Playing With the Enemy, by Gary W. Moore

Playing With the Enemy: A Baseball Prodigy, A World at War, and a Field of Broken Dreams, by Gary W. Moore
Savas Beatie, 2006
300 pages, no index, no notes, no bibliography. A few b&w illustrations
Library: 940.54MOO


Description
It was true in the 1940s, and it is still true today: if you have talent, someone will notice. In Gene Moore's case, that someone was the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Gene Moore was a farm kid from Sesser, Illinois, a town so small even mapmakers ignored it. Although he quit school to help out on the farm, he continued to play baseball on the town team. Some players were twice his age, butthey didn't mind because Gene could hit the ball farther than anyone else, he as the best catcher anyone had ever seen, and he could throw men out from his knees. Gene was 15 years old.

Word spread across the United States about the country boy who could hit the ball a country mile. The Brooklyn Dodgers wanted to take a look at this farm kid, barely old enough to shave and still awaiting his first kiss, but brash enough to call pitches from behind the plate and instruct other players how to position themselves for certain hitters.

When GEne's baseball career was interrupted by Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the US Navy to play baeball on the Navy team. In 1944, GEne and his teammates were sent back to the States for a special top secret mission: the guarding of German sailors from U-505. Stuck in Louisiana, Gene taught the enemy how to play baseball-a decision that irrevocably changed his life...and maybe our national pastime.

Inspired by true events, Playing with the enemy is the riveting story of a young man and his brush with destiny. When Gene's son Gary confronted his father with evidence of a baseball career, Gene broke decades of silence and finally told Gary about his remarkable odyssey through depression-era Illinois, WWII, and the minor leagues.

Gene Moore's astonishing story is an exciting, heart-wrenching saga that captures the heart of everyone who reads it. Jammed with memorable characters from an extraordinary time in our country's history, Playing With the Enemy is a story that will be read and reread for generations to come. And it is one you will never forget.

Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
Forword by Jim Morris
Introduction by John C. Skipper
1. The Letter
2. July 21, 1940
3. The Corner of Matthew and Mulberry
4. Sunday, July 22, 1940
5. Monday, August 6, 1940
6. A Day of Infamy
7. In the Navy
8. Team Navy!
9. North Africa
10. Casablanca
11. War Games
12. Rumors
13. Reunion
14. U-505
15. Norfolk
16. Camp Ruston, Louisiana
17. Playing With the Enemy
18. The Berlin Bombers
19. We Have Guns!
20. Kraut Ball!
21. Fighting with the Enemy
22. The Final Innings
23. The Friendship Game
24. The Broken Purple Heart
25. Branch Rickey
26. Home, Again
27. Reality
28. Return of a War Hero
29. The Letter Arrives
30. Dark Night of the Soul
31. Resurrection
32. Reporting to Greenville
33. The Second Shot
34. Getting Back the Game
35. I Heard You was a Hitter
36. The Perfect DAy
37. The Day After Perfection
38. Frank Boudreau
39. Sacrifice Play
40. Is That the Story You Expected to Hear?
41. Old Friends
42. The Death of the Boy Who Loved to Catch
Postscript