Dollars and Sense

JANUARY 23, 1938 — Joe Cronin, manager of the Boston Red Sox, has designated a student and lawyer to teach a business man how to catch major league ball. Moe Berg, baseball’s most famous linguist, is the student. John Peacock, who has done right smart for John Peacock by selling mules during the winter time and who also found the way to have himself declared a free agent and then sold John Peacock to the Red Sox for a substantial bonus, is the business man.

Berg will have a particular interest in Peacock inasmuch as both of them started their professional baseball careers in positions other than that behind the bat, Peacock, however, did have this on his teacher. He did catch as a semi-pro and also as a collegian in the University of North Carolina whereas Berg made the Princeton baseball team as a shortstop. When he left Princeton, he had his mind made up to be a lawyer and decided that professional baseball would give him the money to carry out his ambition.

As a result, he joined the Brooklyn club as an infielder. That was in 1923. He went to Paris, that winter and attended the University of Paris extending his hobby of studying the romantic languages which he thought might be useful in law. That one year in the Sorbonne, added to his four years in Princeton enabled him to read Latin, Greek, French, Provencal Spanish, Italian and Portuguese in addition to Hebrew and English while he also found himself able to converse fairly well in French, Spanish and Italian. Incidentally, it might be mentioned that when he was ten years of age he read the five books of the Mosaic law in the original Hebrew, showing that he combined intense study with his sports activities.

“But,” says Moe, “My linguistic accomplishments never helped me get base-hits off Lefty Gomez, a Spaniard, Joe Cascarella, an Italian or pitchers of any nationality. In baseball, the fact that a player can talk several languages means nothing if he is up there with the bases filled and two out. Baseball is the most democratic of games. I have roomed with players who never finished their high school education and found them quick witted, able to carry on a conversation intelligently on general subjects, and, in some cases, owning a better knowledge of baseball than I did.”

From Brooklyn, Berg went to Minneapolis, to Toledo, to Reading, Pa. It was then he was bought by the Chicago White Sox; as a utility infielder, a role in which he could make good. In 1927, Manager and catcher Ray Schalk broke his thumb. Buck Crouse, now manager at Baltimore, replaced him behind the bat. A foul tip put him out of commission without delay, putting the catching up to Harry McCurdy. A few days later, he broke a finger and Berg volunteered to catch until one of the three regulars was able to supplant him.

Moe never went back to infielding. He caught 107 games in 1929. In 1930, however, he injured his knee and was released to Cleveland in `31. Cleveland let him go to Washington in `32. When that season was ended, he joined a team that visited Honolulu and Japan, remaining in Japan for several weeks to coach the Nipponese players and also adding their language to his repertoire. In `34, when the American League sent a star team to Japan and Manila, Berg went along. While he was touring, Washington released him but when he stepped off the boat the day after the 1935 campaign opened, it was to find a Boston contract waiting for him.

Berg did not have an error in his last seven games in `31. He caught seventy-five games in `32 and thirty-five in `33 and the first six games of `34 went without a misplay, giving him a run of 117 games in succession without an error, having 324 put outs and forty-seven assists.

At the present time, Berg is a member of law firm in New York City having studied law at Columbia University during the winter months and being admitted to the bar close to ten years ago. But, he still loves baseball.

Now, take Peacock’s career. When he quit the University of North Carolina in 1933 after four years of baseball, football and basketball at high school, one year in all three sports at the Episcopal school and four years of baseball and two years of football at college, he looked around for a job suitable for one of his talents. Like Berg, he found baseball the most advantageous. He joined the Wilmington, N.C. Club and was assigned to the outfield and infield duties.

In 1934, he divided his time between the outfield and catching but when sent to Toronto in 1935, he was used behind the bat in only twenty-five games. He was patrolling the outfield or guarding second base the rest of the time. Cincinnati, which had controlled him for two years, sent him to Nashville for the 1936 season. There he was a catcher once more with pinch hitting on the side. While he showed faults as a catcher he starred with the bat.

It was at the end of that season that Commissioner Landis declared him a free agent. The Red Sox stepped in and, outbidding several other major league clubs, induced him to sign a Boston contract. Still too green for major league duty, Peacock served with distinction for Minneapolis in ’37, catching ninety-four games and batting .311. Finishing the season with the Red Sox, Manager Cronin placed the stamp of approval on him and said that under the tutelage of Moe Berg he would become a regular in 1938.

“I am glad I turned to professional baseball,” said Peacock last September. “I have found it more enjoyable each year and certainly more profitable in a financial way. I hope to have to good fortune to realize by ambition of being a big league regular for many years to come.”