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Posted By: howard

Hi Ted. The Serbs certainly have had a disproportionate effect on world history. It was a Bosnian-Serb that assassinated Archduke Ferdinand setting off WW1.

I do have a couple other Berg stories as I have always been fascinated by him. Nothing that you wouldn't find on the internet, though:

He was on a 1934 all-star team that traveled to Japan. Since he was a marginal player speculation has been that he was included so he could make observations on possible Japanese military installations. Film he took at that time was supposedly used in the preparation of Doolittle's raid on Tokyo.

In 1944 he went to a lecture in Switzerland given by the head of the German nuclear program to determine how far along they were. He had a pistol in case he felt the German should be assassinated and a cyanide capsule in case he was caught. Luckily he determined that Germany was far behind in this area and he did not need to take any action.

He was a terrific linguist and a teammate once noted that Berg could speak ten languages but couldn't hit in any of them.

It should be noted that he was considered to be a sloppy spy at times. It is said that he often forgot his watch (an important piece of equipment for a spy) and that he once accidentally dropped his pistol into the lap of the passenger next to him on a plane.

There was a biography written a few years ago called "The Catcher was a Spy". I haven't read it yet but it's on my list.

Howard