Now Lyle is sitting pretty as a successful manager
Sparky Lyle, a notorious prankster during his playing days - he was known for sitting on birthday cakes with his bare behind in the clubhouse - could only laugh when asked if he ever thought the duration of his managerial career would approach that of his 16-year playing career.
"No," Lyle said, "and I don't think anybody else did, either."
His preference for unusual clubhouse humor classified him as an unlikely candidate for future managerial success. Yet he arrives on Long Island to manage the Freedom Division in tonight's Atlantic League All-Star Game at Suffolk County Sports Park as the all-time winningest manager in league history, having led the Somerset Patriots to five championships in 12 years.
The secret to his success may lie in his unique managerial style.
"No style at all," said the 65-year-old former Yankees closer, who won the 1977 Cy Young Award after going 13-5 with 26 saves and a 2.17 ERA. "I tell my players to go out there and let the game come to them and react to it."
Lyle compiled 238 saves between 1967 and 1982, none of which might have been possible without the advice of a certain Red Sox icon during spring training in 1967.
"Ted Williams came over to me and said the slider was the best pitch in baseball because he couldn't hit it consistently when he knew it was coming," Lyle said. "So he told me, 'I really think if you develop a slider, you will be in the big leagues.' "
Lyle would lie in bed at night with the lights out and a baseball in his hand, trying to figure out how to make the ball spin. When he finally did, he began incorporating it into his repertoire and soon was in the majors. For Lyle, the slider became what the cutter is to Mariano Rivera.
Lyle never imagined one day becoming a manager. He calls the years away from the game after his retirement in 1982, when he was hired by a casino in Atlantic City to spend time with guests and serve as Mickey Mantle's chaperone, some of the best of his life.
"I got a call from Claridge Casino that they wanted me to come down and work with Mickey and hang out and play golf with him and the high rollers," Lyle said. "They were like, 'Can [you] keep an eye on him?' and I said, 'Well, I think I can do that.' "
Lyle, who has lived in Voorhees, N.J., since 1986, didn't return to baseball until he walked into a dealership in 1997 to buy a new truck and dealt with Steve Kalafer, who was the chairman not only of the dealership but the Patriots. Lyle came out with a new Ford F-150 as well as a new job as Somerset's manager.
His success may be predicated on being a player's manager, but Lyle's days of playing pranks have come to an end, much to the relief of birthday cake-eaters throughout baseball.
"I kind of grew out of that," Lyle said. "When you're young and having fun and playing ball, it gives you an opportunity to do all that stuff. I enjoy it when some of my players pull stuff on each other, but I don't get involved anymore. I'm still in therapy for cake sittings. It's been a long, slow process."
