Gene Moore

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.

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The night before the official release of Playing with the Enemy, Toby, Travis and I had the pleasure of taking the Playing with the Enemy team - publisher Ted Savas, illustrator Val Laologi, publicist Carole Bartholomeaux, Savas Beatie Marketing Director Sarah Stephan, Literary Agent Tris Coburn, and Producer David Ranes to Memorial Garden Cemetery in Kankakee, Illinois. It is where my mother and father are buried.

I don't know why I thought it important to do so, but I did.

I thought about taking them there weeks in advance. I imagined in my mind what would be said and how they would act. I don't know why I was compelled to take them all there … I guess maybe it completed the journey for my teammates and friends who have worked so hard to bring Playing with the Enemy to book stores and to the silver screen. It was an interesting experience.

Sometimes talking and laughing, other times standing by silently, we stood looking down at the final resting place of someone we all, in our own way, came to know, respect, and even love. For my sons and I, it was a meaningful experience; I think it was for the others, too. I thought this might be something only important to a son or grandson-to make that connection to the past by standing at a place of significance-but apparently not.

I had another similar experience last week when I discovered just how important another Illinois location was to a PWTE reader. At a book signing in the Chicago area, a man came by and asked me to sign his book, which was my pleasure to do. After a brief discussion, he pulled out a map and asked, "Can you mark the field on my map where your father played ball? You know," he continued, "The Lumberyard?"

"Sure," I answered, and proceeded to show him where on the map it could be found. "Why are you so interested?"

He responded, "I took tomorrow off work and I'm driving to Sesser. I just want to go there and stand on the field where your dad played."

I didn't know what to say. Sesser was easily a five-hour drive for him. He told me he was so touched by the story that he just wanted to go there … and stand … much in the same way that our team visited my dad's resting spot a few days before. He was also interested in seeing where the old house stood, and other landmarks associated with the story of Gene Moore and Sesser.

I hear from readers all over the country. Playing with the Enemy is touching each of them in a unique and very personal way. It forces them to think about their parents and the lives they have led. It's making a positive and personal connection from them to the war years and someone they know personally who served. Sometimes it is a parent or grandparent, but sometimes also a neighbor or friend. Or sometimes the connection is to the game of baseball and experiences from their past.

Our country has changed over the years. People are born, live, and die, leaving a new generation to continue on. Men and women have gone off to serve our country both in peacetime and in war. Some come back and some do not; many return a profoundly changed person. But through all the change and evolution, the common thread of consistency that runs through the fabric of our nation is love of family and a love for our national pastime--baseball.

How has Playing with the Enemy touched you? I would love to hear from you.

Gary (gmoore@playingwiththeenemy.com)