Morris “Moe” Berg, born in 1902, was probably the only person with an incredible double life. He was both a sports professional and a Spy.
He played for multiple teams in his MLB career, which started in 1923 with the Brooklyn Roblin, now known as the Dodgers.
His sixteen-year Professional career ended with the Boston Red Sox in 1939, the same year World War II started. Moe was primarily a Catcher, but also played as a shortstop.
“The Brainiest Man in Baseball”
Moe, who was given the name of “the brainiest man in baseball” in the late thirties while playing for the Red Sox, started his Spying Journey when he was on the 1934 Japan Tour of the American All-Star Team.
When he was in Japan’s capital, he carried a movie camera and reportedly visited St. Luke’s Hospital, one of the tallest buildings at that time, to meet the U.S. Ambassador’s daughter who had given birth.
He later used the camera to capture footage of Tokyo’s harbor, industrial area, and military zone. The footage was later handed to the government of the U.S.A., which eventually helped the country to plan bomb raids.
After he retired from the MLB, he coached in the Minor Leagues and scouted players, but his coaching career ended after the USA joined World War II. He had a tremendous career shift, from a Player to a Strategic Services Officer, officially starting in December 1941.
The Wartime Intelligence Agency assigned him a difficult task, which was to gather information on Germany’s scientific and military progress.
In 1944, for his mission, he traveled to Switzerland to attend a session of Werner Heisenberg, a German Physicist.
The main motive of his lecture was to assassinate the Physicist if the Nazi were in the final stages of developing the atomic bomb. He also carried a pistol and a cyanide pill for his task.
Ultimately, he concluded that, in fact, the Germans were not alone enough at that point. Even after the war, Berg never wrote memoirs or fully revealed the details of his missions while in Japan, Switzerland, or any country he traveled to, even till his death.
In Case You Didn’t Know
- In his MLB career, Moe Berg had a batting average of .243 and scored seven home runs.
- His life is featured in The Spy Behind Home Plate, a 2019 documentary, and The Catcher Was A Spy, a 2018 film.
- Moe Berg passed away on May 28, 1972, at the age og 69, and was never married.
