Here’s
an interesting
piece of
history most
of us never
heard about.
When
baseball
greats Babe
Ruth and Lou
Gehrig went on
tour in
baseball-crazy
Japan in 1934,
some fans
wondered why a
third-string
catcher named
Moe Berg was
included.
Although he
played with 5
major league
teams from
1923 to 1939,
he was a very
mediocre ball
player. He
was regarded
as the
brainiest
ballplayer of
all time. In
fact Casey
Stengel once
said: That is
the strangest
man ever to
play baseball.
When all the
baseball stars
went to Japan,
Moe Berg went
with them and
many people
wondered why.
The
answer was
simple: Moe
Berg was a
United States
spy working
undercover
with the OSS
forerunner to
the CIA. Moe
spoke 15 languages
- including
Japanese - Moe
Berg had two
loves:
baseball and
spying. In
Tokyo, garbed
in a kimono,
Berg took
flowers to the
daughter of an
American
diplomat being
treated in St.
Luke's
Hospital - the
tallest
building in
the Japanese
capital. He
never
delivered the
flowers. The
ball-player
ascended to
the hospital
roof and
filmed key
features: the
harbor,
military
installations,
railway yards,
etc. Eight
years later,
General Jimmy
Doolittle
studied Berg's
films in
planning his
spectacular
raid on Tokyo.
Berg's
father,
Bernard Berg,
a pharmacist
in Newark, New
Jersey, taught
his son Hebrew
and Yiddish.
Moe, against
his father's wishes,
began playing
baseball on
the street
aged four. His
father
disapproved
and never once
watched his
son play. In
Barringer High
School, Moe
learned Latin,
Greek and
French. Moe
read at least
10 newspapers
every day. He
graduated
magna cum
laude from
Princeton -
having added
Spanish,
Italian,
German and
Sanskrit to
his linguistic
quiver. During
further
studies at the
Sorbonne, in
Paris, and
Columbia Law
School, he
picked up
Japanese,
Chinese,
Korean,
Indian,
Arabic,
Portuguese and
Hungarian - 15
languages in
all, plus some
regional
dialects. While
playing
baseball for
Princeton
University,
Moe Berg would
describe plays
in Latin or
Sanskrit.
During
World War II,
he was
parachuted
into
Yugoslavia to
assess the
value to the
war effort of
the two groups
of partisans
there. He
reported back
that Marshall
Tito's forces
were widely
supported by
the people and
Winston
Churchill
ordered
all-out
support for
the Yugoslav
underground
fighter,
rather than
Mihajlovic's
Serbians. The
parachute jump
at age 41
undoubtedly
was a
challenge. But
there was more
to come in
that same
year. Berg
penetrated
German-held
Norway, met
with members
of the
underground
and located a
secret heavy
water plant -
part of the
Nazis' effort
to build an
atomic bomb. His
information
guided the
Royal Air
Force in a
bombing raid
to destroy the
plant.
The
R.A.F.
destroys the
Norwegian
heavy water
plant targeted
by Moe Berg. There
still remained
the question
of how far had
the Nazis
progressed in
the race to
build the
first Atomic
bomb. If the
Nazis were
successful,
they would win
the war. Berg
(under the
code name
"Remus") was
sent to
Switzerland to
hear leading
German
physicist
Werner
Heisenberg, a
Nobel
Laureate,
lecture and
determine if
the Nazis were
close to
building an
A-bomb. Moe
managed to
slip past the
SS guards at
the
auditorium,
posing as a
Swiss graduate
student. The
spy carried in
his pocket a
pistol and a
cyanide pill. If
the German
indicated the
Nazis were
close to
building a
weapon, Berg
was to shoot
him and
then swallow
the cyanide
pill. Moe,
sitting in the
front row,
determined
that the
Germans were
nowhere near
their goal, so
he
complimented
Heisenberg on
his speech and
walked him
back to his
hotel.
Werner
Heisenberg -
he blocked the
Nazis from
acquiring an
atomic bomb. Moe
Berg's report
was
distributed to
Britain's
Prime
Minister,
Winston
Churchill,
President
Franklin D.
Roosevelt and
key figures in
the team
developing the
Atomic Bomb.
Roosevelt
responded:
"Give my
regards to the
catcher." Most
of Germany’s
leading
physicists had
been Jewish
and had fled
the Nazis
mainly to
Britain and
the United
States. After
the war, Moe
Berg was
awarded the
Medal of
Freedom,
America’s
highest honor
for a civilian
in wartime.
But Berg
refused to
accept, as he
couldn't tell
people about
his exploits. After
his death, his
sister
accepted the
Medal and it
hangs in the
Baseball Hall
of Fame in
Cooperstown.
March
2,1902 -- May
29, 1972 Presidential
Medal of
Freedom (the
highest award
to be awarded
to civilians
during
wartime) Moe
Berg’s
baseball card
is the only
card on
display at the
CIA
Headquarters
in Washington
DC.
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