How White Sox catcher segued into Oppie A bomb saga

 How White Sox catcher segued into Oppie A bomb saga

The buzz over ‘Oppenheimer’ biopic has rekindled critically needed discussion of the Manhattan Project which endlessly haunts our future.

One local Chicago connection has yet to come up but should.

It involves former White Sox catcher Moe Berg, whom Casey Stangle called the “strangest man to ever play baseball.” At a time when Big Leaguers we’re mainly uneducated farm boys from the South, Berg might have well been from Mars. He got degrees from Princeton and Yale Law, new a bunch of languages and read 10 daily newspapers. But his brain didn’t translate to batting. It was said he knew 12 languages but couldn’t hit in any of them. He must have been a riot in the clubhouse.

Berg toiled in the Bigs from ’23 thru ’39 amassing just 6 dingers in 1,812 at bats. During that time he began a second career….as a spy for Uncle Sam. When his team toured Japan in the ‘30’s, he was tasked photographing Japanese military installations from his hotel window.

During WWII his language skills got him assigned to the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), predecessor to the CIA. After entering Yugoslavia to gather intelligence on resistance groups there, he landed tangentially in the Manhattan Project. He was sent to Italy to mingle with potential German nuclear scientists at a conference. His assignment was to assassinate the top guy if he could determine he was building a German A bomb. Realizing he was not, Berg passed on adding 'assassin' to his resume.

After the war Berg handled additional assignments for the CIA.

Berg’s stats will never get him to Cooperstown. But if the Hall added a wing titled ‘Ballplayers who helped with the Bomb’, it would have but one entrant…former White Sox catcher Moe Berg.