Alexandria Barilone's Reviews > The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg

The Catcher was a spy: the secret life of Moe Berg by Nicholas Dawidoff is a biography on the famous catcher Moe Berg. Throughout the book you start with the smart young Morris Berg, and learn about his amazing learning ability. As Moe grows up we learn about his passion for baseball and see him play for Princeton, The Red Soxs, Dodgers, and many other big league teams. As he grows he learns his real calling in baseball is to be a catcher, rather than the shortstop position he had previously made. In the 1940’s Moe Berg found a job that suited him perfectly, and that was being a spy. He was a very mysterious man and no one every truly knew the real Moe Berg.

This book helped me understand a lot more about World War two. During Hitler’s A Bomb scare Moe was a spy who was sent to track down any information he could on the bomb, and the scientist. The scientist in charge was Dr. Werner Heisenberg, he was a German scientist who refused to leave Germany, but was anti-Nazi. He followed clues trying to figure out where Heisenberg was, which allowed Berg to do what he loved most, travel. During Moe’s many missions, they would periodically lose touch with him for weeks to even months, and the next ting you’d know Moe was back after spending a ton of money and claiming what he did was top secret. Moe was extremely good at his job. He received extremely important Intel that helped the US. He found out that Hitler’s A Bomb was just a hoax, and saved Dr.Heisenberg’s life, there were many ideas to end Heisenberg’s life, and Berg nearly did himself, but he made a choice and decided that the Doctor was not a Nazi, just a very nationalistic German, and spared the doctors life. There were also talks of having him kidnapped and brought to the US, although they were considered they never really happened. Berg did meet Hiesenberg once, he listened to a molecular physics lecture that Moe had to use to Judge wither or not Hiesenberg was a threat, in the end he was not.
Moe was extremely secretive; the author quotes a huge Moe berg fan whom followed him for years. Owen a fan who tracked most of moe's life says “I don’t know him now. I don’t know if anybody knows Moe Berg. He kept secrets from everybody. Nobody’ll ever know him.” (Pages 4-5). The author’s bias for writing the book was that he wanted to show the world who the real Moe Berg was; everyone knew a different side of him. He was completely different person with his family, his friends, his teammates and in the OSS. He always kept what he felt to himself, he was a very self-conscience man, he was Jewish and had to deal with some anti-Semitism at his college Princeton, and when he played baseball. When growing up his dad tried to hide their beliefs while trying to keep them at the same time. This confused him a lot, and helped created what seems to be a social phobia although it’s odd. Moe was scared to tell people too much of himself, yet he was more than happy to pose for pictures, and always knew how to speak and react to people. Other people always had no problem opening up to berg and becoming quick friends, although his friendships never lasted long. I’ve learned a lot about Moe Berg, he has become one of my favorite people throughout reading this book, and even though no one will ever truly know a hundred percent of Moe Berg I feel like I'm close to it and I relate to him on many different aspects of life. Moe Berg was a well-liked, well known, and knowledgeable man.