Playing+with+the+Enemy,+Laura+Ann+J.

On July 21 1941 Frank Boudreau a scout for the Brooklyn Dodgers came to visit Gene, and realized he had to sign him before any other organizationdid, but because Gene was only 15 he was too young to play with the Dodgers so they wanted to sign him tothe St. Louis Granary team, and by 1943or1944 hecould be playing for the Dodgers. After Genes first season with the Granary Gene returned to Sesser to help his dad with the family farm on the offseason. On the morning of December 7th 1941 Gene and his friends were at the movies when Genes brother told them the news that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. Gene’s brother Ward was ready to join the army the next day but because Gene was only 16 and not old enough he would have to wait. On December 21 Gene received a letter from the Dodgers saying the day he turned 18 he would be drafted into the military, but in an effort to keep his baseball career they had made arrangements for him to go into the navy early and play ball for the navy exhibition team. The day after Gene turned 17 he was shipped of the [|Great Lakes Naval Air Station], then he and the rest of the Navy players where transported to North Africa as part of operation torch in November of 1942. Once they were in North Africa the team was brought to Casablanca where they were to play ball for the other troops. The Navy team had there first real feel of war when they were practicing one day and an air raid took place and they had to hide in a cave dug in the sand. Everyone was shaken up about it and scared until Gene made them all forget they were even hiding for there lives, with one simple riddle “nine batters came to bat in the first half of an inning, but not a man scored, how is that possible?”(61) was what he asked, the riddle stayed unsolved even after the eerie siren sounded telling the men it was all clear. The Navy team played the Army team for every day but one for four weeks just outside of Casablanca until one day unannounced they were moved to Tebourba, which meant they were close enough to the fighting where they could hear bombing in the distance. The first day they were scheduled to play in Tebourba, the night had been filled with enemy shillings and flyovers by American aircrafts, but the teams decided to play anyways and they made Ron play, Ron had not played in a game yet because he had been to scared after hearing about the army team being shot at on there way to Casablanca. “I just have a bad feeling about things,”(70) Ron said. During the Six inning of the game they began to hear a low rumbling that kept moving closer, and by the eight inning the sounds turned into muffled rolling distant kettle drums and smattering of high pitched popping and snapping. The teams kept playing and decided to let the lieutenant tell them if they where in danger, before either coach was even at his bench someone screamed, “INCOMING, DROP TO THE GROUND!” (72) The Nazi Mortar Team had snuck in through a open draw, Only one man was hit, that man was Ron, his left arm had been completely ripped off, and there was a huge unrecognizable gore in his chest. From that moment on the men new they were in real danger and were always be aware of that, Ron’s glove from that moment on went everywhere with the team.
 * Journal #1**. ﻿﻿﻿ __[|Playing with the Enemy]__ ﻿﻿﻿ is a true story based on baseball during World War II. It tells the story ofGene Moore and his journey to the major league at only age 15. Gene was a country boy who lived in Sesser Illinois during the great depression. Sesser was a small farming and mining town that was hit hard because of the depression. Everyone in town worked hard to get by but every night the men still loved to go to the bar Bruno’s mine shalf inn. The men at the bar didn’t have much to talk about but there was always one popular topic, Gene Moore because the people of Sesser loved their baseball. Even though Gene was only 15 he was the staring catcher for the Sesser Egyptians, a semi- pro organization who played in “The Lumberyard.”

I have really enjoyed __ Playing with the Enemy __ so far because it actually tell how everyone was feeling back then about the war and how willing they were to serve for there country, also how the depression affected different people. I also find it interesting that even in the tough times America still found joy in baseball.

· Pearl Harbor · World War II · Sesser Illinois · [|Brooklyn Dodgers] · Chicago · Sesser Egyptians · Bruno’s mine shaft inn · 1938 Buick · Great Lakes Naval Air Station · Azores · Casablanca · St. Louis Granary · Tebourba · Operation torch

**#2** Rumors were going around about the Navy team being sent back to America, and at the same time American and British forces had broke the Mareth Line (March 20th, 1943.) Gene was surprised later that week when Ward his brother showed up, with the rest of a tank crew, they left soon after they watched the baseball game. Soon after the game ended Buck (the team manager) called the team together and told them the good news. “Pack your seabags, gentlemen! You’re heading back to the States!” they left the North Africa late the next night, and stopped at the Azores Islands for a week before heading to Norfolk, Virginia. On June 4,1944 the U.S. captured a U-505 submarine, and many of the German soldiers abroad it. The German prisoners were going to be shipped to a camp in Louisiana in less than a week and Gene and his teammates would be there guards, about two hours later the men were on there way to Louisiana. Once the team began playing again Gene noticed that the Germans seemed more then interested in the game. He went to the commanding officer’s barracks and told him that he had an idea. “We’d like to teach them to play baseball. You know, give is something to do, and give them something to do. It’ll be great for our morale and it wont hurt theirs.” (116) It took sometime but after awhile he let in, after a few weeks of talking the Germans in to it they agreed to learn the game, with translation help from Mueller a German solder that Gene talked to in the first weeks of being in Louisiana. For three weeks the Americans and Germans played mixed together, until a request from the Germans, “we do not want to play with you anymore” Gene was confused until Mueller said, “ we want to play against you.”

I am really surprised at how much I like this book so far, I thought because it was about world war II, it would be a little boring. But I has been the complete opposite, I really like how it shows an inside look at the lives of the mean who lived and fought in the war. I really enjoy it because I had no idea some of the things happened like that America had German prisoners, or that the navy had a baseball team at all.

· Mareth Line · Afrika Korps · Hitler’s third reich · Sherman tank · Nazi tiger tank · Invasion of Sicily · American seventh army. · Azores islands · U-505 · Kraut ball media type="youtube" key="igp3k7z-YcQ" height="195" width="240"

**#3** Ward Moore was awarded the Purple Heart for his wound and the bronze star for his bravery when he led the 13th Armored Division to an attack on a German town on the way to Berlin. An American tank had been hit by something and slammed into a building, and was blocking the rest of the tanks from moving on, “Give me some cover with the machine guns, and I’ll dig those guys out!”(142) when on his way back to his tank he was shot, “one of the damn Nazis shot me in the butt!”(144) meanwhile Gene and the baseball players where playing ball everyday. On May 8th they where in the middle of a game when a siren sounded “The Russians took Berlin! The war is over!”(147) once the news settled in, Gene started to feel bad for the Germans who would soon be returning home to basically nothing. The final game between the navy team and the Germans was being called “the Friendship Game” and drew a lot attention around Camp Ruston, and Gene even got a special visit from Frank. Gene had done his best at keeping the score close, by dropping catches, letting a few pitches slide past, making occasional bad throw to second, and even striking out twice and the Navy team won 15-14 in dramatic fashion after gene got the winning run to end the game with a sliding play to the plate to beat the ball, it would have been perfect but Genes left ankle looked as if it was on a hinge, bent completely back and to one side. Gene was transported to Veteran Hospital in Brooklyn; soon after he arrived he was awarded The Purple Heart the same day he was released from the Brooklyn Dodgers, the same day Frank was released from the dodgers too.

I have been really enjoying __ Playing with the Enemy __ a lot more then I expected myself too. I think It is really cool how you get an inside look in the war and how people where still given the opportunity to do what they loved during it, also that two different sides where able to put aside there differences and get along and play a game.

· [|George S. Patton] · Ardennes Campaign · Old blood and guts · Purple Heart · Bronze Star · Battle of the Bulge · V-E DAY · Atomic bomb · V-J DAY · Hail to the conquering hero’s · Crockett, Bowie, & Travis · Mount Vernon · Rend City · Pittsburgh Pirates · Greenville Mississippi · Forkball · Ray Law media type="youtube" key="B4UlvFI8_Ac" height="156" width="256"

**#4** For a while Gene would drowned his sorrows drinking every night at Bruno’s and work the field during the day. The Pittsburgh Pirates hired Frank and Gene was one of the first people he came to see, after frank and the whole town of Sesser talked Gene in to giving baseball another shot he worked out for the next two weeks and stayed away from Bruno’s, and when the day came he reported to Greenville Mississippi. Gene didn’t make a very good impression with the Pirates manager Jim Middleton “skip” from smelling of alcohol from the night before on the train, and being down on himself from not playing his best in his first game, Skip might have let Gene go if Frank didn’t tell him he would be a damned old fool not to give you more than a single game’s chance. From then on Gene gave up alcohol, when he went out with the team he would order a RC cola. Gene was a natural leader for the Pirates and everyone looked up to him, but Gene didn’t believe in himself. Skip called Frank and he was there a few days later because they all new if Gene would listen to anyone it would be to Frank. Frank got Gene to start beliving in himself with his analogy to Homer’s Illiad, and how Gene was like Achilles, with just one weakness, his heal to his ankle. That day the Pirates won 7-0 and Frank passed away from a heart attack during the game. Ray was getting called up to the majors and thought Gene was going with him, but Gene was getting released and had to make Ray go alone. Ray had been called up to weeks earlier but told them he wasn’t going without Gene. “Are you telling me you’re not hurt and it was all a stunt”(278) Gene had faked that he hurt his leg again to make it easy for Ray to go on with out him. Gene was gone before the game was finished because he new he wouldn’t be able to get the words out, and he never saw Ray or skip again. Gene wandered the South doing odd jobs, mostly bartending, after a year he slowly worked his way home. He was drinking again and didn’t care if he lived or died. In Salem Illinois he meet the woman he later married while he was lying on a bathroom floor closer to being dead then alive, Judy nursed him back to life and got him on his feet. Gene moved to Kankakee Illinois in early 1953 and Judy and her kids followed, and in November of 1953 she broke the news to Gene that she was pregnant, and on November 27, 1953 Judy and Gene were married in the Kankakee County Courthouse. June 13, 1959 a familiar face showed up at Skinny’s tap in Bradley Illinois were Gene was enjoying a RC Cola and talking to Skinny about old friends he once new, like Billy Grammer, his old best friend from when he was a kid who then was a star with a big hit “Gotta Travel On” and Ray Laws his old baseball buddy, Skinny didn’t believe that he could possible know both of them. When they were interrupted by a man with a heavy accent that Gene thought he would never hear again, “Excuse me. I am looking for Gene Moore.”(287) It was Heinrich the German prisoner that Gene took the most liking in. He was in America visiting his old boat the 505 that is now on display in the [|Museum of Science and Industry] and remembered where his favorite guard had told him he lived. “If you had to make a choice right now, a choice between playing baseball or having your family-this very family that you have-which would you choose”(292) Heinrich got Gene to see the realization, and that all that had happened in his life had been the hand of gods works, that it was not an accident that he and Judy had meet. “I wouldn’t trade this family for anything. Not for money, not for fame and… and not for baseball.”(292) Gene Moore died on Friday, May 13, 1983, at just 57 years old. I am really surprised by how much I enjoyed Playing with the Enemy I was not expecting it to be that good, or something I would really be interested in, but the way Gary tells the story of his dads life was really touching, especially in the end how he writes the dialoged him and his dad have when they where at dinner when he was hearing his dad’s life story for the first time himself. You really got an inside look at his life and all that happened to him.

· Veteran field · Burger & Stein · Greek mythology · Homer’s Illiad · Kankakee Illinois · Bradley Illinois · [|Billy Grammer] · Museum of science and industry · Filter Queen · Wesley Harris Fish out of Water