THAT’S THE WAY I SAW IT
I REMEMBER BERT SHEPARD
One of the best baseball publications Baseball America lists baseball people that have died in the last couple weeks. Baseball Digest does that but only once a year.
Bert Shepard was listed as dying at the age of 87. The Sporting News in 1945 had several articles about him. He signed as a pitching coach for the Washington Senators.
Pitched in exhibition games and 5 innings of a regular game.
Bert Shepard lost his foot during WWII.
Like many ball players during WWII he joined the military. After his P-38 was shot down over Germany a German doctor amputated his right foot.
A fellow POW made him a wooden foot and the ex-minor leaguer started playing baseball around the camp. In January 1945 Shepard was part of a prisoner exchange and ended up at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington. The story got out that after he received his new leg he wanted to play baseball again.
Robert Patterson Assistant Secy. Of War called Clark Griffith about him and that led to him signing on with Washington.
He returned to Minor League Baseball in 1946 one year as a playing manager for Waterbury 1949. A couple years off and then finished his baseball days with Modesta-1955.
How can a person forget a player that didn’t let a handicap interfere with him playing baseball?
That’s the Way I Saw It.
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