He said, ‘They said you couldn’t get your grandmother out.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m not facing her.’”
Lyle never had much love for Martin, and now points to the manager as an example of someone who should not be represented in Monument Park.
Lyle was at Fan Fest, a baseball season kickoff for the minor league Somerset Patriots,
and the man with the photo told Lyle a familiar story: He had collected more than 400 signatures on a petition urging the Yankees to finally honor their former star reliever and to do it on the 40th anniversary of the 1977 championship and Lyle’s remarkable Cy Young season.
“The way I feel about the Yankees, I don’t think you need to be in Monument Park unless you’ve played your whole freaking career there
and done something special like the original guys that are out there,” Lyle said.
The Yankees have invited him to Old-Timers’ Day on June 25, though a club official said there was no specific ceremony yet scheduled to honor Lyle or the 40th anniversary of the team
that broke a 15-year title drought and brought Steinbrenner his first championship.
When you have two relievers who are used to being in 70-plus games every year, one of them’s not going to get innings.”
Lyle endured his second-banana season in 1978, which ended in another World Series championship, then
was traded away in a big deal with the Texas Rangers that brought Dave Righetti to New York.
The Yankees were down two games to one in the best-of-five series, clinging to a one-run lead with two outs in the fourth inning of Game 4.
Lyle attended 15 straight Old-Timers’ Day games, then only one in the last 17 years — mainly
because he was busy with the Patriots as manager and now as manager emeritus.