In 2008, while working on a profile of renowned New York Yankees Public Address announcer Bob Sheppard for Maple Street Press' Yankees Annual, I was privileged to conduct what may be the final in-depth interview with him.
Though weakened by a respiratory ailment that had forced him to take a leave of absence from the post he’d held the Stadium since 1951, Sheppard was in excellent spirits when we spoke over the phone, his voice strong, energetic and often punctuated with laughter.
Unfortunately, Sheppard would never return to the PA booth he loved, and in 2009 formally announced his retirement.
What follows is the first of two unedited excerpts from our conversation—well, Sheppard mostly talked and I mostly listened in fascination—which began with my asking how his passions for sports and language converged to form a legendary career, and segued into Sheppard telling an alternately funny and poignant story about his enlistment in the U.S. Navy during World War Two.
Bob Sheppard: “Frankly, I think I was blessed in the beginning when I was in High School at St. John’s Prep, where I met two wonderful Vincentian priests who were my teachers, who influenced me in language. One was a Father McKellen who was so precise in his speech that every word seemed to be a diamond. And grammatically he was without flaw. He taught English at St. John’s Prep.
“Another priest taught religion. But he also preached on Sunday in my Parish. And he was inspirational in language. From the emotional point of view, he made words seem colorful. So between the purist, who taught the English, and the priest who taught religion, language appreciation in me grew and grew and grew. And I think it was, maybe in high school, that I dreamed of making Speech my career . . . along with sports. Because I played varsity baseball and varsity football at St. John’s Prep.
“Then I went to St John’s College—it’s now St. John’s University—but in my old day, St. John’s College had four hundred students. (Laughter). Four hundred students! All men, all men. In a little brown building in Brooklyn. Now it’s a huge university. “
Jerome Preisler: “Yeah, I grew up in Brooklyn.”
BS: “Well, then you know. But before your time, on the corner of Lewis and Willoughby {Avenues} was an old brown house, and that’s where St. John’s college was established. Anyway, I went to college there, and played football and baseball again, and was there on an athletic scholarship. But the courses I enjoyed most were the courses in English and speech. And one of the professors of speech was a Walter Robinson, who had a studio in what he called Car-neh-gie Hall. Not Carnegie, but Car-neh-gie Hall (laughter). Which was the way the original Car-neh-gie pronounced his name.”
JP: “Oh was it? I didn’t know.”
BS: “Yeah. Well, he was Scotch, and that’s what the pronunciation was there. Anyway, Walter Robinson was a character. Long white hair, very British in manner, and a stickler for phonetic pronunciation. And I fell under his spell. And he, I think, helped to bolster my dream of becoming a lifelong study of speech and perhaps teaching it.
“Well, before you know it, I got interested in looking around to see what kind of jobs were open. The New York City public school system, in the high school level, had departments of speech, and exams were being given. And when I finished my years at St. John’s College, I knew I needed even more background and enrolled in Columbia University for a Master’s degree in speech education. At the end of that year, I had a Master’s degree in speech and I took an exam to be a speech teacher in the city high schools.
“I passed the test, and for twenty years or so, maybe less, I taught speech at one of the high schools in New York, in the borough of Queens. In a town called Ridgewood. The name of the school was Grover Cleveland High School.
“Then World War 2 broke out and being young and healthy, but married and with three children, I thought there was no danger of me being drafted. But I went to the draft board in my hometown and said, ‘Here are my credentials, here’s what I do, I’m a teacher, I’m a father, I have a wife, I have three children. Is there any danger I would be drafted as a soldier or a sailor?’
“The man in charge of the interview said, ‘Maybe. I can’t say no, I can’t say yes. It’s a problem.” (Sheppard laughs heartily). I was on the horns of a dilemma. If I were drafted at twenty dollars a month, I don’t know what my wife and three youngsters would do!
“So I looked around and found out the Navy was interviewing men—qualified men—to become naval officers, which would be a little bit more pay than a sailor. And I dropped in, in Manhattan one day, where the recruitment office was located and I said, ‘I’m here to enquire. Not to join (laughter). I’m here to enquire about the possibility of getting a Navy assignment.
“And the man said, ‘Well . . . you’re old enough. You’re healthy enough, I guess. While you’re here, without any decision on your part, why don’t you just go in the back. The doctor’s there and he’ll examine you and see if you’re fit. If you’re not fit, I’ll tell you that.’
“So I went in the back, and the doctor went over me, and he said, ‘You’re fine.’ I went in front, and I said, ‘The man said I’m fine.’
“He said, ‘That’s step number one.’
“I said, ‘Wait a minute! Step number—I’m not here to join, I’m here to enquire!’
“And he said, ‘Well, look. You just passed the physical. There’s a simple medical thing, that’s over. Now it’s just a mental thing.’
“I said, ‘Okay, I’ll take it while I’m here. (Chuckles). So, I took it. And since most of it was vocabulary, and that was one of my strengths, I knocked it dead. And when he saw the results, he said, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this.’
“I said, ‘What happened?’
“He said, ‘You passed. Beautifully . . . beautifully! Sign up!’
“'Sign up?'” I said, 'I’m still enquiring!'
"‘Oh, you’re perfect. We need you, you’re perfect, and you’ll be a lieutenant junior grade.’
“I said, ‘Wait a minute. I haven’t even talked to my wife about it. About coming in here.’
“So I went home that night, and I talked with my wife, and she said, ‘Well, it’s a gamble. If you wait and you’re drafted, we’re sunk. If you take this, we can survive. If you survive.’ (Laughs).
“So I went back a couple of days later and said, “I’ll take the job.'
"And I went into the Navy and . . . oh, I spent time in the Pacific, I spent time in the Caribbean. And I lived. And I enjoyed it. And I came back. Unfortunately, I missed my wife, and I missed my three children, but I had a good, good career. A good career.”
Click here for Part II.
Follow Jerome Preisler on Twitter @YankeesInk.
