Playing With The Enemy

It's time to meet another local author with an inspiring read!  Playing With The Enemy by Gary W. Moore was originally published in 2006 and it's now becoming a major motion picture!     

Moore lives in Bourbonnais with his family and I recently spoke with him on the phone about his book.   Writing it was a labor of love, because it detailed the life of his father, Gene Moore.  

Growing up,  Gary saw a letter from the Pittsburgh Pirates to his father.  He never understood the letter because his father never spoke about baseball.  As a grown man, Gary decided to sit his father down and ask him about the letter.  Reluctant to share, Gene finally started telling his story.  He passed away the very next day.

In the pages of Playing With The Enemy, Gary shares the true story of his father's dream to make it to the big leagues. He had that dream in the palm of his hand after scouts came calling, but it was interrupted by World War II.  He joined the U.S. Navy and played baseball across the world to entertain servicemen.  Then, his team had to stop playing in order to carry out a top secret mission to guard captured German sailors.  Gene decided to teach the enemy sailors how to play ball so his team could keep sharpening their skills.  During the last game they played against the enemy, Gene broke his ankle.  After that, his life was never the same.  

Playing With The Enemy is an inspiring story about broken dreams and second chances.  Here are excerpts from my conversation with Gary Moore:  

INSPIREme:  What do you hope people take away from the book?

MOORE:  For me it’s very clear. We all have dreams, we all have goals. And for most people in their life, many of their dreams and goals are just never achieved, often times for reasons outside their control-- sports injuries for example or different opportunities that are missed. And the book is not about the opportunities but about the second chance you have in life and how you recover from the missed opportunity or from the injury. I think what my hope is that people read this and go away with a new perspective of what to do next.

I received a phone call about 2 years ago from the trainer of the Green Bay Packers and he said the Green Bay Packers were making it mandatory that all their new recruits read this book. When I heard that I started crying.  I was so touched.  I spoke at Great Lakes Naval Air Station and they told me they’re using Playing with the Enemy in one of their officer training classes. I feel very touched and very fortunate that this book has become so useful to so many people.

INSPIREme:  You finally heard your Dad’s story 24 hours before he died. I think a lot of us hear that and it makes us want to hear our parents and grandparents stories before it’s too late.  Did you hope your story would have that affect when you decided to share it?

MOORE:  Absolutely and I hear that all the time. I have hundreds of letters from people who say that reading my book inspired them to go talk to their parents. And I have an equal amount of letters that are very sad, that said after reading the book they wish they had talked to their parents but they’re gone. 

We all think we know our parents but our parents had an entire life before we came into being. Our parents all have the attitude that they think it’s not very interesting or that you're not interested.  Or life gets in the way of these discussions sometimes.  And sometimes when we’re introduced to who our parents were before we were born, it’s a very exciting thing. 

INSPIREme:  Hundreds of letters?  Wow, did you ever expect that kind of response?

MOORE:  Not that kind of response. I believed the story was worth telling. I believed the story could be a lesson to other people. I also believed my fathers story was typical. Most people have a series of broken dreams in their life. And some people recover from it some people don’t. I knew it would resonate well with people but I had no idea it would be viewed as healing or that the Navy or Green Bay Packers would pick up this book the way they have.

INSPIREme:  How would your life be different, had your Dad passed away without sharing his story? 

MOORE: I’ve spent a lot of time with all three of my kids talking to them about my life before they were born. And trying to help them get to know me on a different level. And I don’t think that would’ve happened had I not had that conversation with my father. 

INSPIREme:  How would you have described your Dad before you heard his story and how would you describe him after? 

MOORE:  I’d say beforehand I knew him as a hardworking father and husband who really worked very, very hard. He drove a delivery truck and was very focused on supporting his family. He didn’t seem to me to be a man who had big dreams or big goals. He seemed almost as if life had worn him down and his life was to work and provide and he had almost surrendered to that fact. 

After getting to know my father, I realized he was a man who had huge dreams and huge goals and was really quite broken hearted and never got over the fact that he lost his career in baseball.

INSPIREme:  The book talks a lot about destiny.   At one point, your father realizes that perhaps it wasn't his destiny to play professional baseball.  But instead, to have a family. 

MOORE:  Yeah, when asked if my father would give it all up to have his dream back and the answer was no, it tells you that his priorities were right and that he loved his family. But I still don’t think it ever took away the pain. As he said in the book, "I’d love to have it both.  I would love to have my family and my career".  As this story unfolds though, that would not be the case because had he not had the injuries and the problem he had, he most likely would have not met my mother. 

We all have those moments in life, these life changing moments that if 'A' wouldn’t have happened you’d never have met 'B' or achieved 'B'. You start tracking those things back and realize that your life is dictated by a chain of events that are usually unexpected.

INSPIREme:  So a movie is now in the works and your son,  who’s an actor, will play the role of your father. Do you have any updates for us?  

MOORE:  Yeah, in fact I just got off the phone with the producer and they’re negotiating with the director right now to finalize that.  They hope to be filming by the second quarter of 2011, so hopefully sometime in April they’ll start. 

"My son is going to be the lead and is playing his grandfather. It’s such a blessing for our family that I was able to write a story about my father and my son gets to play him in a movie. It doesn’t get any better than that!" 

Finally, a little something extra this time around!  Here is some of the audio from my interview with Gary Moore.  He mentioned receiving hundreds of letters from people who were touched by his book.  I asked him about the most memorable response he's gotten from a reader.  Click below to listen to Moore talk about the phone call he'll never forget:  

I definitely recommend this book!  I was especially intrigued by the surprise history lesson in the postscript!   What a great way to end a book!!!  (I'm not giving it away, you'll have to read it yourself!)  


Head online to the Playing With The Enemy website to sign up for updates on the upcoming movie!  

You can meet Gary Moore this January in Naperville!  He'll be promoting his new book, Hey Buddy.  The book details Moore's quest to learn more about the life of the great musician, Buddy Holly.  Here's the information for the start of Moore's national tour, kicking off in Naperville:

Anderson's Book Shop

January 20, 2011 

7 p.m. to 10 p.m.