1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
Now a major motion picture starring Paul Rudd
“A delightful book that recounts one of the strangest episodes in the history of espionage. . . . . Relentlessly entertaining.”—The New York Times Book Review
Moe Berg is the only major-league baseball player whose baseball card is on display at the headquarters of the CIA. For Berg was much more than a third-string catcher who played on several major league teams between 1923 and 1939. Educated at Princeton and the Sorbonne, he as reputed to speak a dozen languages (although it was also said he couldn't hit in any of them) and went on to become an OSS spy in Europe during World War II.
As Nicholas Dawidoff follows Berg from his claustrophobic childhood through his glamorous (though equivocal) careers in sports and espionage and into the long, nomadic years during which he lived on the hospitality of such scattered acquaintances as Joe DiMaggio and Albert Einstein, he succeeds not only in establishing where Berg went, but who he was beneath his layers of carefully constructed cover. As engrossing as a novel by John le Carré, The Catcher Was a Spy is a triumphant work of historical and psychological detection.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
November 2, 2011 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780307807090
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780307807090
- File size: 5301 KB
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Navigation
Table of contents to all chapters of the text via links.
Additional Information
Page breaks included
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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May 29, 1995
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. -
Starred review from May 30, 1994
Berg (1902-1972) was a third-string major league catcher for 15 seasons, but it's not for his lack of baseball skills he's remembered, but rather for his intellectualism and eccentricity. After graduating from Princeton in 1923 (he later earned a law degree at Columbia Unversity and studied at the Sorbonne), Berg joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. Dawidoff shows us the oddball Berg: he sometimes read 10 newspapers a day and he had ``a near mania for cleanliness.'' With the outbreak of WW II, Berg's ability to speak perhaps 18 languages was put to use working for ``Will Bill'' Donovan at the OSS. Berg played an important role in supplying information on the German nuclear threat and after the war helped corral European scientists for the U.S. After the OSS was disbanded, Berg was cashiered and awarded the Medal of Freedom, which he refused to accept. For the remaining 25 years of his life he became ``a vagabond, living on wit and charm and the kindness of friends.'' Dawidoff, a freelance writer, has done a wonderful job of unraveling the legends around the mystifying Berg. Photos.
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