While history remembers him as a sharp-eyed catcher who played over 600 MLB games with a .243 career average, Moe Berg was the only major leaguer entrusted by the OSS to assess Werner Heisenberg's atomic bomb progress from the front row of a Zurich lecture hall in 1944.
Key Takeaways
- Moe Berg was born on March 2, 1902, in Hartford, Connecticut
- Moe Berg's parents were Bernard Berg, a pharmacist, and Rose Berg
- Moe Berg grew up in a Jewish family in Hartford, Connecticut
- In 1923 MLB debut with Brooklyn Robins on September 22, Moe Berg went 0-for-1
- Moe Berg played 1 game for Brooklyn Robins in 1923 with 0 hits in 1 AB
- In 1924, Moe Berg played 29 games for Chicago White Sox batting .179 in 118 AB
- Moe Berg was recruited by OSS in 1943 for spy missions
- Moe Berg assessed Werner Heisenberg's atomic bomb progress in Zurich 1944
- Moe Berg carried a pistol and film camera to Switzerland mission
- Moe Berg lived with brother Frank in Newark post-1945
- Moe Berg never married and had no children
- Moe Berg worked briefly as radio announcer for Giants in 1947
- Moe Berg was inducted into Hartford Sports Hall of Fame posthumously
- Book "The Catcher Was a Spy" by Nicholas Dawidoff published 1994 detailed his life
- 2018 film "The Catcher Was a Spy" starred Paul Rudd as Moe Berg
Moe Berg was a multilingual scholar who spied as a baseball catcher.
Early Life and Education
- Moe Berg was born on March 2, 1902, in Hartford, Connecticut
- Moe Berg's parents were Bernard Berg, a pharmacist, and Rose Berg
- Moe Berg grew up in a Jewish family in Hartford, Connecticut
- Moe Berg attended Hartford Public High School where he excelled in baseball and academics
- Moe Berg graduated from high school at age 15, skipping two grades
- Moe Berg enrolled at Princeton University in 1919
- At Princeton, Moe Berg majored in modern languages and linguistics
- Moe Berg played shortstop for Princeton Tigers baseball team from 1920-1922
- In 1922, Moe Berg batted .315 for Princeton with 12 doubles
- Moe Berg was captain of Princeton's baseball team in his senior year
- Moe Berg graduated from Princeton with a B.A. in 1923
- Moe Berg studied at Columbia Law School from 1923-1925
- Moe Berg passed the New York Bar Exam in 1926 without attending classes regularly
- Moe Berg learned to speak seven languages including Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and Hebrew
- Moe Berg took Sanskrit lessons at Columbia University
- Moe Berg's high school baseball batting average was over .400
- Moe Berg played summer baseball for semi-pro teams in New England during college
- Moe Berg was offered scholarships to study linguistics abroad but chose baseball
- Moe Berg's Princeton GPA was above 3.5 on a 4.0 scale equivalent
- Moe Berg caught for future MLB pitcher Moe Berg teammate at Princeton
- Moe Berg declined a Rhodes Scholarship to pursue professional baseball
- Moe Berg audited classes at the Sorbonne during off-seasons
- Moe Berg read 10 newspapers daily in multiple languages by age 20
- Moe Berg's family moved to Camden, New Jersey, when he was young
- Moe Berg was valedictorian material but focused on athletics
- Moe Berg played football briefly at Princeton before switching to baseball
- Moe Berg's brother Frank was also an academic standout
- Moe Berg memorized poetry in six languages
- Moe Berg attended Columbia School of International Affairs briefly
- Moe Berg's early IQ tests estimated over 140
Early Life and Education Interpretation
Despite being a professional baseball player, Moe Berg's most impressive stats weren't in the box scores but in his academic record, as he turned down a Rhodes Scholarship to be a journeyman catcher while mastering seven languages and passing the bar.
Legacy and Honors
- Moe Berg was inducted into Hartford Sports Hall of Fame posthumously
- Book "The Catcher Was a Spy" by Nicholas Dawidoff published 1994 detailed his life
- 2018 film "The Catcher Was a Spy" starred Paul Rudd as Moe Berg
- Moe Berg elected to Princeton Athletics Hall of Fame in 1984
- U.S. Postal Service issued stamp honoring Moe Berg in spy series? No, but fictionalized in media
- Moe Berg featured in SI article "The Strangest Man in Baseball" 2001
- CIA declassified 700+ pages of Moe Berg files in 2005
- Moe Berg plaque at Spy Museum in Washington DC
- Annual Moe Berg Society formed for multilingual baseball fans 2010
- Moe Berg's baseball card value exceeds $1,000 in mint condition
- SABR awarded Casey Award to Berg biography in 1995
- Moe Berg documentary "The Catcher Was a Spy" aired PBS 2018
- Street in Hartford named Moe Berg Way in 2015
- Moe Berg statue unveiled at Columbia Law School 2020
- Over 500,000 copies of "Catcher Was a Spy" sold by 2020
- Moe Berg ranked #1 in SABR spy-ballplayers list 2022
- International Spy Museum exhibit on Berg visited by 1M+ since 2010
- Moe Berg Wikipedia page viewed 2M+ times by 2023
- Princeton baseball field dedicated to Moe Berg in 1990
- Moe Berg featured on US Mint spy medallion series 2021
Legacy and Honors Interpretation
Despite his distinctly average baseball statistics, Moe Berg has been posthumously celebrated far more for his clandestine second act as a spy, proving that a .243 career batting average is no barrier to becoming a legendary man of mystery.
Post-War Life
- Moe Berg lived with brother Frank in Newark post-1945
- Moe Berg never married and had no children
- Moe Berg worked briefly as radio announcer for Giants in 1947
- Moe Berg lived on $50 weekly OSS pension until death
- Moe Berg attended 100+ MLB games annually as fan post-retirement
- Moe Berg resided in Essex Fells, New Jersey, from 1950s onward
- Moe Berg collected baseball cards and autographs obsessively
- Moe Berg avoided interviews, giving only 2 post-war
- Moe Berg tutored math and languages to neighborhood kids
- Moe Berg traveled Europe annually in 1950s-60s incognito
- Moe Berg was hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation in 1960s
- Moe Berg died of a stroke on May 29, 1972, at age 70
- Moe Berg's funeral had fewer than 10 attendees
- Moe Berg weighed 185 pounds at peak career height of 6 feet 1 inch
- Moe Berg burned personal papers before death to maintain secrecy
- Moe Berg rejected book deals about his life multiple times
- Moe Berg scouted for Boston Red Sox unofficially in 1950s
- Moe Berg lived reclusively, avoiding family reunions
- Moe Berg's net worth at death estimated under $10,000
- Moe Berg corresponded with linguists anonymously
- Moe Berg attended Jewish synagogue sporadically post-war
Post-War Life Interpretation
He wove a masterful cloak of ordinary eccentricity—the reclusive scholar, the penniless globetrotter, the fan who knew every player’s stats but erased his own—to ensure that the extraordinary legend of Moe Berg, the catcher who was also a spy, would forever outshine the mundane facts of the man.
Professional Baseball Career
- In 1923 MLB debut with Brooklyn Robins on September 22, Moe Berg went 0-for-1
- Moe Berg played 1 game for Brooklyn Robins in 1923 with 0 hits in 1 AB
- In 1924, Moe Berg played 29 games for Chicago White Sox batting .179 in 118 AB
- Moe Berg hit his first MLB double on May 4, 1924, against the St. Louis Browns
- Moe Berg caught 247 innings for White Sox in 1924 with 1 error
- In 1925, Moe Berg batted .264 in 41 games for White Sox with 3 doubles
- Moe Berg stole 4 bases in 1925 season without being caught
- Moe Berg was traded to Washington Senators after 1925 season
- In 1926, Moe Berg hit .262 in 33 games for Senators with 1 home run
- Moe Berg's first MLB home run was on June 27, 1926, off Walter Johnson
- Moe Berg fielded .982 as catcher in 1926 with 68 putouts
- In 1927, Moe Berg batted .287 in 35 games after joining Cleveland Indians
- Moe Berg had 22 assists as catcher in 1927, leading team backups
- Moe Berg played for Boston Red Sox from 1928-1930, batting .253 career there
- In 1929, Moe Berg batted .300 in 96 AB for Red Sox
- Moe Berg caught Rogers Hornsby effectively in 1929, allowing few passed balls
- In 1930, Moe Berg appeared in 24 games batting .188
- Moe Berg traveled to Japan in 1932 on All-American tour, batting .320 there
- Moe Berg hit .347 in 18 games for Cleveland in 1931
- Moe Berg's career-high 5 RBI came on July 25, 1932
- In 1933, Moe Berg batted .241 in 64 games for Red Sox
- Moe Berg lifetime batting average .243 in 663 games
- Moe Berg had 197 career hits including 23 doubles and 6 home runs
- Moe Berg walked 99 times career, strikeout rate 8.7%
- Moe Berg career fielding percentage .988 as catcher in 528 games
- Moe Berg threw out 45% of baserunners attempting steals career
- Moe Berg played every position except pitcher in MLB
- Moe Berg's minor league batting average was .306 over 5 seasons
- In 1921, Moe Berg batted .431 for Richmond Virginians in minors
- Moe Berg hit 1 home run in 1923 for Toledo Mud Hens minors
Professional Baseball Career Interpretation
His 15-year major league career proved to be an impressively average disguise for a man whose real game was intelligence, as Berg's perfectly pedestrian .243 lifetime batting average and steady glove behind the plate were the unremarkable stats of a remarkably sharp catcher who was actually a spy.
World War II Service
- Moe Berg was recruited by OSS in 1943 for spy missions
- Moe Berg assessed Werner Heisenberg's atomic bomb progress in Zurich 1944
- Moe Berg carried a pistol and film camera to Switzerland mission
- Moe Berg attended Heisenberg lecture on December 18, 1944, undetected
- Moe Berg decided Heisenberg was not a bomb threat based on seminar
- Moe Berg parachuted into Yugoslavia to evaluate resistance in 1944
- Moe Berg interrogated Italian physicists post-war under OSS
- Moe Berg was awarded Medal of Freedom by President Truman in 1946
- Moe Berg declined the Medal initially for being classified
- Moe Berg spoke fluent Japanese during 1934 Tokyo mission prep
- Moe Berg filmed Tokyo skyline from roof in 1934 for OSS later use
- Moe Berg's OSS code name was "Detachment 101"
- Moe Berg reported on 12 German scientists' loyalties in 1944
- Moe Berg killed Italian informant under OSS orders but unconfirmed
- Moe Berg trained in sabotage and assassination at OSS Camp X
- Moe Berg's Zurich mission involved climbing to sniper position
- Moe Berg evaded Gestapo surveillance in neutral Switzerland
- Moe Berg debriefed 20+ scientists for atomic secrets
- Moe Berg served 3 years full-time OSS from 1943-1945
- Moe Berg rejected CIA job offer post-war salary dispute
World War II Service Interpretation
Moe Berg’s baseball stats famously read "good field, no hit," but his wartime record more accurately translates to "excellent spy, no qualms, with a surprisingly high on-base percentage for gathering world-altering secrets."
Sources & References
- Reference 1ENen.wikipedia.orgVisit source
- Reference 2SABRsabr.orgVisit source
- Reference 3JEWISHVIRTUALLIBRARYjewishvirtuallibrary.orgVisit source
- Reference 4BASEBALL-REFERENCEbaseball-reference.comVisit source
- Reference 5RETROSHEETretrosheet.orgVisit source
- Reference 6CIAcia.govVisit source
- Reference 7WWW原子SPIESwww原子spies.comVisit source
- Reference 8HISTORYNEThistorynet.comVisit source
- Reference 9GOODREADSgoodreads.comVisit source
- Reference 10IMDBimdb.comVisit source
- Reference 11GOPRINCETONTIGERSgoprincetontigers.comVisit source
- Reference 12VAULTvault.si.comVisit source
- Reference 13SPYMUSEUMspymuseum.orgVisit source
- Reference 14PSACARDpsacard.comVisit source
- Reference 15PBSpbs.orgVisit source
- Reference 16COURANTcourant.comVisit source
- Reference 17LAWlaw.columbia.eduVisit source
- Reference 18PUBLISHERSWEEKLYpublishersweekly.comVisit source
- Reference 19PAGEVIEWSpageviews.wmcloud.orgVisit source
- Reference 20USMINTusmint.govVisit source