 And that is one of the better ones involving any athlete in American history. He was very valuable. The film is based on a book by the same name that was released in 1994. What is it called again? The Catcher was a Spy. The Catcher was a Spy. Yeah. The book spent seven weeks on the bestseller list, which described the biography as The Life of Moe Bird, Big League Catcher, OSS Agent, Ladies' Man, and Freeloader.