In 1952, Shepard attempted a comeback and, primarily as a gate attraction, played for four different teams, St. Augustine in the Florida State League, Paris in the Big State League, Corpus Christi in the Gulf Coast League, and Hot Springs in the Cotton State League. Later, he took a job managing a semipro team in Willistown, North Dakota, where he met his wife, Betty, a school teacher in nearby Grand Forks. They were married in 1953.

At Corpus Christi, Shepard remembers hitting a home run halfway up the center field flagpole, but laughs when he tells the story of what happened after he left that city. "When I left Corpus Christi," Shepard says, "I called the owner of the Hot Springs club and told him I was looking for a job and said I had pitched for Washington, and he hired me sight unseen. About a week after I got there, he had the team over his house for a barbecue and came up to me and said, 'l have a confession to make. After I hired you over the phone, I went over to the sports department of the local paper, hoping to generate some publicity, and told them I had just hired a guy who used to pitch for Washington in the American League. One of the reporters there said, "Oh, that's that one-legged ballplayer." Well, I was so upset when I heard that, I tried to call you back to cancel the deal, but I couldn't get a hold of you.'"

Shepard still wasn't finished as a professional baseball player. Dividing his time between the pitcher's mound and first base, he played a couple of more years in the minors. At Tampa in the Florida International League in 1953, he played for manager Ben Chapman, a former major-league outfielder and manager. "We used to have a lot of exhibition races in Tampa," Shepard remembers, "and with my artificial leg, I was still able to win races going from home to first."

In one game in the minors, the other team's hitters became so frustrated at being unable to hit Shepard's pitches that they resorted to bunting. They laid down nine bunts against him, and he threw them all out. "If they had done that all game long," he chuckles, "I would have had a perfect game."

In 1955, Shepard was offered a contract by the Modesto Reds of the California League. Pitching in the first game of a doubleheader against Reno the day after his signing, Shepard surrendered two runs in the first inning, then settled down. No Reno base runner advanced past second base after the first inning. While he was being interviewed after his complete game victory, the fans crowded around him and urged him to pitch the second game, a plea Shepard good-naturedly brushed aside, saying, "Perhaps later in the season."

Later didn't come. In two more starts, he was hit hard and allowed 12 runs in two and one-third innings. That complete game victory proved to be his last hurrah. Hanging up the spikes for good, Shepard finally headed into private life, working as a safety engineer at Hughes Aircraft, and then for several southern California insurance companies. He also worked in the same capacity for Fluor Construction in both Saudi Arabia and Venezuela before retiring in 1982.

He is a two-time National Amputee Golf Champion, winning the title in 1968 and 1971, and still plays extremely well, walking on an artificial ankle he developed himself. Today, he and Betty reside in Hesperia, California, about forty miles north of San Bernadino. They have four children and eight grandchildren.

Shepard doesn't consider losing his leg a misfortune. "I've always enjoyed the situation of competition," he says, "I've never been afraid to fail. While I've had a couple setbacks, losing a leg and so forth, I found that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I felt that I could've done a pretty good job [for Washington] had I had the opportunity, but I'm sure a lot of ballplayers feel the same way.

"I remember when my daughter, Karen, was ten, she and I were sitting on the bed and I had the [artificial] leg off, and she said, 'Daddy, I'm sorry that you lost your leg.' I said, 'Well, Karen, I'm not. If I hadn't lost my leg, I wouldn't have met your mother and I wouldn't have you. And I wouldn't take anything in the world for you.' And that's the way to look at things."

Shepard's philosophy on life remains compelling. "When the Gernians interrogated me," he recalls, "they asked me to answer some questions and I wouldn't do it. I said, 'When I went into pilot training and came over here to combat, I was willing to accept whatever consequences happened.' You take whatever happens and do the best with it that you can."

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