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	Morris “Moe” Berg Linguist, Lawyer, Pro Baseball Player, Spy…


	“Morris Moe Berg – forever labeled as the most shadowy player in baseball history.”


	From Moe’s humble Jewish beginnings as the son of an immigrant pharmacist in New Jersey to his masterful foray into paranoid Japan before World War II to his many exploits throughout the world war. Morris Moe Berg has been an Enigma in American History.

Moe was the most unusual sort of fellow.

- President D. Roosevelt

On April 18, 1942, 16 B-25 twin-engine, land-based medium bombers took off from the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Hornet to bomb Tokyo led by Colonel James Doolittle in what has always been called the Doolittle Raid.

After the devastation at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii four months earlier by the Japanese, the United States needed a victory to shore up the country’s sagging morale. The American fliers used an aerial map that came from the work of Morris “Moe” Berg who was the only professional ballplayer ever to become a spy, and whose story transcends the unbelievable.

Raider's Mission (Ed Horton) one on the back left side of the photo. He was the Turret Gunner/Flight Engineer on Crew 10 on Doolittle’s Raid on Tokyo.

Photo was taken on board the USS Hornet.
Photo provided by Ed Horton

In 1934 a group ball players including such notables as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Charlie Gehringer, Jimmie Fox, and Moe Berg made a long trek to Tokyo where they would play 16 exhibition games. Baseball was first introduced in Japan in 1873 by a visiting professor, but the sport did not catch on until they saw the American major leaguers - especially Babe Ruth and his 13 home runs.

Moe Berg, however, was on the tour for something other than playing ball. He was there for the special purpose of photographing key military installations and other targets around Tokyo, seven years before the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor!

On November 29^thwhen Ruth and Gehringer and the others were on the ball field entertaining the locals Berg had more important things to do. Wearing a black Japanese kimono Moe bought some flowers, hailed a cab, and was driven to St. Luke’s International Hospital to visit the American ambassador’s daughter who had just delivered a baby. After asking for directions in fluent Japanese Moe went up to the seventh floor, bypassing the new mother’s room, and headed for the stairwell to the roof.

There Berg took out a movie camera that had been attached to his leg, and took pictures of the Tokyo skyline – oil tanks, factories, railroads, and the Imperial Palace. The American players won the game that day 23-5 while Moe’s pictures were sent to Washington, D.C., and returned to the island country seven years later as part of Doolittle’s bombing maps.

Moe was born March 2, 1902 in a run-down tenement on East 121^st Street in New York City. His parents, Bernard and Rose, were Jewish immigrants who fled Russia following the assassination of Czar Alexander in 1894. At a young age their son showed a tendency toward both sports and languages. He played baseball in high school, and later excelled in both at Princeton University where he divided his time between language classes and the ball diamond. Moe’s father did not agree with his baseball life, and never saw his son play a game.

Moe played a fine shortstop becoming the team’s star player although he was quite slow afoot, and helped the team to win 19 consecutive games. He and his double play partner would speak in Latin such as who would cover second base.

The 1922 Princeton team was so good they were invited to play John McGraw’s New York Giants that included Frankie Frisch, Casey Stengel, and Travis Jackson at the famous but long gone Polo Grounds.

The college team was leading 2-1 going into the bottom of the ninth when the Giants scored to win 3-2. Moe graduated magna cum laude in 1923, and was able to read and speak French, Spanish, Greek, Russian, Latin, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian and Sanskrit. His ball playing competence had come to the attention of major league teams, and after his last game with Yale in Yankee Stadium Berg signed a $5,000 contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Berg was at a crossroads in his life – the higher education and university life or a chance to play ball in the big leagues. So he combined the two playing for the Dodgers in the summer and using his salary to study in France during the winter.

Moe Berg loved baseball. He said, “I’d rather be a ballplayer than a justice on the United States Supreme Court.” And maybe it could have been. Along with fondness of the diamond, Moe was enchanted with languages that eventually led him to the more dangerous game of espionage.

Mysterious Moe

The strangest man ever to play baseball.

- Casey Stengel

Morris “Moe” Berg had 15 major league years in the 1920’s and ‘30’s primarily as a reserve and bullpen catcher, and certainly had to be the most intellectual player in all of baseball.

He could flawlessly speak and write in many languages, received degrees from Princeton University and Columbia Law School, his thesis on Sanskrit is a reference at the Library of Congress, and studied philology (historical and comparative linguistics) at the Sorbonne in France. Or as Moe would say, “Philology cannot assist me in fielding a grounder or help me when I’m at the plate, the bases are loaded, and my team is behind.”

In the early 1940’s three major events were about to converge and change Morris Berg’s life forever: Moe’s baseball career came to a close; Hitler’s German armies began to march through Europe; and President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the OSS (Office of Strategic Services - later the CIA) that was responsible for collecting information on countries at war with the United States.

Moe retired as active player in 1939, and continued on as a coach for the Boston Red Sox in 1940 and ’41 when he said “All over the continent men and women and children are dying. Soon we will be involved, and here I am in the bullpen telling jokes to relief pitchers.”

The recently retired ballplayer joined the OSS directed by Colonel William “Wild Bill” Donovan who when asked if he knew of Moe Berg responded, “Oh, yes, he is the slowest runner in the American League.”

Moe may have been less than quick on his feet, but not above his neck. And although his many articulate and eloquent languages did not change Moe’s batting average or running ability, they did enable him to disguise and move secretly across wartime Europe.

The 6’1”, dark, handsome, and charming Moe Berg always wore a black suit, white shirt, and black tie. He was a connoisseur of wine, could converse with anyone on anything, and equally as comfortable at a Washington DC cocktail party as in any smelly and raucous locker room.

One of Berg’s first assignments was to go to Latin America where it had become a hot bed of Nazi propaganda. After the attack on Pearl Harbor Berg was asked if he would speak on overseas radio to the Japanese people in their own language
explaining the foolishness in beginning a war on the United States, and to overthrow the military leadership. President Roosevelt immediately called Moe to personally thank him for the endeavor.

On any of his dangerous adventures Moe always carried a gun and a poison pill. He would never allow himself to be captured that would quickly entail immediate torture and death.

It was Berg’s expertise on a country’s cultures and languages that allowed him to become an expert in intrigue, and it was the atomic bomb that stimulated his personal fascination and thus a top nuclear atomic spy.

On one occasion Moe was sent behind the German lines in Yugoslavia. After Berlin was bombed the Germans changed the locations of their atomic scientists, and it was now up to Berg to find them and determine if they were close to creating a nuclear bomb. He went to Italy to inspect a munitions factory as a German officer, and to Norway to find out if the Germans were manufacturing heavy water needed in the bomb. It was his information that resulted in an allied bombing attack on the factory.

Perhaps Berg’s greatest exploit was in finding Germany’s prime atomic scientist who was so protected that the American agent was ordered to cancel the operation. Instead Moe set up a lecture in Switzerland and invited the scientist, Werner Heisenberg, to the neutral country. Surprisingly Heisenberg did just that. Berg somehow got into the building guarded by Nazi SS men, and sat in the front row. Moe’s order was to shoot to kill if he had determined that the atomic expert was making a bomb, but nothing was said.

After the formal presentation they broke up into informal groups so Moe went from session to session where he learned that most Germans now believed that Germany had lost the war, and not able to construct an atomic weapon. Moe relayed this to the OSS and on to President Roosevelt who said, “My regards to the catcher.” The top German scientist eventually fled the country, and was picked up by the Allies as the war ended.

Moe Berg was never married, but was thought to have a lady friend in London during the war. He refused to accept the Medal of Merit, the highest civilian award during wartime. Moe seldom spoke of his wartime exploits, cared little about money, and loved to amble through bookstores. His brother never knew of his sibling’s spying feats.

Berg was never interested in writing about his amazing life, but on one occasion after constant urging a representative from a publishing company was able to see the elusive former spy. Beginning the conversation the book rep said, “I loved all of your pictures.”

“Who do you think I am? Moe replied. “Why, aren’t you Moe of the Three Stooges!” Berg stood up and walked out.

Morris Berg died on May 29, 1972 following a fall in his apartment. If he had not been a real person, no one could have created him as a fictional character.

Bygone baseball by C. Philip Francis

Note: Chatter from the Dugout recommends this book on Berg’s life – Moe Berg: Athlete, Scholar…Spy; by Louis Kaufman and others; Little, Brown, and Co.; 1974.

Morris “Moe” Berg’s legacy?

A portrait and baseball card is hung at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley Virginia.

Currently on loan to the Washington D.C. Spy Museum


	On a personal note, Vance and I would like to thank the C.I.A., the O.S.S. Society and Britians MI6 for their assistance and cooperation in bringing the Moe Berg story to fruition. Also to Beaux Carson at Carson Signatures Films for recognizing this unknown Jewish American Hero who’s story needs to be told.

Moe’s Medal of Freedom which he refused from President Truman, now on display in the Baseball Hall of Fame Cooperstown

Click on MapMe above to retrace the adventures and life of Moe Berg


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