Gary Moore: Playing with the Enemy: A Baseball Prodigy, A World at War and a Field of Broken Dreams

He was a baseball prodigy. At the age of fifteen, Gene Moore was a boy, playing like a man, in a game where men play like boys. Headed for baseball stardom with the Brooklyn Dodgers, his destiny was interrupted by Pearl Harbor. His life... and maybe our national pastime... would be forever altered.

Playing with the Enemy (PWTE) is the riveting story of one depression-era youth and his brush with destiny. PWTE is a poignant look at the life of Moore's father, Gene, a 15-year old baseball phenomenon, headed for stardom when he was drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers. Gene's destiny was interrupted by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Playing with the Enemy will be released by Savas Beatie Publishing, LLC, September 15th. A National Book Tour, sponsored by Southwest Airlines, begins in Chicago at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library.

This is the best book I have read in the last decade. It is a great story that is told with sensitivity and well constructed prose. Moore has captured the spirit and the heart of his father's story through the use of insightful dialog that gives real understanding to the life experiences and to the people in the story. The book is alive with emotions. It grabs your heart and will not let go of it until you have fully digested the entire book; then the messages of this story still hang around and linger within your head for days.

The story is really about a personal, spiritual and emotional journey - in search of the very meaning of life and what our purpose is. This book is for all readers and not just those who love baseball or have some interest in war. It has all the elements needed to make a successful and inspirational movie. The author has written a wonderful and loving tribute to his father that readers will be able to respond to.

The book also teaches us lessons about our own lives and how what we do affects others in ways we may not ever realize. His father's friendship with a German POW comes back later in his life to change his own emotional outlook about baseball, family and the meaning of love.