The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg

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The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg (eBook) Pub. Date: 11/2/2011 Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
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The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg (Reprint) Pub. Date: 6/1/1995 Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
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The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg (1st ed) Pub. Date: 6/1/1994 Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

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Overview

The only Major League ballplayer whose baseball card is on display at the headquarters of the CIA, Moe Berg has the singular distinction of having both a 15-year career as a catcher for such teams as the New York Robins and the Chicago White Sox and that of a spy for the OSS during World War II. Here, Dawidoff provides "a careful and sympathetic biography" (Chicago Sun-Times) of this enigmatic man. Photos.

Moe Berg was a baseball player and a spy, and one of the most colorful men ever to pursue either line of work. Long the source of speculation and fascination, Berg's life has never before been pieced together so seamlessly and to such riveting effect as it is now in this superb biography. 16 pages of photos.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

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. (June)

Library Journal

Baseball catcher, lawyer, and spy-Moe Berg was all of these, but first and foremost he was an enigma. All the ascertainable facts concerning Berg's life are presented here, including his 19 years as the most famous journeyman catcher in professional baseball; his stint at Columbia University and subsequent abortive legal career; his investigation of Germany's atomic bomb program for the Office of Strategic Services (a predecessor of the CIA) during World War II; and his postwar years, in which he lived off the kindness of friends. Dawidoff has done a lot of research on a fascinating subject but draws few conclusions, and his overall theme seems to be the impenetrability of his subject. In the end, Berg remains a mystery. A marginal purchase. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/ 94.]-Terry Madden, Boise State Univ. Lib., Id.

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From Barnes & Noble

Moe Berg is the only major-league ballplayer whose baseball card is on display in the headquarters of the CIA. After his 15-year baseball career, he went on to become a spy for the OSS during WWII. A work of historical detection. B&W photos.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780679762898
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date: 6/1/1995
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 480
Sales rank: 204,603
Series: Vintage Series
Product dimensions: 5.12 (w) x 8.00 (h) x 0.89 (d)

Meet the Author

Nicholas Dawidoff is the author of The Catcher was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg and In the Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of American Music, and is the editor of the Library of America’s Baseball: A Literary Anthology. He is also a contributor to The New Yorker, The American Scholar, and The New York Times Magazine. A graduate of Harvard University, he has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a Berlin Prize Fellow of the American Academy. He and his wife live in New York.

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Anonymous

Posted January 25, 2012

A great subject... difficult read!

Moe Berg was a fascinating subject -- quirky, mysterious, and always blazing a new trail. I expected some of that excitement to come through in this book, but that isn't the style chosen by the author. The book is an informative, accurate report of Berg's life and accomplishments, but the little bit of inference about motivations or rationale for behaviors reads more like a psychiatric evaluation. This is a good academic-style study of the man... complete with many complex words/phrases used where simpler more direct terms would have added clarity and readability. To me though, the toughest part of the book was the complete lack of emotion. You never get the impression that the author "liked" or "disliked" Moe Berg and even the stories are included for analysis and not warmth or fullness of the character. Moe deserves a more fully alive, "down home" biography treatment, even if some creative license may be required.
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Anonymous

Posted January 8, 2012

Excellent. Highly recommended, especially of interest to people from the Newark, NJ area.

I enjoyed this book so much I gave it as Christmas presents to many people this year.
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Anonymous

Posted January 29, 2004

painful........

of the three books i've read about moe berg this has to be the most disappointing. I read 60 pages and had to put the book down. Dawidoff does absolutely no justice to this wonderful story...
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Anonymous

Posted December 28, 2003

Moe Berg Lives!

Moe Berg was the most interesting character ever to don a baseball uniform - and certainly the most interesting baseball player ever to work as a spy. The story of his life is bizarre and compelling - the education, refinement, scientific and linguistic prowess (Berg was sent to Switzerland to assassinate Heisenberg if he thought he was far enough along on the development of a nuclear bomb - Berg guessed that he wasn't and was right) and his life as a professional 'mooch' after his spying career had come to an end add up to a fascinating story about a fascinating individual. Dawidoff handles the story deftly and the book is a joy to read.
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Anonymous

Posted July 5, 2002

great book!!

if you like reading about baseball and war, this book is for you!! it is a great read!! i would reccommend it to anybody!!
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