Playing+With+The+Enemy+by+Robby+P.

Journal 1 Pages 1-62: In Playing With The Enemy, Gene Moore lives in a small, poor mining town called Sesser. The only past time the citizens have to escape much of their miserable poverty and harsh lives is [|baseball], Gene has become a very good catcher for their team. Although he is only 15, Gene outplays everyone on the Sesser baseball team, the Egyptians, including men twice his age. Gene plays more than just the team's catcher and instead acts as their leader from that position he aids the team in winning their games. Gene is spotted by the Dodger’s scout Frank and is soon well on his way to becoming a major league baseball player. Gene’s ball playing career is progressing wonderfully until [|Pearl Harbor] is bombed. With the U.S. now in [|World War II], Gene’s brother, Ward, immediately joins the Army. Gene feels that he should also join the effort to conserve their freedom but still wants to continue his blossoming baseball career. Frank set up a position for Gene to be in the Navy and on its baseball team so that he can still keep his skills up until the war is over because he would get drafted into the Army or Navy anyways. Gene gradually becomes friends with his teammates and becomes their leader and helps them train and get through harsh times like their first Air Raid. The book is a well written and an entertaining read full of fun information. It provides an interesting read that becomes a steady page turner. It also has shown the values of leadership and how Gene correctly uses his leadership qualities. At times the story can be on the slower side when they are just in Sesser talking to different people and listening to Gene’s thoughts. It can also be very intriguing like when the first Air Raid happened and Gene used his leadership to calm everyone and take their minds off of the danger at hand with a riddle. The book also heavily relates to World War II and the time just before it.

 -Pearl Harbor(History)  -Dodgers Baseball team(History and Culture)  -Gary’s father being Gene and his feelings about the war(Author Background)  -Chicago(History and Culture)  -North Africa-two fronted war for Germany push back the german allied forces out of North Africa and take Mediterranean (History) media type="youtube" key="L1gmvu98I-Q" width="425" height="350" align="left"

Journal 2 Lines 63-128: Gene’s position of being the leader of the Navy Baseball team grew as they played more games and the war progressed. The first game that the Navy and Army were scheduled to play went as planned but the first man up to bat, Ray, got spooked by the fact that the Army Team was attacked and that danger was closer than ever. Ray sat out the entire game and many more to come attempting to overcome his new fear. Later when Ray was needed desperately to pitch for the team he was able to manage the courage to do so believing it was safe at last. Suddenly the team was attacked and hit by mortars from the Germans killing Ray. Ray's h orrific death scarred the team forever and changed their outlook to the war and how they acted. The team found out that because of the new plan to take control of Sicily they would not be receiving any new gear for playing. Gene’s brother Ward, arrived in a tank on his way to the front to see Gene play ball. Gene and his brother fix the uneasy relationship between them that was present back in Sesser when Ward left. The Navy team received w ord that they were being shipped back home but not on leave. The entire team was excited until they found out that their leading officer, Buck, will not be coming with them. The team’s mood changed to being crossed from feeling happy that they could go home and being sad that Buck will not be joining them. While Buck goes out to sea the Navy team goes home. The story changes to the perspectiv e of the U-505 sailors at this point in the book. The German [|U-boat] sailors find themselves in a trap by being hunted by the Americans because of the successful decoding of German transmissions. The sailors eventually give up assuming the sub will sink itself and try to escape but are captured by the Americans. media type="youtube" key="VtS7CmAKbwk" width="425" height="350" align="right" The sub is taken successfully for study and the sailors sent to Louisiana to stay in a POW camp. The Navy Baseball team becomes assigned to this camp to watch over these specific sailors. After days of boredom and feeling his skills diminishing, Gene comes up with the idea that they should teach the Germans to play baseball. Gene convinces his commanding officer to agree with his plan and even gets his other teammates convinced. He and Heinrich, the lead bilingual German sailor, talk about the supposed plan. Heinrich convinces many of the other Germans to learn to play and they all prepare for the first day of playing with the enemy. By the second quarter, the book is a fun and quick paced read and is full of good information. I don’t like that the book does not go into much description of the U-505 sub or its functions but only briefly mentions it. I also feel the book should go deeper into the effects of the war more. Overall the book is quick and entertaining as opposed to being slow and boring. It seems to be slowing down towards being inside the POW camp longer unlike the U-505 chapter where the pace and action was very high and suspenseful.

 -New plan with Eisenhower to take control of Sicily(History)  -British and American forces break the Mareth Line on March 20th, 1943(History)  -U-505 submarine and its capture(History)  -Germans want to play soccer not baseball-different sports (Culture)  -Hate toward other languages (other sailors hate each the Germans)(Culture)

Journal 3 Lines 129-222: By now in the book, Gene has successfully organized a system with the Germans to play baseball with each other. After practicing many times the German POWs picked up the basics of baseball and they were able to create teams and play real games. The POWs and the Americans began to bond somewhat and began to get along happily with each other. Heinrich confronted Gene one day and told him that he and the other Germans do not want to play ball with the Americans anymore but instead want to play a gainst them. The Germans created new rules to which the odds of the game were heavily tilted in their favor. Gene agreed to this without hesitation and was glad with the new challenge that they had to face. It turned out that the new rules of “Kraut Ball” did not keep the landslide wins from happening but it seemed to make everyone happier about playing. When it came time for the prisoners to leave, Gene planned one last “Friendship Game." They kept the game close in score for the sake of the fans that had amassed to see the game. As Gene was sliding into home for a spectacular finish he drastically broke his ankle. Although with hopes of a great recovery and undergoing surgery, Gene’s contract with the Dodger’s was dropped just after he had received a [|Purple Heart] for his services. After slowly making his way back to Sesser, Gene’s life became much worse than it had been before the war. He tried to play a single ball game and his ankle gave out, embarrassing him in front of everyone he knew. Gene gradually turned into the town drunk from not working and spent his time at Bruno’s drinking each night and taking up smoking. After a few weeks of his life becoming worse and worse he began working on the farm again. He refused all of the letters of the hopeful teams asking for him to play for them because he felt as if it was all over forever. One night after being confronted by his peers about a letter from the Pirates, Frank showed up at Bruno’s and brought to light how terrible Gene’s life had become by his own doings. He eventually convinced Gene to accept the Pirates’ proposal. While the Germans were playing the Americans, the book became slower and tougher to read through but when Gene broke his ankle the shock of it brought the book back up to the previous speed it had been at. When Gene was dropped from the Dodger’s it really touched me and made me surprisingly sad even though its just a book and none of it has happened to me. It made me sad that something so promising was not even really given a chance even though his ankle was in questionable and unknown condition of recovery. The book became very boring to me when Gene got back home and decided to waste away his life. Just as Frank arrived, The book picked up a little again and the excitement built to a huge suspense about Gene’s baseball career after he accepted the Pirates’ proposal to play for them.

 -Fall of Hitler and Germany(History)  -George S. Patton(History)  -Cologne captured by USA(History)  -V-E Day on May 8th(History)  -Purple Heart

Journal 4 Lines 223-299: Gene meets up with the minor league team he will be playing on to attempt to move up to the majors just days later. Gene shows up with a hangover but is still glad to see his friend Ray from the navy. Gene scrapes by with a second chance from the manager, Skip, after a very poor first performance. Gene, after developing a new catching position to compensate for his bad ankle, begins to start playing better than earlier but not the same as when he had two good ankles. Gene becomes the leader of this minor team too in a sense as everyone grows to love him. The whole team begins to play better and win more with Gene. After playing for a while Gene gets a visit from Frank who convinces him to be confident in himself moving up to the majors but he later finds out the game Frank came to watch was his last when he had a heart attack in the stands. Eventually the call gets put in for Gene to get dropped and Ray to move up but Ray is convinced not to go if Gene doesn’t so Gene fakes hurting his other ankle to trick Ray into going to the majors by sliding into third. Gene returns to a mellow life becoming a vacuum cleaner salesman and develops a family. One mysterious day, Heinrich meets up with Gene just as he said he would years before. The reunion is ecstatic and they are very happy to be together again. Gene eventually dies of a heart attack after revealing his secret life to his son that he had hid for so many years. This last quarter of the book was much different than the others. The style of writing had changed and was now switching between past and present. Overall the book was wonderful. It was a fast, easy, entertaining read that was full of information about the war and about baseball. If you are a sports person, your someone who would enjoy this book very much but even if your not, you would still love this book as I did.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;"> -Pirates(History) <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;"> -Talking with his father(Author's Background) <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;"> -Death of father(Author's Background) <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;"> -Vacuum cleaner business(Author's Background) -U-505(MSI)(History)