Bert Shepard
Bert Robert Shepard (June 28, 1920 – June 16, 2008) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who pitched in one game for the Washington Senators in 1945 after having had his right leg amputated after his fighter plane was shot down in Germany during World War II while he was serving as a pilot in the Army Air Forces. Biography Born in Dana, Indiana, the 5"11", 185 lb left-hander taught himself to walk and then to pitch with an artificial leg while confined in the German POW camp Stalag IX C(b) in city Meiningen. The Canadian doctor and prisoner Don Errey produced the prosthesis for Bert. Shepard had been gunned down east of Hamburg on his 34th mission as a P-38 fighter pilot; his life was saved by the doctor Lieutenant Ladislaus Loidl of the German Army. On February 21, 1945, Shepard was back in the United States and hoping to resume his pitching career. Prior to the war, he had pitched for minor leagues all across the country, including the Anaheim Aces in 1941. During spring training in 1945, he impressed Senators owner Clark Griffith enough to be hired as a pitching coach. He pitched exhibition