Harold Kasselman's Reviews > The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg

This is an exhaustive and at times exhausting read about one of the most mysterious characters of baseball history. The author interviewed literally several hundred people aside from the many articles and books about Moe Berg. Unfortunately there are hundreds of names mentioned in the book so the reader is at a loss to keep them in context. The early baseball years were for me the most interesting and easy to follow. The OSS or "spying years" were too detailed and full of unnecessary and repetitive information. In fact the personality traits of Berg and his idiosyncrasies are told and retold so many times that the book becomes tedious to read. I credit the author for his diligent work and for framing this mysterious man into a psychologically cogent personality type that renders Moe Berg more comprehensible. Perhaps the best chapter in the book is the last chapter which traces the origins of Berg's insecurities from his father's lack of empathy and support to his Jewish roots: both of which made Berg obsessively insecure and in constant need for recognition. Frankly, as a Jew who had always felt pride in the baseball/spy character of Moe Berg, I have to say that this book has shattered my opinion. He was in many ways a charlatan, a self centered man who could never maintain an intimate relationship, a vagabond, an unabashed freeloader, and a man incapable of giving back. He was a man bestowed with a great intellect(not as great as he led others to believe), a man who could have had a successful baseball career but who feared competition and therefore contented himself as a third string catcher, a man with a law degree that he obtained while playing baseball but who practiced for only a few months, and a man who lived his last twenty five years of life literally doing nothing but reading papers and living off the generosity of others. This book saddened me. Somehow the author concludes that Berg lived a life of independence and lived the way he wanted. Somehow I doubt that very much. My rating is 3.5 stars.