Morris “Moe” Berg
One of America's WWII spies was a Major League Baseball catcher and shortstop. He also had a Princeton University degree in modern languages and the ability to speak in 12 different languages, among them Japanese, German, Spanish, Latin, and Portuguese. After graduating magna cum laude from Princeton, he studied French at the Sorbonne in Paris and law at Columbia University. His name was Morris “Moe” Berg.
Morris Berg was born in a Manhattan tenement,in New York city on March 2, 1902. He was the youngest of the three children of Russian-Jewish parents: the pharmacist Bernard Berg and his wife Rose Tashker. He had an older brother named Samuel, and a sister, Ethel.
In 1906, Bernard Berg bought a pharmacy in West Newark. In 1910 the Berg family moved again, to the Roseville section of Newark. Roseville offered Bernard Berg everything he wanted in a neighborhood — good schools, middle class residents, and not many Jewish immigrants.
In 1909, at the age of seven, “Moe” Berg began his baseball career playing for the Roseville Methodist Episcopal Church baseball team under a pseudonym of Runt Wolfe, that he made up.
Barringer High School.
In 1918, at the age of 16, he graduated from Barringer High School and during his senior year, the Newark Star-Eagle selected a nine-man "
dream team" with “Moe” Berg being named as third baseman.
After he graduated from Barringer High School, “Moe” Berg enrolled in New York University. He studied for two semesters there and played both baseball and basketball.
Moe Berg in Princeton.
In 1919, he transferred to Princeton University. “Moe” Berg played first base on the undefeated Princeton team during his freshman year. The following season he was the starting shortstop. “Moe” Berg was team captain his senior season and had a .337 batting average.
On June 26, 1923, Yale defeated Princeton 5-1 at Yankee Stadium to win the Big Three title. "Moe” Berg had a good day, He got two hits, at four at-bats with a single and a double. He also made several great plays at the shortstop position. Two teams, the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers, were interested in signing the young “Moe” Berg.
Princeton University.
He graduated with a degree in modern languages. “Moe” Berg had studied Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Sanskrit.
Years later a Chicago White Sox teammate, Ted Lyons, remarked "he can speak twelve languages but can't hit in any of them."
On June 27, 1923, “Moe” Berg signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers for $5,000. He played 49 games with Brooklyn that year and batted just .186. At the end of the season, “Moe” Berg sailed to Paris, France, where he enrolled at the Sorbonne.
In January 1924, he toured Italy and Switzerland. He was optioned by Brooklyn to the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association for the year 1924. He was loaned to the Toledo Mud Hens in August and he finished the season with a .264 average. “Moe” Berg spent 1926 with the Reading keystones of the International League and was selected off waivers, by the Chicago White Sox at the end of the season.
“Moe” Berg was admitted to the New York State bar in 1928. Even after he had joined a prestigious law firm, he kept playing baseball for the White Sox!
“Moe” Berg spent the next five seasons with the Chicago White Sox. He was converted to a catcher in 1927. "Moe" Berg was injured when he tore ligaments in his right knee. In 1931, the White Sox traded him to the Cleveland Indians, and he was then later traded to the Washington Senators.
The Senators picked him up for 1932 and “Moe” Berg played 75 games, hitting .236. 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.. He soon became very well known in the Washington D.C. area.
During the winter of 1932, “Moe” Berg, along with Lefty O'Doul, and Ted Lyons, went to Japan to teach baseball seminars at several Japanese universities. The other Americans returned to the United States after their assignments were over. However, “Moe” Berg stayed behind in order to "explore Japan". He then went on a lengthy tour Manchuria, Shanghai, Peking, Indochina, Siam, India, Egypt and finally to Berlin.
He returned again to Japan in 1934 as part of an all-star group of players. The group included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Earl Averill, Charlie Gehringer, Jimmie Foxx and Lefty Gomez. Despite the fact that “Moe” Berg was a mediocre, third-string catcher, he was invited at the last minute to make the trip.
He brought along a movie camera. Upon the all-stars’ arrival in Japan, "Moe" Berg gave a welcome speech in Japanese.
American All-Star baseball team on a trip to Japan.
The Major League All-Stars Team included: Babe Ruth, Yankees; Eric McNair, Philadelphia Athletics; Charlie Gehringer, Detroit Tigers; Lou Gehrig, New York Yankees; Jimmie Foxx, Philadelphia Athletics; Earl Averill, Cleveland Indians; Bing Miller, Philadelphia Athletics; Moe Berg, Washington Nationals/Cleveland Indians; Frankie Hayes, Philadelphia Athletics (who replaced the injured Charlie Berry of the Philadelphia Athletics); Lefty Gomez, New York Yankees; Earl Whitehill, Washington Nationals; Clint Brown, Cleveland Indians; Joe Cascarella, Philadelphia Athletics; and, Harold "Rabbit" Warstler, Philadelphia Athletics.
On November 29, 1934, while the rest of the All-Star Team was playing in Omiya, “Moe” Berg , dressed as a Japanese native, went to Saint Luke's Hospital in Tsukiji. “Moe” Berg went up on the rooftop of the hospital, which was one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo. From the hospital rooftop, he filmed the city and harbor with his movie camera.
“Moe” Berg was given his release by the Cleveland Indians, while he was in Japan.
Baseball catcher Moe Berg sitting in a dugout at a ballpark in San Antonio, Texas during spring training 1930.
After his return to the United States, he was picked up by the Boston Red Sox. In his five seasons with the Red Sox, “Moe” Berg averaged fewer than 30 games a season.
Boston Red Sox catcher Moe Berg (#22) attempts to tag unknown Cleveland Indians base runner at home plate during the August 4,1937 game at Fenway Park. Home plate umpire is Bill McGowan..
After his playing career ended, "Moe" Berg was a Red Sox coach in 1940 and 1941.
On February 21, 1939, "Moe" Berg made his first of three appearances on the radio quiz show, "Information, Please!" After he missed the first question, it was said that "Moe" Berg put on a dazzling performance. NBC received as many as 24,000 letters calling for his return on the show. He would appear twice more.
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".
On his third appearance, Clifton Fadiman, the moderator, started asking "Moe" Berg too many personal questions. "Moe" Berg did not answer any more questions and never appeared on the show again.
Regular "Information, Please!" show guest and sportswriter John Kieran, later said that
"Moe was the most scholarly professional athlete (I) ever knew."
Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, “Moe” Berg accepted a position with the Office of Inter-American Affairs on January 5, 1942. During the summer of that year, he screened the footage he had shot of Tokyo Bay for the military intelligence officers. “Moe” Berg's V.I.P. tourist photographs served as a guide and foundation for General Jimmy Doolittle’s famous “
thirty seconds over Tokyo” raid in 1942.
The Japanese speaking “Moe” Berg, had enjoyed considerable popularity with Japan’s sporting public during his several baseball-themed visits to Japan. In light of that, he offered to speak to the Japanese people in an effort to inspire the Japanese citizens to demand that the country's warlords cease further atrocities of war. “Moe” Berg's offer was accepted and broadcasting arrangements were handled by the United States government.
From August of 1942 until February 1943: - In early 1942, he resigned as a coach with the Boston Red Sox, having been induced by Nelson A. Rockefeller, then chief of the Office of Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, to become a “goodwill ambassador” to Latin America. "Moe"Berg’s assignment was to be a morale builder for American troops stationed in South America and teach baseball to the locals — and get a firsthand feel for Germany’s influence among America’s Latin neighbors. The six-month excursion by plane, train, jeep, and on foot took him through 20 countries. They thought that South America posed little threat to the United States, and they wanted to be where their talents would be put to better use.
Moe Berg (right) with Colonel Howard Dix. who ran the OSS Technical Section.
On August 2, 1943, “Moe” Berg accepted a position with the Office of Strategic Services. In September, he was assigned to the Secret Intelligence branch of the OSS and given a place at the OSS Balkans desk. In this role, “Moe” Berg parachuted into Yugoslavia during the Nazi German occupation, to evaluate the various resistance groups operating against the Nazis and to determine which one of them was the strongest. His evaluations were then used to help determine the amount of support and aid to give each group.
Joseph Broz (Tito)i.
“Moe” Berg’s mission was to talk to the Communist partisan leader Joseph Broz, who called himself Tito.
General Draza Mihailovich.
He was also to talk to the Serb partisan leader Draza Mihailovich.
Tito and Mihailovich were bitter enemies and could not work togather despite the fact that Germany occupied their country. Each one wanted to become the leader of Yugoslavia after the war. “Moe” Berg managed to get out of Yugoslavia and returned to the United States and reported to the OSS concerning his impression of both Yugoslav leaders. The United States backed the communist Joseph Broz, who called himself Tito.
Moe Berg courtesy of Samuel Berg.
In late 1943, “Moe” Berg was assigned to Project Larson, an OSS operation set up by OSS Chief of Special Projects John Shaheen. The stated purpose of the project was to kidnap Italian rocket and missile specialists out of Italy and bring them to the United States. However, there was another project hidden within Larson which was called Project AZUSA. “Moe” Berg was also given the task of interviewing Italian physicists to see what they knew about Werner Heisenberg and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker. It was similar in scope and mission to the Alsos project.
On May 4, 1944, "Moe"Berg left for London and the start of his mission. He traveled through Europe and, succeeded in getting into German occupied Norway, where the Germans had built a plant too make heavy water, designed to produce an atomic bomb. Because of his travels in Norway, he recognized that the German efforts were a long way from completion.
From May until the middle of December, “Moe” Berg hopped around Europe interviewing physicists and even trying to convince several to leave Europe and work in America. Despite “Moe” Berg's wartime vocation which called for anonymity, he did manage to betray himself on one occasion. While he was at a field hospital in France, “Moe” Berg could not resist the temptation to join in a game of catch with a couple of GIs. After the he had made a couple of throws one of the soldiers remarked,
"You're a pro." Soon afterwards the soldier added,
"You're a catcher". After he made another throw, his cover was blown,
"and your name is Moe Berg."
Werner Heisenberg.
At the beginning of December, “Moe” Berg attended a lecture by prominent German physicist Werner Heisenberg in neutral Zürich, in Switzerland. After the lecture, he managed to meet with Werner Heisenberg privately, He had been assigned to discover whether Werner Heisenberg knew how to produce the atomic bomb for Adolph Hitler, even if it wasn't until the last months of the war. “Moe” Berg's orders were to kill the scientist if there was any indication that the Germans were close to building an atomic bomb.
Fortunately, “Moe” Berg was not required to fulfill his orders, since he determined that the Germans were far behind in the race to build an atomic weapon.
“Moe” Berg then left Switzerland and traveled to Italy, France and again into Germany to find evidence concerning the German efforts to create the atomic bomb.
After the Second World War, Werner Heisenberg claimed that he had deceived Adolph Hitler into believing that the Germans would develop the atomic bomb soon.
“Moe” Berg returned to the United States on April 25, 1945, and resigned from the Strategic Services Unit - the successor to the OSS - in August of 1945.
Red Faber (left), "Moe" Berg and Chuck Comiskey.
The complete range of his activities may never be known, but his success was so important to the war effort that “Moe” Berg was awarded the United States Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor, in October, 1945. Two months after “Moe” Berg received the medal from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he returned it, after explaining that he was “uncomfortable” with it.
Although the war was over, the very private "Moe" Berg still adhered to the no-longer-binding wartime code of secrecy regarding any recollections of his spying assignments. Only in recent years have accounts of his intelligence activities become public. Without commenting on the specifics of the former Major Leaguer’s OSS clandestine assignments, government officials have referred to "Moe" Berg as a hero and described the results of his efforts as
“invaluable to our country.”
In 1952, "Moe" Berg was hired by the CIA to use his old contacts from World War II to gather information about the Soviet atomic science. For the $10,000 plus expenses that “Moe” Berg received, the CIA received nothing in return. The CIA officer who spoke with "Moe" Berg when he returned from Europe said that he was "flaky".
"Moe" Berg continued to serve his assignment for the CIA until 1954, when his contract expired. The CIA chose not to renew it. “Moe” Berg once again tried to serve the CIA and the CIA again declined.
For about the next 20 years, “Moe” Berg did not hold any real job. He lived mostly off of his relatives and friends who put up with him because of his great charm.
When someone would ask what he did for a living, he would reply by putting his finger to his lips, giving them the impression that he was still a spy.
“Moe” Berg was a life-long bachelor. He lived with his older brother Samuel for 17 years. Samuel said that "Moe" became
"moody and snappish" after the war and did not seem to care for much in life besides his books.
Samuel Berg finally grew tired with their arrangement and asked "Moe" to leave. Samuel even had eviction papers drawn up. After he was evicted from his brother's home, "Moe" Berg moved in with his older sister Ethel, who lived in Belleville, New Jersey. "Moe" Berg lved there for the last three years of his life.
"Moe" Berg had received a handful of votes for admission in "Baseball Hall of Fame" voting (four votes in 1958, and five in 1960).
When people would criticize "Moe" Berg for "wasting" his intellectual talent on the sport of baseball, he would always reply, "
I'd rather be a ballplayer than a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court".
"Moe" Berg also received many requests to write his memoirs, but turned them down. He almost wrote them in 1960, but he became indignate and quit after the co-writer thar was assigned to him, confused him with Moe Howard of the Three Stooges.
Morris Berg died in a Newark, New Jersey hospital on May 29, 1972, at age 70, from injuries that he sustained in a fall that occured at home. It is said that a nurse who was attending him when he died, recalled his final words as,
"How did the Mets do today?" (The Mets had won).
Morris Berg's remains were cremated and were spread over Mount Scopus in Israel. Mount Scopus lies outside of the walls of Old Jerusalem and within the municipal boundaries of today's City of Jerusalem.
Moe Berg by artist Graig Kreindler.
In 1934, five years before he retired from baseball, "Moe" Berg was picked to join the traveling American All-Star baseball team on a trip to Japan. Many of his teammates and baseball fans alike, have wondered why a player with a lifetime average of only .243 was chosen for the All-Star team along with players likes Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Why "Moe" Berg was chosen has never been disclosed yet, significantly.
Why, when the "All-Star team" was in Tokyo, did "Moe" Berg, who spoke Japanese, slip away and take covert movies of the Tokyo skyline, the Tokyo harbor, and the munitions facilities from the top of the city's tallest building?
The movies were then later used in the planning of United States bombing raids over Tokyo in 1942. Was the baseball event the beginning of "Moe" Berg's involvement in espionage?
In spite of his outstanding academic and intellectual accomplishments, did "Moe" Berg choose a career as an athlete because of his love of baseball?
Some biographers and historians have speculated that "Moe" Berg's entire professional baseball career was an elaborate cover for his second occupation as a spy for the United States.
"Moe" Berg maintained, throughout his life, that his involvement in espionage only began in earnest after he retired from baseball in 1942. According to "Moe" Berg, he offered the Tokyo movie footage to the United States government on his own initiative and only after they officially employed him.
"Moe" Berg had planned to write his autobiography. He said it would reveal all the details about his career in the espionage world. The book was never written, and the complete story of his spy activities, and how and when they began, died along with him. Maybe it is better that he didn't write his book. If he had we would have read the book, had our discussions and then went on to another interest. By not having HIS book, we continue to speculate and to read about other's speculations, and so "Moe" Berg is talked about and will continue to be remembered. This will probably go on for many more years.
I guess that is partially why so many who knew him, called him "Mysterious"’ Moe Berg.
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Some years after his death, “Moe” Berg's Presidential Medal of Freedom award was accepted on his behalf by his sister.
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Some Books About "Moe" Berg
Tricia Andryszewski wrote
"The Amazing Life Of Moe Berg"
Vivian Grey wrote
"Moe Berg: The Spy Behind Home Plate"
Kurt Willinger wrote
"The Spy in a Catcher's Mask"
In 1976, reporters
Louis Kaufman of the Boston Globe and
Tom Sewell of the Boston Herald joined writer
Barbara Fitzgerald to write
"Moe Berg: Athlete, Scholar, Spy".
In 1994,
Nicholas Dawidoff wrote a biography,
"The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg".
“Moe” Berg was inducted into the
National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1996, and the
Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2000. 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! His is the only baseball card on display at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Chuck Brodsky, an American singer-songwriter, released a song entitled
"Moe Berg: The Song" on his 1998 album
"Radio".
