Moe Berg Documentary: "The Spy Behind Home Plate" (good read)

Bryce Miller / San Diego Union Tribune, 6-27-19

As World War II continued to rage in December 1944, German physicist Werner Heisenberg conducted a lecture at a college in Zurich. Heisenberg was thought to be the brains behind Nazi efforts to build an atomic bomb.

In the crowd sat a former Major League Baseball catcher who hit .243 during 15 seasons with just six home runs in 1,813 at-bats.

That day, Moe Berg carried a pistol and cyanide pill as an undercover member of the Office of Strategic Services — the spy-craft predecessor of the CIA. His dangerous and daring assignment: Assess whether Heisenberg and the Germans were close to solving the atomic riddle and, if so, assassinate him on the spot.

Berg, a man purported to speak as many as 12 languages, a friend or acquaintance of Babe Ruth, Albert Einstein and Chico Marx of the Marx Brothers and a national sensation on the radio quiz show “Information Please,” is the subject of the fascinating documentary “The Spy Behind Home Plate,” opening Friday at Landmark’s Ken Cinema.

MORE: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/sports-columnists/story/2019-06-26/moe-berg-baseball-mlb-catcher-spy-world-war-ii-heisenberg-manhattan-project

QUOTE: “He probably knew eight languages for sure. Maybe 10. There was the joke that he spoke 12 languages, but couldn’t hit in any of them."