Employment: We do not routinely answer questions about employment beyond the information on this Web site, and we do not routinely answer inquiries about the status of job applications. He left the OSS in 1946. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. “He can speak 10 languages,” his friends used to joke, “but he can't hit in any of them.”. But he didn’t, and the two never crossed paths again. Wearing a kimono and Japanese slippers, parting his hair in the middle, Berg bought flowers, and went to visit the patient — except he didn’t. For the most part, he was a second or third string catcher. While with Boston, Moe played in the inaugural Baseball Hall of Fame game in 1939. Learn more about Career Opportunities at CIA. He earned a law degree while playing baseball, blowing off spring training for his studies. For the rest of his life Moe Berg never held a job and lived first with his brother (who kicked him out) and then his sister. Nevertheless, “it was obvious,” said Estella’s son, that “they had a very passionate relationship.”, Berg was born in Harlem in 1902 to Jewish immigrants thoroughly ill at ease with their Judaism and with baseball. One of the best educated, intellectually accomplished and patriotic Jewish athletes in the history of American sports, Berg got his start in baseball in 1906, at the age of four, playing catch with the beat policeman in front of his father’s Newark, NJ, pharmacy. The chief of these missions was the highly successful Alsos mission (which was independent of the OSS) and the operation Berg was assigned to, called AZUSA. On May 4, 1944, he was given $2,000, a cyanide tablet, and a .45 pistol. He was offered an advance to write his autobiography but then the publisher dropped the offer after discovering he was Moe Berg, not Moe Howard of the Three Stooges. Great field; in 1928, he threw out 61 percent of base stealers (neither Yogi Berra nor Johnny Bench ever reached that percentage). He died on May 29, 1972 from a fall at home. Even so a persistent, false story began that Berg’s films helped plan the April 18, 1942 James Doolittle raid on Tokyo. He was rather entranced that the legendary Heisenberg was right in front of him. Moe Berg went to find out if he could tell by listening to Heisenberg if the Germans were close to building an atomic bomb. Even his birth certificate proved wrong. . Bob Ryan’s column appears regularly in the Globe. ", Moe Berg as a catcher during his time in MLB, as seen in the film "The Spy Behind Home Plate. Moe injured his right knee in 1930, which eventually limited his playing time. There was talk he did some secret missions for [Israeli Prime Minister] Golda Meir; I could not find evidence of it. For one thing, there was his linguistic ability. Players joked, “He speaks a dozen languages but can’t hit in any of them.”, Get New Jersey Jewish News's Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories We do not routinely respond to questions for which answers are found within this Web site. However, with limited staff and resources, we simply cannot respond to all who write to us. Intelligence was received that Heisenberg was to give a public lecture in Zurich in neutral Switzerland on or about December 15, 1944. Said Julia, Berg “came on to me, which rather surprised me, I must say, but he was an interesting person, well educated, and I enjoyed dancing with him.”, Yes, added Red Sox teammate Joseph Cascarella, he was a “womanizer, but he did it with great taste and elegance.” With his mastery of languages and foreign culture, when Berg played for the Washington Senators he’d be invited to embassy parties, and go to the “countries” that interested him. Berg joined Nelson Rockefeller’s Office of Inter-American Affairs (OIAA) on January 21, 1942. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Trust me, please. of your passport, How you got the information you want to share with CIA, How to contact you, including your home address and phone number. As an aside, she acknowledges that Moe having been a catcher enhances the story. Moe Berg’s life proves the adage that "truth is often stranger than fiction." No one could even track down if his ashes were actually taken to Israel. your local law enforcement or FBI Field “If someone had told me before ‘Hank Greenberg’ I would wind up making two movies about sports people, I would have laughed,” Kempner says. Berg saved his bullets for other things. He was actually attending to Slavic-American and Slavic-born men who the OSS recruited for dangerous parachuting missions into Yugoslavia. Depending on what you provide, we may offer you compensation. He can be reached at. Please know, CIA does not engage in law enforcement. Once allowed in the hospital, he went straight to the roof, threw away the flowers, and took out the 16-millimeter Bell & Howell from under his kimono, filming a panorama of Tokyo: the harbor, the industrial district, the commercial district. Berg, sitting in the front row, heard nothing of certainty from Heisenberg; he complimented the physicist on his speech and managed to charm Heisenberg to a walk back to his hotel, socializing in German, trying to extract more information. While in Japan, the Japanese-speaking ball player filmed Tokyo Harbor, military installations, and other facilities for the US government. Prepublication Classification Review Board, Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room, news, press releases, information and more, Employment Berg was ready to assume the glamorous role of international spy. US. As a result, Groves had created a couple of different covert groups meant to interview foreign nuclear physicists and to look for physical evidence of Germany’s atomic program. Berg took notes. It is unknown if Berg actually had to do all this, but it is true that as part of the training he was assigned to infiltrate and obtain intelligence from a guarded Glenn Martin aircraft plant. They hope to see their favorite player in action, relive childhood memories, and – perhaps – catch a fly ball. He was 70 years old. After graduating from college in 1923, Moe was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers. Moe was born in New York City on March 2, 1902. official you have information for CIA. Typically, OSS operatives were taught such skills as safecracking, codes, ciphers, close combat, and silent killing. During 148 games between 1932 and 1934, Moe Berg played catcher for the Washington Senators. But the Balkans desk really was a desk job in Washington, although some accounts online have him parachuting into Yugoslavia and treating with Tito. Known as a man of mystery, Moe planned to write a book detailing his career as an intelligence officer. Morris “Moe” Berg was a major league baseball player, a scholar of languages, and an international spy. Kempner became enamored of her subject. And Kempner produced “The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg.”. Using the Tor browser, a virtual private network, and/or a device not registered to you can reduce some risk. The Office of Public Affairs (OPA) is the single point of contact for all inquiries about the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It’s baseball season. From an early age, Berg had a bent for academics which eventually led to his being admitted to Princeton University. The filmmaker hopes viewers will emerge from the film with two takeaways. If you know of an imminent threat to a location inside the U.S., immediately contact He never wrote the book, and many of his secrets will never be known. The Why the books? He impressed many with his exceptional language ability and quick wit. Discover the CIA history, mission, vision and values. His final resting place is at an unspecified location on Mount Scopus, overlooking Jerusalem. https://covert-history.wikia.org/wiki/Moe_Berg?oldid=4026, Member of 1934 All-Star team that toured Japan, Career statistics and player information from. Courtesy of Irwin Berg, Moe Berg, above, a ballplayer turned James Bond-like spy, was mysterious and courageous, but ask him why and he’d put a finger to his lips: Spies and gentlemen don’t talk. People from nearly every country share information with CIA, and new individuals contact us About Moe Berg . These were appreciated, but out-of-date. to us and to those with more detail. He later became a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Afterward, he served on the staff of NATO’s Advisory Group for Aeronautical Research and Development. He hit but six career homers and had an underwhelming career OPS of .577. Our mission. It didn’t make any difference to him what city.” He’d explore each metropolis in the American League, and then riding the rails “he’d lay in the berth all night reading.”, In 1921, one scout quoted in the film labeled Berg (a shortstop before switching to catcher) as “good field, no hit,” an impossibly terse analysis that became a baseball classic, even today, though few know it was first said of Berg. Moe Berg is believed to have first utilized his linguistic skills in service to his country during a 1934 postseason trip to Tokyo. Babe Ruth’s daughter, Julia (18 at the time), remembered dancing with Berg under the Pacific moon, as Berg and the Babe’s family sailed to Japan with an all-star team in 1934.
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