Moe Berg
Morris Berg, allegedly master of 12 languages, was born in a cold-water tenement on East 121st Street in Manhattan on March 2, 1902, to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Bernard Berg, a druggist, and Rose Tashker.
Casey Stengel, an eccentric man himself, called Moe Berg “the strangest man ever to play baseball.” Dark, handsome, erudite, fluent in many languages, charming and shadowy-just who was this man who was a professional baseball player and a so-called master spy? Who is the real Moe Berg? He epitomizes frustration for any biographer.
Moe Berg was destined to be not a slayer of dragons but a maverick who went beyond the borders of ordinary life. Berg had a nervous vitality about his person. His movements were animal-like. He appeared to be a person out of sync and out of sympathy with his environment. Moe Berg was in a world by himself, passionately interested in knowledge for its own sake. He was also quick to share this knowledge to anyone who cared to listen to him. In essence he was a free spirit. John Kieran, a former sports columnist for the New York Times, called Moe “The most scholarly athlete I ever knew.” (source SABR).
Entries in “1927: The Diary of Myles Thomas”
The Kid (July 14, 1927)Schoolboy started swearing in Cantonese, and suddenly one of the Sox was screaming back in Chinese. It was their new shortstop out of Princeton, Moe Berg. Apparently he can curse in Chinese pretty good, too.Cheating: Plain and Simple (July 29, 1927)“What’s going on out here?”Berg talks first.“He cursed out my entire family, sir. For a thousand generations. And our cats.”Schoolboy says, “I thought I was saying hello.”“And him?” says Hildebrand, pointing to Lazzeri.“I’ve no idea,” says Hoyt. “I don’t speak a word of Italian.”“I speak Italian,” says Berg. “That wasn’t Italian. He was telling me to do something anatomically inconceivable to my sister. Except he didn’t pronounce it correctly. So he actually told me to do it to my wart. Or possibly a pimple. It depends on the context.”Benny and Berg (August 9, 1927)‘Can any of you boys play catcher?’“Berg raises his hand, like he’s in grammar school, and says, ‘I used to think I could.’“Schalk says, ‘Who told you you couldn’t?’“And Moe says, ‘My high school coach.’“Schalk looks at the big Hymie and says, ‘Well, do me a favor, Moses, and put on the equipment and let’s prove him wrong.’”
