Berg's ability to learn languages rapidly helped him greatly in his travels. He then visited Manchuria, Shanghai, Peking, Indochina, Siam, India, Egypt and Berlin. After the instruction was completed, Berg remained behind to explore Japan. His first trip was arranged by Herb Hunter and was intended to teach baseball at Japanese universities during the winter of 1932. Notably, Berg visited Japan on two occasions during his baseball career. Berg eventually graduated in 1930 and passed the New York Bar Exam, but his absence from spring training resulted in him being benched in favor of other players. During the early part of his career, Berg attended Columbia Law School, causing him to miss several weeks of spring training for the White Sox. Berg also spent time at the minor league level playing for the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association, and the Reading Keystones of the International League. Professional baseball career īerg's career as a professional baseball player spanned 16 years, most of it spent as a journeyman backup catcher for the Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Washington Senators, and Boston Red Sox. His performance at Princeton caused both the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers to express interest in him, and after graduation Berg accepted a $5,000 contract offered to him by the Dodgers. Although he was not a good hitter and was a slow baserunner, his fielding, arm strength, and knowledge of the game led to his being appointed as team captain in his senior season. During his student years at Princeton, Berg played first base and shortstop. Always an excellent student, Berg studied seven languages: Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Sanskrit and subsequently received a B.A. After his high school graduation, Berg enrolled in New York University but eventually transferred to Princeton University and for the remainder of his life, always associated himself with Princeton, ignoring his time at NYU. Subsequently, the family moved to the Roseville section of Newark.īerg began playing baseball at the age of seven and, to the dismay of his father who did not understand American sports, continued through his high school years. The couple, along with their three children lived in the Harlem section of New York City until 1906 when Bernard Berg bought a pharmacy in West Newark, New Jersey. She was engaged to Bernard prior to his emigration. Berg's mother, Rose Tashker, was also a Ukrainian Jew. His father, Bernard Berg, was a pharmacist who emigrated from Ukraine in part to escape from what he considered to be the oppressive nature of an almost entirely Jewish village. agent, lady's man, and freeloader." Book summary Early years īerg was born in 1902 to a Jewish couple that lived in New York City, not far from the Polo Grounds, the home of the New York Giants baseball team. The book spent seven weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, which described the biography as "The life of Moe Berg, big-league catcher, O.S.S. Moe Berg, the subject of the book, was an enigmatic person who hid much of his private life from those who knew him and who spent his later decades as a jobless drifter living off the good will of friends and relatives. The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg is a 1994 biography written by Nicholas Dawidoff about a major league baseball player who also worked for the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.
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