IRB Intro Post

The title of the book that I have chosen is The Catcher Was a Spy, written by Nicholas Dawidoff. The book singles out a catcher in Major League Baseball, whose name is Moe Berg. It is essentially a biography about how Berg spent 16 years in the MLB, and played for five different teams. However at age 39, Berg put to use his foreign language skills, and enrolled in the military as the United States entered World War II. The book later goes into in depth details about some of Moe's missions as a US spy, specifically about his investigations on Germany's work on nuclear energy and atomic weapons. The author provides the reader with a careful and sympathetic story about the struggles and successes of the only Major League Player to have his baseball card on display at the CIA headquarters in New York. I chose to read this book because it combines two things that I thoroughly enjoy: baseball and war efforts. My goal from reading this biography is to learn more about what the life was like first hand in WWII, and also to learn about the story of a man who had it all, and chose to help defend his country, instead of watching from the comfort of his home.