"......That
man is no lawyer", said thefather."......That
man is no lawyer", said thefather.
Butthe father was wrong. 'That man' was a professional baseball player, yes, buthe was also a lawyer--as well as a linguist fluent in from eight to12 languages (depending who you asked), not to mention his expertise inSanskrit and Egyptian hieroglyphics. Oh, yes, and he was also a graduate ofPrinceton, of Columbia Law School, and a student of the Sorbonne inParis. 'That man' was (Morris) Moe Berg, about whom volumes could bewritten and, as a matter of fact, have been. He was known as--and it wouldstill hold true today--'baseball's most erudite player.'Moe Berg wasa colorful figure who led a fascinating and most original life. A few yearslater, for example, when America was bombed into World War II, Moe Bergentered the world of diplomacy and became a spy for the Office of StrategicServices and the Office of Inter-American Affairs. Berg began hisbaseball career as a shortstop for Princeton University. |
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| This led to a professional contract withthe Brooklyn Robins (shortly thereafterrenamed the Dodgers). He went on to the Chicago White Sox where by a fluke hebecame a catcher. Then, from 1932 through 1934, he helped the haplessWashington Senators. While the cosmopolitan ballplayer was never a threat inthe batter's-box it was said that he could strike out in any language heproved a valuable asset to the Washington ballclub. In the bullpen he servedas a great warm-up catcher and coach for pitchers. | Senators ownerClark Griffith called him 'the best handler of pitchers in the league.' And behind the plate he was especially sure-handed. His 117 consecutive full gameswithout an error in the 1932-33 seasons broke the existing American League record. On top of it all, Moe Berg could be a charmer (when he wasn't invadingtaxicabs) and possessed a good sense of humor. Once during a game, when he hadto confer with the Senators playing-manager Joe Cronin, he walked toward the dugout, paused and asked, 'May I approach thebench?' |
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E-Mail: vancegarnett@yahoo.com
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