how, after WWII and no longer in baseball, Berg never worked. He would stay at friends and relatives' homes throughout the country, reading multiple newspapers, and maintaining strict control of those papers. My guess, and this would make for an interesting investigative study, is that he stayed on the OSS/CIA payroll and was working for them, in some capacity: Dissecting the news, dealing with Communist espionage - or who knows, maybe he was working with foreign elemnets. Berg was something. He has to be considered a major hero. Surely the fact that he was an ex-ballplayer makes him stand out from the other heroes under "Wild Bill" Donovan, as does the fact that a Jew was sent to Nazi-controlled Finland to get German scientists. This is a terrific story. (...)

A Trudge
I'd been anticipating reading this book for some time, but getting through it was a chore. Dawidoff's writing and research are thorough. Berg left behind a wealth of personal material and many who knew him were still alive and available by phone or personal interview to Dawidoff. Hundreds of anecdotes and details about Berg's life emerge from these resources, and Dawidoff marches them all past the reader. The question is "Why?" Berg never becomes very interesting. It is well-known that he was a mediocre major league catcher. He was not much better as a spy, excelling mostly at running up large expense accounts. His tradecraft was abysmal; making and keeping notes to himself about briefings he received is such a fundamental error as to be ludicrous. After more than 300 pages it remained hard for me to take Berg seriously in any of his endeavors. In the end this is the biography of a moderately interesting obsessive dilettante, whose avoidance of normal human contact except on his own often strange terms seems almost pathological. Dawidoff tries valiantly but a New Yorker profile of about one-tenth this length would have been a sufficient account of Moe Berg's mildly curious life.

The Spy Who Couldn't Come in From The Cold
Moe Berg was one of those people who could never conform to conventional life. He decided early on in his adult life to march to the beat of his own drummer, letting very few people know the true man. Nicholas Dawidoff in his book "The Catcher was a Spy" explores this strange individual.
Berg started out as a professional baseball player, who was a Princeton and Columbia Law School graduate. A star in high school and college but a medicore one in the pros. Berg was a man who liked being on a team but did not mind not playing very often, the antithesis of most athletes. Baseball gave him the opportunity to travel, meet people and do the things that interested him such as prowling old bookstores, reading tomes on linguistics and scientific topics. When Berg played all games were played in the afternoon giving him plenty of time to indulge in his solitary persuits. For the most part his teammates tended to be country boys or young men with limited educations, although it would be wrong to say there were no players in the 1920's or 1930's who went to college like Berg.
Berg got into the espionage business during World WarII working for "Wild Bill" Donovan's OSS. Moe was a skilled linguist familiar with six or seven different languages, he was also gifted enough to learn a great deal about atomic physics while trying to ferret out information about Germany's attempt to create an atomic bomb. His four years in the OSS were his salad days and he would live off these exploits the rest of his life. Donovan ran a very loose ship and Berg many times ignored his superiors orders, but because Donovan liked him he was able to avoid the rules and regulations.
This inability to conform to bureaucratic rules was his undoing after the war. Berg desparately wanted to join the CIA but those running the agency during peace-time expected field agents to account for their time and expenses something Moe could not or would not do.
The last 25 years of his life he became a total vagabond living on the charity of friends and family. He was a personable man and a spinner of yarns, but his stories always put himself in the best light. Berg floated from place to place never leeting anyone know him well or wearing out his welcome.
Dawidoff does a very good job describing Berg's life in baseball and the OSS, but the book bogs down in the chapters depicting his life when the CIA would not hire him except for several brief stints. Essentially, everyone who knew him said basically the same thing about him. A nice guy but aloof never going beyond a certain point in a relationship that he did not want you to know.
Considering the banalities that most athletes today spout the book is worth the read just to reminisce about a bygone era. Berg was an enigmatic individual and the jury is still out on how much he contributed to the war effort. Dawidoff believes he did both to the OSS and to the teams he played for during his career. Moe Berg's failing was not utilizing his intellectual talents beyond living the life of a total free spirit without any responsibility.