Catchers
are considered the quarterbacks of baseball. They are the brains running the game
on the field. That is why catchers have been more successful transitioning to
managers than other position players or pitchers. It turns out catchers also
made good secret agents. Granted, we only have a sample of one, but he was
significant. Morris “Moe” Berg’s sporting and clandestine careers are
chronicled in Aviva Kempner’s documentary The
Spy Behind Home Plate, which opens this Friday in DC.
Berg
was the son of Jewish immigrants, but he was as assimilated as he could be. He
was an athlete and a scholar, who graduated from Princeton and Columbia Law at
a time when the Ivy League was a bastion of WASPiness. His father was less than
thrilled with his choice of a career in the Major Leagues, but Berg developed
some interesting sidelines, such as appearing on the quiz show Information Please and spying for the
OSS, the WWII-era predecessor of the CIA.
Berg’s
work with “Wild Bill” Donovan at the OSS was covered quite well in Ben Lewin’s
narrative drama, The Catcher was a Spy.
However, Kempner and company offer up a fuller life portrait, including the
intriguing tidbit regarding his field work in Latin America on behalf of Nelson
Rockefeller’s Good Neighbor initiative, which could be a promising premise for
a TV show, even though it would have to be largely fictionalized (truth is for
documentarians).
Of
course, centerpiece of any film about Moe Berg will be his work investigating
Werner Heisenberg and the German atomic bomb project. Kempner confirms the
third act of Lewin’s film to the letter, while bringing in Copenhagen playwright Michael Frayn for some classy commentary.
Refreshingly, the documentary gives all due credit to Donovan and the men and
women of the OSS for their patriotism and sacrifice (but not William Casey, in
a conspicuous oversight). Regardless, it is nice to see the film explore the
trust that developed between FDR and Donovan, an outspoken Republican critic of
the New Deal.
