Big Picture Big Sound

Spy Ball

In 2018, the story of Moe Berg got the Hollywood treatment, as "The Catcher Was a Spy," starring Paul Rudd, hit movie screens. It was okay, but nothing more than that, and perhaps less. Now we've got a documentary of Mr. Berg from Aviva Kempner. Previously, Kempner brought us the critically acclaimed and multiple award winning documentary, "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg".

What the two films share is that they are both about Jewish professional baseball players, but their stories are entirely different. Greenberg was an all-time great who's in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Berg was a good fielder, but not much of a hitter.

What makes Berg's story worth telling is his life outside of baseball. He was an incredibly bright man who loved to travel all over the world, and he was fluent in about 10 languages. Because of his intellect and language skills he was approached by the Office of Strategic Forces (OSS) and recruited as a spy.

Berg was assigned to interview German physicist Werner Heisenberg about what he knew of Germany's progress in developing nuclear weapons, as well as Italian physicists. His assignments were deemed dangerous enough that at all times he carried a hidden pistol and a cyanide pill.

The film is filled with great footage of Berg, Babe Ruth, and other all-stars, and footage shot by Berg while spying. It includes numerous stories told by many different people who knew Berg and knew what Berg was doing as a spy.

My favorite story concerns a time when Berg remained behind in Japan after touring there with other baseball players. A high-ranking American government official had a daughter giving birth at a hospital in Tokyo. Berg picked up flowers and went to visit her.

After gaining entrance into the hospital, Bert threw the flowers into a trash can and made his way to the roof of the hospital. On the roof he pulled out a movie camera, which he almost always had with him and shot panoramic footage of Tokyo. The roof was the tallest point in Tokyo, so the footage captured the entire layout of the city. This actual footage is in the film.

Berg was an incredibly accomplished man who seems to me to be a vastly underappreciated story in American history. Kempner's film, with the aid of great archival footage and excellent editing, makes a strong case for his importance. Even if you saw the fictionalized story of Berg last year, this one's worth it. Kempner hits it out of the park.