“THE MOST UNUSUAL AND REMARKABLE A CHARACTER AS THE WORLD OF BASEBALL EVER PRODUCED”: OSS SPY “MOE” BERG’S NOTES FOR LEARNING RUSSIAN

BERG, Moe. Manuscript notes on the Russian language. [Boston: 1935]. Nine leaves. Original notebook sheets (4-1/2 by 7-1/2 inches), written on the rectos. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

Original autograph notes by major league baseball player and OSS spy, “Moe” Berg, on the Cyrillic alphabet, presumably in preparation for his Russian mission in 1935.

Baseball's Moe Berg capped a career in the major leagues with a new career as spy for the OSS (Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the CIA) in Japan, Yugoslavia, Italy and Russia, and behind the lines in WWII Germany. He began his spy career in 1934, when traveling to Tokyo as interpreter for an all-star team that included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx and Lefty Gomez, he secretly took movies of the city. Eight years later, when General Jimmy Doolittle's bombers raided Tokyo, their targets were plotted by referring to Berg's film. Used primarily as a backup catcher, Berg was described by Casey Stengel as the "strangest fellah who ever put on a uniform." "He was a true scholar, unlike any other who has ever strapped on shin guards or anything else, in the big leagues. He was a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton [where he studied seven languages: Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Sanskrit], a graduate of the Sorbonne, and, while still a ballplayer, a graduate in 1929 of the Columbia Law School? And he was a spy." New York Times sportswriter John Kieran reported that Berg was in Moscow in 1935, ostensibly to bring back a great Russian pitcher whom his friend, Al Schacht, coach of the Washington Senators, claimed to have discovered. "That must be the explanation of Mr. Berg's trip to Moscow," Kieran concluded, "[because] for what other reason would a baseball catcher go to Moscow in January?" In 1943 the OSS decided "there was only one person qualified to sneak into Europe to determine the likelihood of a German A-bomb" (and, if necessary, to assassinate Werner Heisenberg, head of Nazi Germany's atom-bomb project). It was agreed that the man for the job was the former backup catcher for the Boston Red Sox. Fluent in German, Berg was sent to Zurich in December 1944, in order to attend a lecture by Heisenberg (Berg's assessment of the situation was that Germany was not close to developing the bomb, and no attempt was ever made on Heisenberg's life). This nine-page autograph manuscript contains Berg's linguistic notes on the Cyrillic alphabet, including pronunciation and comparisons with English and Greek letterforms, presumably in preparation for his 1935 mission in Russia. Each leaf is rubber-stamped with Berg's signature, and the first leaf is countersigned by Berg's older sister Ethel and marked "Save."

Fine condition, with only occasional light embrowning.