Moe Berg facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Moe Berg |
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1933 Goudey baseball card of Berg while with the Washington Senators
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| Catcher | |||||||||||
| Born: March 2, 1902 New York City, U.S. |
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| Died: May 29, 1972 (aged 70) Belleville, New Jersey, U.S. |
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| debut | |||||||||||
| June 27, 1923, for the Brooklyn Robins | |||||||||||
| Last appearance | |||||||||||
| September 1, 1939, for the Boston Red Sox | |||||||||||
| MLB statistics | |||||||||||
| Batting average | .243 | ||||||||||
| Hits | 441 | ||||||||||
| Runs batted in | 206 | ||||||||||
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Morris "Moe" Berg (March 2, 1902 – May 29, 1972) was an amazing American who played professional baseball and later became a spy during World War II. He was a catcher and coach in Major League Baseball for 15 seasons. Even though he was an average player, he was famous for being "the brainiest guy in baseball." People like Casey Stengel called him "the strangest man ever to play baseball."
Moe Berg was very smart. He graduated from Princeton University and Columbia Law School. He could speak many languages and read ten newspapers every day! He was even a contestant on a radio quiz show called Information Please. On the show, he answered tough questions about words, history, and world events.
During World War II, Berg worked as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which later became the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He traveled to different countries to gather important information for the United States government. For example, he went to Yugoslavia to learn about local resistance groups. He also went to Italy to talk to scientists about the German nuclear weapons program.
Contents
Early Life and School
Moe Berg was the youngest of three children. His father, Bernard, was a pharmacist from Ukraine, and his mother, Rose, was a homemaker. His family was Jewish and lived in New York City. When Moe was just three and a half, he was already eager to start school!
In 1906, his family moved to Newark, New Jersey, where his father bought a pharmacy. They moved again in 1910 to a part of Newark called Roseville. His father wanted a neighborhood with good schools and few Jewish families.
Moe started playing baseball at age seven. He played for a church team and used a fake name, "Runt Wolfe." In 1918, at 16, he finished Barringer High School. He was chosen as one of the best high school baseball players in the city. Moe was often one of the few Jewish students in the schools he attended.
After high school, Berg went to New York University for a year, playing baseball and basketball. In 1919, he transferred to Princeton University. He never talked about attending NYU, always saying he was a Princeton man. He earned a degree in modern languages, studying seven languages like Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Sanskrit. Even at Princeton, his background made him feel a bit like an outsider.
At Princeton, Berg played first base and then shortstop. He wasn't a great hitter or fast runner, but he had a strong arm and understood the game well. In his last year, he was team captain and had a good batting average. He and his teammate even used Latin to communicate plays during games!
In 1923, after a big game at Yankee Stadium, two major league teams, the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Robins, wanted to sign him. They hoped having a Jewish player would attract more fans in New York. The Robins were a weaker team, which meant Moe would have a better chance to play. On June 27, 1923, Berg signed his first professional contract with the Robins for $5,000.
Baseball Career
Starting Out (1923–1925)
Moe Berg's first game with the Brooklyn Robins was on June 27, 1923. He played shortstop and did well, getting a hit and scoring a run. For that season, he batted .187 and made 21 errors in 47 games. This was his only time playing in the National League.
After the season, Berg went on his first trip overseas to Paris. He lived near the Sorbonne and took 32 different classes! In Paris, he started a habit of reading many newspapers every day. He wouldn't let anyone touch a newspaper until he had finished reading it. In early 1924, instead of preparing for baseball, he traveled around Italy and Switzerland.
When he returned, his manager saw his hitting hadn't improved. Moe was sent to a minor league team, the Minneapolis Millers. He didn't like this, but he joined the team and played well for a while. Later, he was sent to another team, the Toledo Mud Hens. A scout famously described Berg's baseball skills as: "Good field, no hit." This meant he was good at playing defense but not at batting. He finished that season with a .264 batting average.
By April 1925, Berg started hitting better for the Reading Keystones. Because of his improved batting, the Chicago White Sox bought his contract for $6,000, and he moved up to the big leagues the next year.
Becoming a Catcher (1926–1934)
The 1926 season started with Berg telling the White Sox he would miss spring training and the first two months of the season. He wanted to finish his first year at Columbia Law School. He didn't join the team until May 28 and played in only 41 games, batting .221.
Berg kept studying law after the season. Even though the White Sox offered him more money, he chose to report late again for the 1927 season. He was on the bench for the first three months. But in August, several catchers got hurt, and the White Sox needed someone to play that position. The manager chose Berg, who did a great job.
In his first game as a starting catcher, he had to catch a tricky pitch called a knuckleball and face the famous New York Yankees lineup, including Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Berg helped his team win and made a great play at home plate. He caught eight more games that season.
To get ready for the 1928 season, Berg worked hard at a lumber camp. This made him very strong. He became the White Sox's main catcher. He was excellent at stopping runners from stealing bases and helped make many double plays. He also had his best season at bat in 1929, hitting .287.
Berg finished law school and passed the New York State bar exam in 1930. But in April, he tore a knee ligament during a game. This injury limited his playing time, and he only played in 20 games that season, batting very poorly. During the winter, he worked at a law firm.
The Cleveland Indians picked him up in 1931, but he played in only 10 games. He was released in 1932. However, the Washington Senators invited him to spring training. He made the team and played in 75 games without making an error. He was very good at throwing out base runners.
First Trip to Japan
In the winter of 1932, Moe Berg and two other players went to Japan to teach baseball at Japanese universities. After his coaching duties, Berg stayed to explore Japan. He then traveled to Manchuria, Shanghai, and Peking in China, and also to Indochina, Siam, India, Egypt, and Berlin, Germany.
He returned to play for the Senators in 1933, but his batting was not good. The Senators won their league but lost in the World Series. In 1934, Berg became the starting catcher when the main catcher held out for more money. He set an American League record of 117 games without an error. But on July 25, the Senators released him. The Cleveland Indians soon picked him up again after their catcher got hurt.
Second Trip to Japan
In 1934, a group of American All-Star baseball players, including legends like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, went to Japan to play exhibition games. Even though Berg was not a star player, he was invited at the last minute. He brought a movie camera because he had a deal with a news company to film his trip. When the team arrived, Berg gave a welcome speech in Japanese and was even invited to speak to the Japanese government.
On November 29, 1934, while his team was playing, Berg went to Saint Luke's Hospital in Tokyo. He pretended to visit the American Ambassador's daughter. But his real goal was to go to the hospital roof, one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo. From there, he filmed the city and the port with his camera. Years later, in 1942, Berg gave these films to American intelligence. They were used to help plan bombing raids during the war. While he was in Japan, the Indians released him from their team. Berg continued his travels to the Philippines, Korea, and Moscow in the Soviet Union.
Later Career and Coaching (1935–1941)
After returning to America, the Boston Red Sox signed Berg. He played fewer than 30 games each season during his five years with the Red Sox.
Moe Berg appeared on the radio quiz show Information, Please three times. He was incredibly impressive with his knowledge. The Baseball Commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, told him, "Berg, in just thirty minutes you did more for baseball than I've done the entire time I've been commissioner." A sportswriter on the show later called Moe "the most scholarly professional athlete (I) ever knew."
After his playing career, Berg worked as a Red Sox coach in 1940 and 1941. He also wrote an essay about baseball called "Pitchers and Catchers," which was highly praised.
Life After Baseball
Spying for the U.S. Government
When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States entered World War II. Moe Berg wanted to help. On January 5, 1942, he took a job with the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OIAA). A few days later, his father passed away. In the summer of 1942, Berg showed the film he shot of Tokyo Bay to U.S. military intelligence officers.
From August 1942 to February 1943, Berg worked in the Caribbean and South America. His job was to check on the health of American troops there. He left this job because he wanted to be in places where his skills would be more useful.
On August 2, 1943, Berg joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was America's spy agency during the war. He earned $3,800 a year. He worked in a part of the OSS that later became the CIA's Special Activities Division. He helped prepare Slavic-Americans for dangerous missions in Yugoslavia. His spy code name was "Remus."
In late 1943, Berg was part of a secret mission called Project Larson. One goal was to interview Italian scientists to learn what they knew about Werner Heisenberg and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, who were involved in the German nuclear weapons program.
From May to December 1944, Berg traveled around Europe. He interviewed scientists and tried to convince some to move to the United States to work. In November, the OSS learned that Heisenberg was giving a lecture in Zürich. Berg was sent to attend the lecture on December 18. His orders were to figure out if Heisenberg's words meant the Germans were close to building an atomic bomb. If they were, Berg had orders to shoot Heisenberg. Berg decided the Germans were not close to building a bomb. On direct orders from President Franklin Roosevelt, Berg convinced Antonio Ferri, a top Italian scientist, to come to the U.S. to help with supersonic aircraft development. When Berg returned with Ferri, Roosevelt joked, "I see that Moe Berg is still catching very well." Berg left the OSS in January 1946 after the war ended.
After World War II
In 1951, Berg asked the CIA (which had replaced the OSS) to send him to Israel. He felt it was his duty as a Jewish person. The CIA said no. But in 1952, the CIA hired Berg to use his old contacts to gather information about the Soviet atomic bomb project. However, the CIA didn't get any useful information from him.
For the next 20 years, Berg didn't have a regular job. He lived with friends and family. When asked what he did, he would put his finger to his lips, making people think he was still a spy. He never married. He lived with his brother Samuel for 17 years, but Samuel eventually asked him to leave. Berg then moved in with his sister Ethel in Belleville, New Jersey, where he lived until he died.
Moe Berg received some votes for the Baseball Hall of Fame, but he was never inducted. When people criticized him for "wasting" his intelligence on baseball, he said, "I'd rather be a ballplayer than a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court."
He was asked many times to write his life story but always refused.
Death
Moe Berg died on May 29, 1972, at age 70, after falling at home. A nurse said his last words were: "How did the Mets do today?" (They won!) As he wished, his body was cremated, and his ashes were spread over Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, Israel.
Legacy
- After the war, Moe Berg was offered the Medal of Freedom, the highest award for civilians during wartime. He refused to accept it without explaining why. The award citation praised his "exceptionally meritorious service" and "analytical abilities." After his death, his sister, Ethel, accepted the medal for him and later gave it to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
- In 1996, Berg was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
- In 2000, he was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals.
- His baseball card is the only one displayed at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Moe Berg in Books and Movies
- Nicholas Dawidoff wrote a book about Berg called The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg (1994).
- Berg is a character in the book The Bastard Brigade by Sam Kean.
- In 2017, in the TV series Genius about Albert Einstein, Moe Berg was played by Adam Garcia.
- A movie based on Nicholas Dawidoff's book, The Catcher Was a Spy (2018), starred Paul Rudd as Berg.
- The documentary film The Spy Behind Home Plate (2019) is also about Moe Berg.
- Chuck Brodsky wrote a song about him in 2002 called "Moe Berg: The Song."
See also
- Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story, 2010 documentary
- List of Jewish Major League Baseball players
- Operation Alsos
