The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg

by Nicholas Dawidoff

There is as well a glass case devoted to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which preceded the CIA as America’s first national intelligence agency. On a shelf above a pistol and silencer that once belonged to the OSS director “Wild” Bill Donovan are two worn cardboard baseball cards. Beside them is a placard that says, MORRIS (MOE) BERG BASEBALL CARDS. Following his 15-year career with five different major league teams, the Princeton-educated Berg served as a highly successful Office of Strategic Services (OSS) operative during World War II. Among his many missions on behalf of OSS, the former catcher was charged with learning all he could about Hitler’s nuclear bomb project.… Because of his intellect, Moe Berg is considered the “brainiest” man ever to have played the game. He spoke a dozen languages fluently and often autographed pictures in Japanese. These cards are from his playing days with the Washington Senators (1932–34) and Boston Red Sox (1935–39).