Third Quarter Outside Reading Book Review

Playing With the Enemy by Gary W. Moore. Penguin Books, 2006.
Genre: Non-Fiction

Gene Moore was a fifteen year old boy that is an incredible baseball player in the small, very poor, farming town of Sesser, Illinois. He played in a semi-pro league where most of the other players on the team were quite a bit older than he was. He was the starting catcher, clean-up hitter, and unquestioned leader of the team. One day, while he was warming up the starting pitcher for his team, someone in the crowd called him over to talk to him. It was a scout for the Brooklyn Dodgers, named Frank Boudreau. After discussing it with his parents, they allowed him to sign with the Dodgers. One day during the offseason, Gene was at the movies and heard that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. He decided to join the war, but instead of fighting, he played baseball. The army and navy decided that if any players signed by major league teams signed up for the war that they would make two teams and play in North Africa as entertainment for wounded soldiers. After he left Africa, he was ordered to guard a group of German prisoners of war in Louisiana. After several weeks, he decided to teach them how to play baseball because they didn’t have enough guards to field two teams. They play several games and the Americans win all of them, but during the last game on a play at the plate, Gene slid into home plate and dislocated his ankle. After Gene was back home for 4 years, Frank came back and signed him to a deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates even though, after the ankle injury, two screws were put in his ankle just to keep it in place. He couldn’t get into a traditional catchers squat because of the screws in his ankle. He was still good, but he wasn’t as good as he was before his injury. He reported to one of their minor league teams and played for them for a few weeks, then after making a diving play to save a perfect game, he was released because his ankle was in such bad shape.


“A true story of a man’s reaching out to the enemy during a very dark time in our history. Gene Moore and his fellow sailors teach all of us that compassion and tolerance does exist, especially when the bridge builder happens to be that great American pastime: baseball. History and baseball buffs alike will revel in this episode of a man’s ability to reach out, even during a time of war.”

Gerald R. Molen, Academy Award-winning producer of Schindler’s List


This story shows the baseball career of Gene Moore from begin to end with vivid detail. I can picture everything in the story from the poor town of Sesser to the makeshift baseball diamond they made in Louisiana in order to play the Germans. In most other books that I’ve read, the details in the book haven’t been as specific as this one.


“Summers in Southern Illinois are hot, and July 1941 was hotter and more humid than most. Sesser is a small country town in “downstate” Illinois, ninety mile southeast of St.Louis. Although the entire country had suffered from the ravages of the Great Depression, this small coal mining town ws particularly hard hit.



I’m an avid baseball fan and love everything about baseball, especially the history behind the game. This book was about not looking at everyone as an enemy even if you’re really supposed to, never giving up, and that even in bad situations, you can always find a way to have fun. What I enjoyed about this story was how a fifteen year old kid was signed to a Major League contract, this makes me believe that if you want something enough and you work hard to get it, your dreams can come true.