Lyle was entering his fourth season with the Yanks after coming over from the Boston Red Sox, and was coming off of another brilliant season in 1974 that saw him go 9-3 with a sparkling 1.66 earned run average over 66 games and 114 innings of work.
In his 1st year with the Bronx Bombers, he was lights out, going 9-5 with a league-leading 35 saves and a 1.92 ERA, finishing third in the AL MVP race.
Just two years into the future, he’d put it all together when he’d win the AL Cy Young Award after going 13-5 with 26 saves and a 2.17 ERA for the World Champ Yanks, throwing 137 innings over 72 games.
Of course, all that got him was a new teammate in 1978 by the name of Rich “Goose” Gossage, who would make Lyle trade-bait come 1979, leading to the ever-famous Graig Nettles line, “You went from Cy Young to Sayonara”.
Nevertheless, by the time he retired after the 1982 season, he appeared in 899 Major League games, all in relief, with 238 saves and a 99-76 record to go with his excellent 2.88 ERA over 16 seasons.
