TTM Stats
- Sent: 8/22/2020 | Received: 8/29/2020 | 7 Days
- ’73 Topps, ’80 Topps, ’81 Topps, ’82 Fleer (with fee)
- Address: Home (address from Sports Card Forum)
The Story of the Autograph
Sparky Lyle is a former Cy Young and World Series winning left-handed closer in the major leagues. He had a long 16 year career that lasted from 1967 to 1982. During his career he played for the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, Philadelphia Phillies, and Chicago White Sox.
Lyle was born and raised in Pennsylvania. He played football and basketball for his high school but had to play American Legion baseball because his schools didn’t have a baseball team. The Orioles scouted him and signed him as an amateur free agent in 1964. Before the year was out he was drafted by the Red Sox in the 1964 first-year draft.
He made his major league debut for the Red Sox on July 4, 1967. He played well for the Sox including a 1969 season where he made 71 appearances and put up a 8-3 record with a 2.54 ERA and 17 saves in 102.2 innings. Prior to the 1972 season he was traded to the Yankees. He went on to set an AL record for left-handers with 35 saves. But his best season was 1977 when he led the league in games (72) and pitched to a 13-5 record with a 2.17 ERA and 26 saves. That earned him his third and last All-Star Game appearance and the Cy Young Award.
Despite helping the Yankees to a championship in 1977, the Yankees felt they needed and upgrade and brought in Goose Gossage. Lyle was not happy about it and while they won the World Series in 1978 for their second in a row, it was time to move on from Lyle. They traded him to the Rangers in a deal that would bring them another future Yankee closer and Rookie of the Year in Dave Righetti.
He still closed a few games with the Rangers, Phillies and White Sox to end his career, but he started to fade from his great Yankee days. He was traded to the Phillies and then spent some time in Chicago before retiring. In 1980 he was close to Hoyt Wilhelm’s career mark for saves but was caught and passed by Rollie Fingers who set the new mark.
The Score on Sparky Lyle – 7.0
Sparky has what is in a lot of ways a pretty standard looking signature. I like that it’s legible and you can definitely tell that it’s his name. He also fills the card up really well. I’m also glad that I had a good selection of cards of his from different teams but I would like to find a card of him on the Red Sox.
Thanks Mr. Lyle! I’m giving this return a 7.
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Information gathered using Wikipedia and Baseball Reference.