That book is on my "must read" list. Oh he played, not to well from what I hear, for the Chicago White Sox for a while. John

The Catcher Was a Spy is a great read!

I will be checking out the American Jewish Historical Society's baseball card offerings shortly. They could be a great addition to my broadly diversified collection of Red Sox baseball cards.

Berg was an interesting guy, but he became something of a nut case -- not to put too fine a point on it. For example, later in life, he used to wear one suit and wash it out in the tub every night.

Speaking of Jewish athletes, my grandfather played basketball in the WWI era at a Catholic college. Family lore has it that he was the first Jew to graduate from that college. My grandmother told the story of being in the stands at one basketball game and hearing a woman refer to him as "that nimble little Hebrew."

Great post about an unusual man.

Moe Berg, Baseball’s Man of Mystery, is Honored

Even though it was said that Moe Berg could speak 7 (or more) languages but couldn’t hit in any of them, he loved baseball – saying "I'd rather be a ballplayer than a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court."

Between 1923 and 1939 Berg played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Washington Senators, and the Boston Red Sox. He did have his moments as a baseball player: on July 31, 1936, in a game against the White Sox, Moe Berg hit a triple, double, and a single, helping the Boston Red Sox to win 7-3. Berg also held the record for consecutive errorless games.

But Moe Berg was much more than a major league baseball player – he was a major league patriot, who risked his life spying for the United States government before and during World War II. And that is why he was recently inducted into the Jewish-American Hall of Fame in a ceremony held appropriately at the International Spy Museum in Washington DC.

You will find high resolution pictures of the medal at: http://www.amuseum.org/jahf/Moe_Berg_BW_print.jpg (black & white) and http://www.amuseum.org/jahf/Moe_Berg_print.jpg (color).

An imaginative medal has been issued in Berg’s honor, designed by award-winning medallist Eugene Daub. It features a jigsaw puzzle portrait -- with one piece missing -- indicating the mystery surrounding the life of the honoree.
The Moe Berg medal is the 37th issue in what is now the longest continuing series of art medals in America. The 2 inch, 3 oz. high relief Berg medals are available to the public for contributions of $35 for bronze (limited to 500), $95 for pure silver (limited to 250), and $150 for gold-plated pure silver (limited to 50). Orders can be placed by emailing numismel@aol.com. Mention where you read about this and you will receive a free bonus coin honoring baseball pioneer Albert Spalding.

Morris “Moe” Berg was born in New York City on March 2, 1902. He was fortunate enough to grow up and do two things in life he really enjoyed -- playing baseball and being an intelligence officer! Moe majored in modern languages at Princeton University, where he played on a championship baseball team. After graduating in 1923, he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers as a first baseman. Later, while attending Columbia Law School, Berg joined the Chicago White Sox, initially as shortstop but later as catcher.

Berg was admitted to the New York State bar in 1928. Even after joining a prestigious law firm, he kept playing for the White Sox! But one day, Berg was injured when he tore ligaments in his right knee. In 1931, the Sox traded Berg to the Cleveland Indians, and later he was traded to the Washington Senators. He was a member of the Senators’ pennant-winning team in 1933, and set an American League record by catching in 117 consecutive games from 1931-1934 without making an error.

Because Moe was a baseball player with an unusual list of talents, he was always being invited to embassy dinners and parties … and soon became very well known in the Capitol. In 1934, Moe Berg, along with players such as Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, toured Japan with an American all-star baseball team … in spite of the fact that Casey Stengel is reported to have said that “Berg could speak in 8 languages, but couldn’t hit in any of them.” The government asked him to make some films of Tokyo Harbor and some military installations while he was there, giving Moe his first taste of intelligence gathering … and he was hooked!

In 1938, Berg appeared on the radio quiz show "Information, Please!" It was these appearances that really made him nationally known. He was dazzling, and NBC received as many as 24,000 letters calling for his return. He would appear twice more.

The last baseball team Moe played for was the Boston Red Sox, where he later coached until 1941. Moe Berg got his chance to contribute more to his country when he was asked to tour Latin America for the Office of Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, an agency set up to counter German, Italian and Japanese propaganda in Latin America. His natural ability in languages helped Moe to meet government officials, journalists, and businessmen … and he reported much useful information to the agency’s head, Nelson Rockefeller. Moe Berg’s really big break came in 1943 when he was recruited into the Office of Strategic Services as a civilian employee. His first assignment was a secret mission to Yugoslavia to assess the strength of the two rival leaders there -- Draza Mihajlovic and Joseph Broz Tito. He correctly reported that Tito was stronger.

General William Donovan, the head of the OSS, placed Berg on the AZUSA project. This project looked at the enemy's progress in developing nuclear weapons. He interviewed scientists in Rome two days after the city was liberated by US troops to see how far the Italians had progressed in their research. Berg also entered German-occupied Norway as part of an Allied effort to find and destroy a heavy-water plant. In Switzerland, Berg found out from a visiting German scientist not only how far along the Germans were in developing their weapons of mass destruction, but also the location of the German scientists. This information came in handy after the fall of Germany, when Allied forces found the scientists and took them to England before Soviet forces could find them.

After the OSS was dissolved in 1945, Moe Berg served on the staff of NATO's Advisory Group for Aeronautical Research and Development. He was awarded the Medal of Freedom by the United States in 1946, but modesty led him to return it. Moe Berg may not be in the Baseball Hall of Fame, but he is the only baseball player honored by both the CIA Hall of Fame and the International Spy Museum!