• The Catcher Was a Spy

  • The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg
  • By: Nicholas Dawidoff
  • Narrated by: Jeff Kramer
  • Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (164 ratings)

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The Catcher Was a Spy  By  cover art

The Catcher Was a Spy

By: Nicholas Dawidoff
Narrated by: Jeff Kramer
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Publisher's summary

The only Major League ballplayer whose baseball card is on display at the headquarters of the CIA, Moe Berg has the singular distinction of having both a 15-year career as a catcher for such teams as the New York Robins and the Chicago White Sox and that of a spy for the OSS during World War II. Here, Dawidoff provides "a careful and sympathetic biography" ( Chicago Sun-Times) of this enigmatic man.
©1994 Nicholas Dawidoff (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about The Catcher Was a Spy

Average customer ratings
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

An interesting topic made horribly dull!

When I saw this book, just the title made me intrigued, and the premise sounded really fascinating, so I purchased it, to my regret. I wasted too many hours listening to this book.

The main problem is that the author goes into way too many details that are completely unnecessary. I really didn't need to know, or frankly care to know, Moe Berg's box scores for each and every game he caught in his long baseball career! Fortunately, he didn't play very often, so I didn't have to muddle through hundreds of games.

I stuck with the book, hoping the section on his work for the OSS would be more interesting, but I was disappointed yet again. Once again, the author made a fascinating subject become extremely boring!

This topic has so much potential to become a really interesting book! Moe Berg actually went to law school at the same time that he was playing catcher in Major League Baseball! His nickname to everyone was "The Professor," and he was very brilliant. Periodically, I saw so many areas where I thought the book would have done well to expand on, only to find it making another abrupt turn back to the box scores of his games. The section on the OSS could have been really interesting too, but once again, the author was too interested in including every single detail, which overwhelmed and drowned out the interesting parts.

I finally gave up on the book about 3/4 of the way through it, and I almost never give up on a book! I gave the story 2 stars just because there were things that I thought were interesting, but I'm not sure that it really deserves even those, sad to say!

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Baseball & Espionage: A Few of my Favorite Things

I only discovered this book after someone shared a short article about Moe Berg and I decided I wanted to know "Moe".

Another review complained about the incessant interruption of baseball statistics, but I found that to be pertinent in describing Berg's career ups and downs. Plus, I love statistics as any real fan does. But, honestly, they are neither a distraction nor overwhelming for even a novice fan of the game.

Where the other review did get the book right was the later half. Although I didn't stop listening nor was I tempted, the entire last half of the book focused on the rest of Berg's life; the part that wasn't about Baseball or Espionage. Berg lived a life of a Vagabond after WWII, living off the good will of others who thoroughly enjoyed his company and stories. However, the book becomes rather dull, much like Berg's repetitious stories that became tiresome after hearing it over and over again. For that, the story received a four star rating from me.

The first half of the book is really the heart and soul of this story. Regardless of the veracity of Moe's anecdotes as well as his proficiency as a baseball player, this is an inimitable tale of an eccentric, yet interesting person.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Need some editing

Audible needs to go and edit thus production. There are numerous times that the narrator repeats sections.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

So boring!

This book just went on and on. It could've been about five hours long and still had too much nothingness

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • GW
  • 08-12-16

Excellent, except for the last chapter

If you are interested in Moe Berg, this is a great book. Just throw out the last chapter with all of its psychological belittling of Mr. Berg.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Interesting person fair book

The brainiest guy in baseball who also worked for OSS during WW2
An interesting character but not worth a whole book

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Fascinating and very well researched biography. Narrator handles it very well. Was made into a movie that came out in 2018.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A biography of a fascinating man

Moe Berg was a unique figure; a quirky and weird guy in many ways. Brilliant and talented in many other ways. His life seemed rich and mysterious, but also quite sad and lonely. He seemed to be in the center of things but at the same time, no where at all.

The covers Berg's who life from his youth until death. It gets into more detailed than I expected into his family and the various friends and relations whose lives Berg drifted in and out of. His years as a spy during WW2 are of course covered, but they are not the focus. The mystery here is not this perennially backup major league catcher working as an OSS spy assigned to kill, if necessary, the renowned Germany physicist Werner Heisenberg. The mystery is Berg himself.

The audio has some hiccups where the editors missed repeated sentences, but otherwise the reader is good.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

More baseball and later life struggles than espionage

This book covers more of Berg’s baseball career and post war troubles than it does his espionage career. It is also less detailed regarding his WWII service than the other parts of his life. So, if you are interested in his espionage career, try another source. I enjoyed the movie version; however, the book makes clear that most of it was made more dramatic for effect and was only partially based in fact. The book gives a fuller view of his overall life, which was less than admirable, so I guess that is why they mostly left it out of the movie.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Extraordinary person ; but an Enigma

Very well read book. Moe Berg's accomplishments were many. But, sadly he was socially challenged. He came from a family where love was not an ingredient shared with each other.No one could ever get close to this mysterious man. He chose not to work after the war and live as a wanderer and depended on the kindness and benevolence of others. He could have been so much more.

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