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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On this day in 1926, in a tiny three room house in Sesser, Illinois, my father, Warren Eugene Moore was born. On his birthday, eighty one years later, all over the nation and the world, tens of thousands of people know him from the book, Playing with the Enemy: A Baseball Prodigy, a World at War and a Field of Broken Dreams. He grew up believing he would be a baseball star. As you know from reading his story, he never achieved his dream in his lifetime. But today, twenty-four years after his death, his star is rising and more people each day come to know and love him, not just for the ball player he was, but more for the man he came to be.

I get letters and phone calls daily from people wanting to talk about my dad's story and their story. Today, I got a call from Julie in New Jersey. She is in the 7th grade and called to tell me that after reading Playing with the Enemy she was making my dad her school project. She told me she loved the book and just wanted me to know. On Wednesday I got a call from a Judge in the Chicago area who told me Playing with the Enemy was the best book he had ever read. He said that my dad's story served as a healing for him and that he was able to look at his life differently after reading my book. On Monday, I got a call from a Viet Nam Vet from Princeton, IL who also wanted to share his thoughts and thank me for writing Playing with the Enemy. Mixed into these three phone calls I received 9 Emails, 2 letters (snail mail), was stopped on the street by a reader and had two separate visitors to my office, all wanting to talk about my dad's story and how it impacted them. I am touched, grateful and quite overwhelmed by the outpouring of love that readers are showing for my dad and his story. Thank you to all who have called, written or stopped in to see me.

Happy Birthday, Dad. Even though you are gone, the story of your life is serving as inspiration to more than you ever could have imagined. The enthusiasm and passion for Playing with the Enemy is amazing. I hope you are pleased.

Gary