* RK Review: Playing with the Enemy

November 14, 2009

A Baseball Prodigy, a World at War, and a Field of Broken Dreams, by Gary W. Moore

I wanted to wait a bit after Veteran’s Day because I didn’t want this to appear as a knock against the vets. I have nothing but respect for them, their service and sacrifice.

Gary Moore writes this respectful, affectionate homage to his father, Gene, a crackerjack catcher in small town America.

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the Moore brothers, Gene and Ward, being the patriotic sons of the homeland, signed up for military as soon as they could. Ward went off to fight with a tank unit, but Gene managed to land with a group of  fellow ballplayers. It was not unusual to set up such units, that would travel to entertain the troops by providing a piece of home.

This is where the story, for all its good intentions, starts to fall apart.

It doesn’t take long for the reader to get that Gene is something special, but Moore, the son, hammers it home page after page. The dialogue is  riddled with cliches and, frankly, not quite believable. The fact that the book purports to be “inspired” by true events should raise eyebrows; there is no way either the son or the father could have remembered the conversations as laid down in the book.

Given the subtitle, it’s not giving anything away to say that things go wrong for Gene on the brink of the war’s end, bringing to a quick end his dreams of what was destined to be a Hall of fame career. It’s always sad to lose the opportunity to do what you’re meant to do (see The Rookie, esp. the conversation between Dennis Quaid as Jimmy Morris and Brian Cox as his stern, military-career father). But that’s what the Greatest Generation was all about — sacrifice. And some lost a lot more than the ability to play a game.

So, again with all due respect, for all the buzz Playing with the Enemy received since it first came out in 2006, this is not as good a book is in reality as it was in principle. This book would have been a perfect release 50-60 years ago, when the country was more innocent and — at least for this reviewer — less cynical.

There has been talk of a movie based on the book (mostly coming from the author). A quick trip to IMDB reveals that Toby Moore (I’m guessing it’s a relation to the author) has been cast in the role of Gene Moore, with Gary playing Gene’s father, and no other information raising my eyebrows even higher.

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