(theme music) - Hi, friends.

Welcome to Live from the City Opera House: It's Storytime!

I'm your host, Ben Whiting.

And on this show, every week we're going to have a great story read by a special guest, and then have a fun activity that you can participate in right from home.

Using objects and materials from your home or classroom.

We'll be learning about science, math, engineering, and technology.

Not to mention local culture.

Now, onto today's book.

(upbeat music) Today's book is "The Spy Who Played Baseball".

It's about a secret agent who was also a professional baseball player.

Not only that, but he also spoke multiple languages and had a law degree.

Now, for today's activity we're going to be simulating a pop flood.

The materials you'll need for today's activity include, duct tape, paint stirrers, one ping pong ball, one wooden block or spool, and a three ounce paper cup.

Now, if you don't have those materials readily available, that's okay.

You can go ahead and watch the episode and come back later to participate in the activity.

Now, today our special guest is Doug Mirabelli.

He was actually a former catcher for the Boston Red Sox and played with them when they won the World Series in 2004 and 2007.

With that, take it away Mr. Mirabelli.

(theme music) - Hi, I'm Doug Mirabelli, two time World Series Champion of the Boston Red Sox.

Today, I have the pleasure of reading a book to you and I think you'll enjoy it.

Today I'm going to read "The Spy Who Played Baseball".

It's a true story.

Actually played for the Boston Red Sox back in the 1930s, and he actually was a catcher, which is what I did.

So, I'm best known for being able to catch a pitch called the knuckle ball.

The way in which you release the ball is designed to take the spin away from the ball.

For example, if you throw any ball just normally the ball rotates.

It's round, it rotates.

And I had a pitcher that I used to catch named Tim Wakefield, who figured out through lots of practice, how to eliminate this band.

And when that spin was eliminated, he saw that the ball we call danced or floated, you know, it was able to move in unpredictable ways, which makes it very hard to both hit and catch.

So, that's where I came in.

I was able to through a lot of practice, and error, and success, you know, work my way into being able to be pretty successful at catching him.

So, I like the fact that, you know, he didn't throw really hard.

So, today there's a lot of people that are throwing, you know, hundred miles an hour.

Tim threw around 70 miles an hour with a ball that didn't spin.

And he was able to be very successful.

He had over or right at about 200 wins in his career.

For as long as I caught him, not only could I not tell you how it actually, the physics of the knuckle ball work, but even Tim Wakefield who threw it, wasn't exactly sure why it did what it did.

So, I think a great challenge for you out there is to figure out why does a ball that doesn't spin is able to move through the air in unpredictable ways as compared to a ball that is spinning with a high amount of revolution stays straight.

So, Moe Berg, you're going to find out that this is his name here.

Morris Berg was a catcher for the Red Sox back in the 30's.

We both were the catcher.

We both played catcher.

But he had other talents that I didn't obviously have.

And so, as I read through this book, you're going to see what special talents he had and what kind of set them apart from, you know, the everyday baseball player.

So, let's get into this.

"The Spy Who Played Baseball".

A good baseball player is sometimes a thief.

Moe berg played baseball, but he didn't just steal bases.

He stole enemy secrets.

The catcher was also a spy.

When Moe was growing up in Newark, New Jersey, nobody expected him to become famous.

He was just a quirky Jewish kid in a neighborhood with very few Jewish families.

But Moe had a way of surprising people.

Baseball was Moe's first love.

He sometimes sneaked out of the house to watch the New York Giants play.

When he was seven, Moe joined a local baseball team.

The coach suggested he use a name that sounded less Jewish, so he became Runt Wolfe.

Moe loved learning almost as much as he loved baseball.

He could read a page and remember every word of it.

He hated to miss school.

Once, he cut his leg badly that he couldn't walk.

He still went to school in a wheel barrow.

By the time he finished high school, at age 16, he had studied Hebrew, French, Latin, and Greek.

All that studying paid off.

He was accepted to Princeton, one of the best universities in the country.

Only a few Jewish students attended Princeton, and they weren't allowed to join the school's social clubs.

Moe thought that that was unfair.

One club did invite him to join as long as he promised not to invite any one else who was Jewish.

Moe refused.

In college, Moe learned more languages.

He even sat in on biology and chemistry classes just for fun.

Those classes would help him later, when he became a spy.

Moe also played for the Princeton baseball team.

During games, he spoke Latin with his teammates as a secret code.

I can imagine being able to speak a different language that nobody else could speak during the game, it would be a huge benefit.

We have to use signs like this to try to talk to each other.

And if you could just, you know, yell out to somebody, "Hey, steal second base."

That would be kind of cool.

I could see how that would help them out.

In his senior year, Moe led his team to a record-winning season.

Brooklyn's major league baseball team hired him as soon as he graduated.

Moe wasn't a top player in professional baseball.

But he did stand out for one thing, he was Jewish, which was unusual in the major leagues.

He was also much better educated than most players.

He even went to law school while he was a baseball player.

Reporters called him "the Professor."

There's still not a lot of Jewish players in the major leagues.

But we happened to have three on our team in one year.

I think that the 2006 or 2007 World Series team had three Jewish players on it, Kevin Youkilis, Craig Breslow, and Gabe Kapler.

In his free time, Moe traveled all over the world.

He was fascinated by new places and cultures.

But by the late 1930s, he began to worry about events in Europe.

A political party called the Nazis came to power in Germany.

The Nazis wanted to take over the rest of Europe.

They also wanted to destroy any people they disliked, especially the Jews.

In 1941, the United States entered World War II, fighting against Germany and Germany allies.

The American government needed help gathering secret information to fight the Nazis.

As a Jewish American, Moe was eager to help defeat the Nazis.

He retired from baseball and took a job with the US Office of Strategic Services.

Moe Berg was about to become a spy.

It was dangerous for any American to be in Nazi-controlled Europe, but for Jewish American like Moe Berg, it was especially dangerous.

The Nazis were arresting hundreds of thousands of Jews all over Europe and transporting them to concentration camps.

Yet, Moe didn't hesitate.

On one early mission, he parachuted into the small country of Yugoslavia.

His job was to gather information about two resistance groups that were fighting the Nazis there.

The American government needed Moe's help to decide which resistance group to support.

Brave Moe was able to find the leaders of both groups.

He determined which of the two groups were stronger and better organized, and he recommended which group to support.

The Americans took his advice.

But his next mission was tougher.

The US government worried that Nazi Germany was building an atomic bomb.

The new weapon would be powerful enough to kill thousands of people.

Moe's bosses suspected that Germany's best physicist, Werner Heisenberg, would soon be able to build this bomb.

They needed a spy to find out whether this was true.

And if it was, the spy would have to stop the physicist.

I find that pretty interesting, you know, from a baseball player to a spy, to potentially an assassin.

The American government was asking Moe, "Hey, if you find out this information about this physicist, if he actually is building this bomb, you have to eliminate him because we can't let him finish the bomb", obviously.

So, what an incredible brave hero this guy was.

Moe took the assignment.

He knew that the mission was very dangerous, but that didn't stop him.

First, Moe learned as much as he could about the science of the atomic bomb.

Then he went to Switzerland, where Heisenberg was scheduled to give a speech.

Posing as a German businessman, Moe attended the speech, but based on what Heisenberg said in his speech, Moe couldn't tell whether the Nazis were actually close to the building an atomic bomb or not.

What could Moe do?

In a daring act, Moe decided to charm his way into a fancy dinner party held for Heisenberg.

He chatted with Heisenberg, pretending to be friendly.

After dinner, Moe walked Heisenberg back to his hotel.

As they talked, Moe determined correctly that Heisenberg wasn't close to building the atomic bomb at all.

Instead of trying to stop Heisenberg, Moe just said good night.

Moe continued to spy for the United States and its allies until they defeated Germany and Japan in 1945.

He returned to the United States as a hero.

The president tried to award him the Medal of Merit, Moe politely refused.

No one knows why.

He was a man of many secrets.

By then, Moe was too old to play baseball.

But he was not too old to love the game.

Occasionally, he went to see a New York Mets game.

He would find a seat in the right-field side and sit by himself, wearing a black suit, and holding a black umbrella.

Moe also still loved reading.

He sometimes read 12 books at a time, jumping from one to another.

He still enjoyed telling stories.

But if he didn't want to answer a question, he would just bring his fingers to his lips and say, "Shh."

When I read this book originally, I just thought, you know, this is somebody who was playing professional baseball in the major leagues that gave up his career to go help his country, and help his Jewish people.

And you know, the sacrifice that these guys and this guy in particular makes, it's really incredible.

And you know, these are heroes that we can look back on and read about.

And it's really fascinating to me.

So, it's been a pleasure reading this book to you, and I encourage you to read, and stay in school, and get the best education that you can.

Thank you.

(theme music) - Thank you, Mr. Mirabelli.

Now, it's time to take what we read and put it into action.

And to do that, we have a special guest, Ms. Heidi Kay, a teacher at Eastern Elementary School.

Ms. Kay, how about you introduce yourself and get us started on today's activity.

- My name is Oliver and I am Ms. Kay.

- I'm Maya.

- And we are going to be teaching you how to build a lever today.

A lever is one of our simple machines that we use to take a heavy load and using force, launch it, or throw it in a different direction.

So with a lever, we can use less force and deliver a heavier load.

So, a basic lever, write it out here.

A basic lever has four parts.

It has an arm.

It has the load.

It has force.

And then one of the key parts, is the part in the middle of a lever.

And that has a big, fancy word.

That's called a fulcrum.

So, we're going to design a lever today.

And our challenges is we are going to try to use the lever to launch a ping pong ball.

We have a cup, a ping pong ball.

We are going to use paint stirrers as our arm for the lever.

And then we are going to use this little spool.

Normally, I would have gotten just a wooden spool or a plastic spool from thread.

I didn't have one at my house.

So, this is actually from a little game that we have at our house.

You guys probably recognize that.

So, we'll use this as our fulcrum.

We are going to attach it with duct tape today because everything can be attached with duct tape.

So, we decided that was going to be our most useful way.

So, when you're designing a lever, you need to think about a couple of things.

You need to think about your fulcrum, where you're going to place it on your arm.

You might have it right in the middle of your lever.

You might have it right near the force.

You might have it right near the load.

And I find when I am designing things that usually the best way for me to make my decisions is by trying it out.

So, we are each going to have our paint stick.

We're each going to have our spool or fulcrum.

We are each going to have a cup and a ping pong ball.

And then we're going to start to attach things with duct tape.

So, I think the hardest thing to attach is the cup.

So, I'm going to give each of you a piece and then I'll get a piece for myself.

And we are going to attach our cup to one of the ends.

I might take my ping pong ball out while I attach it, but we're going to need to tape down our cup to our paint sticks.

So I'm putting it flat on the paint stirrer.

I am taping it underneath and that looks sturdy enough for me.

You getting it?

Give it a little tiny wiggle.

Does it feel like it's on?

Yours, I might move yours up a little bit.

I'm worried that this is going to fall off.

If we take this and move it up a little bit.

I think that's just, yeah, that looks a little more stable.

Doesn't it?

Okay.

So we have our cup, which is going to hold our force.

We have our arm.

We need to now decide where we're going to put our fulcrum.

And we're going to use a little bit of duct tape again to help attach that on.

So let me get you each a piece.

There you go.

There you go.

I'm going to get myself a piece.

Now, this one's tricky.

So you need to make a choice.

Are you going to put your fulcrum right in the middle?

Are you going to put it up by the load or are you going to put it closer to where the force will be?

So you have to imagine your ball's going to be in there and we're going to put force on the other end and it's going to launch that ping pong ball.

Whoops, careful.

So do we want the fulcrum closer to the force?

Do we want the fulcrum closer to the load?

There is no right answer.

There's no wrong answer.

You choose, but we do have to attempt it.

So we're going to use the duct tape.

And just going to tape it down.

Mine's kind of working.

It just rotates over that.

Doesn't it.

I might need a tighter, you need to get yours a little tighter Oliver.

That looked pretty good.

Why don't you grab that ball.

I might tighten the tape a little bit for you so it doesn't rock off.

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

Can you get yours?

- I think so.

- Okay.

So, let's think about where we want this to face.

If we're going to launch the balls that way we want to have the ball right now facing us.

Don't we?

And then we'll hit our force here.

Wait.

(laughs) We'll hit our force here and we'll launch our ping pong balls.

Let's see if it worked, ready?

1, 2, 3.

Oh.

Mine went over to the left and yours went straight forward.

Go get those balls.

Can you grab all those for me?

Okay.

Come on back.

Okay.

So mine went way over that way.

Yours both went that way.

What do you think happened?

How would you change it?

If you're going to change yours?

I noticed- - Mine's closer.

- You have a fulcrum closer.

What do you think is different?

- Yours is the same.

- Ours are similar.

I do have a larger cup.

I wonder if that's a fact.

Okay.

Do you want to make any changes to yours?

- No.

- I want to make a little change to mine.

I don't think that went very well for me.

Do you want to change yours at all?

Okay.

I might- Of course you can, yeah.

This is all how we make designs and inventions.

We reevaluate and we see if we can get a better design.

Can you grab that one?

- Yeah.

- I think she's got it Oliver.

Okay.

Okay, I tweaked mine.

I moved mine a little bit closer to the force.

You're going to keep it the same?

Okay.

Ooh.

You put yours right near the load.

Oh, wait a minute.

How's that going to work?

I don't think that's going to work is it?

- This way.

- You have to put the force at the same spot as the load.

Okay.

I think we tweaked that.

Something doesn't seem right.

That might end up hitting you in the face.

- Wait can I do that?

- Let's not do that either.

Okay.

You like your design?

Right?

Okay.

Once Maya gets hers all taped up, we will do it again.

Okay.

Are we ready?

1, 2, 3.

Ooh.

Interesting.

Mine went forward.

Yours went to the side this time.

Okay.

Let's do it one more time.

Will you guys get those balls, let's do one more.

- Does that mean that cup doesn't matter.

- That means that cup may not be the deciding factor.

That's an excellent point, Maya.

(inaudible) You have a new hypothesis do you?

(laughs) What is it?

Why don't you just speak clearly and tell us.

(indistinct) Where the fulcrum is, determines where it's going to fire.

Hmm.

Interesting.

Okay.

Do you want to tweak yours?

You've got your fulcrum way back up near force.

Okay.

Now one factor we haven't changed yet is the actual force.

I kind of did on that second one.

The first time I shot it, I went like this and I wonder if my arm, the way my force was applied, made a difference.

The second one I lean straight forward.

'Cause I really wanted for it to go straight.

So, I'm going to think a little bit about how my force is applied.

You are moving your load up a little bit.

Are you tweaking yours?

Are you keeping your the same?

- Mine I'm tweaking it.

- You are tweaking it a little bit.

Okay.

A new design.

Oh, interesting.

Interesting.

I'd like to see how that one shoots.

Well, hold on.

Let's wait.

- Come on.

- Okay.

Okay.

Ready?

1, 2, 3.

Oh, interesting.

Yours launched really straight, but it didn't go very far.

It didn't kind of do the arch of up and over.

- Mine went very high up and then back.

- Here's the last one.

- Okay.

This is going to be our final one.

We've seen a couple go's.

Which one do you think is your best design?

Make any final tweaks.

In this one, we'll see who can get it the farthest.

Who can try to go right over towards that camera.

Where are you going to put your force?

- Like this.

(laughs) - That's like that baseball bat, right?

Oh, you're going to put your load right on your fulcrum.

I wonder what's going to happen.

Do you need more duck tape?

Does it sit around there?

It's still sticking.

That's your force.

Okay.

Are we ready?

Okay.

The final hurrah ready?

1, 2, 3.

Ooh.

Interesting.

That was a good one.

- Mine barely moved because I believe when, I hit it here, it went a little it went really high up then landed.

- It almost went straight up.

- So, as you build your lever, you will find your design might change along the way.

And it depends on your purpose.

Sometimes you might want to shoot something up and over.

Sometimes you might want to shoot something a little bit lower.

So as you try this, as you try to build a lever for yourself, make sure you think about where everything's going.

Let yourself test it out and tweak it each time until you can build your most powerful and successful lever.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Maya.

Thank you, Oliver.

- We hope you enjoyed.

- Yup.

Okay, bye.

- Great work everyone.

Well, that is it for today's episode of Live from the City Opera House: It's Storytime!

Brought to you from the beautiful historic City Opera House in downtown Traverse City.

If you want to watch future episodes, or check out episodes from the past, you can do so by visiting TCAPS247.com, Michiganlearning.org, or tune into your local PBS station.

Thank you so much for being our wonderful audience.

My name is Ben Whiting, and until next time.

Stay safe, have fun, and keep learning.

Take care.

(theme music) - This program is made possible in part by Michigan Department of Education, the State of Michigan, and by viewers like you.