Under the radar but on the screen: 'Amazing Sports Stories'

By Barry Garron

KU beats Memphis in overtime? That's a good sports story. The New York Giants upset the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl? That's a very good sports story. Bert Shepard pitches for the Washington Senators? Now that's really amazing.

Bert Shepard (depicted here as orange crate art) was a sharecropper's son from Indiana who dreamed of pitching in the big leagues. He almost made it, too, but then the U.S. entered World War II and Shepard entered the Army. A fighter pilot, he had nearly three dozen bombing missions to his credit at the time he was shot down over Germany.

He was lucky the German farmers who found him didn't kill him and luckier still that a doctor treated his wounds. But that's where his luck ran out. His right leg had to be amputated just below the knee.

Shepard didn't give up on his dream. Nor did any of the others in "Amazing Sports Stories," a 13-episode weekly series from Nash Entertainment that premieres at 8 p.m. Sunday on FSN. Part documentary, part re-enactment, it is no stretch to call these half-hour shows the sports equivalent of "Profiles in Courage."

The second episode is about an early 20th century boxer, Billy Miske. I confess I've always been turned off by boxing but Miske's story is one of unusual heroism and it grabs you by the heart. Future episodes tell about the girl who struck out Babe Ruth and the greatest prison baseball player ever.

Exec producer Bruce Nash has a long list of reality specials to his credit, many of them ("Cheating Spouses Caught on Tape," "World's Worst Drivers," "Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?"" etc.) decidedly lowbrow. With  "Amazing Sports Stories," there is considerable atonement.