Sparky Lyle

HandednessBats Left · Throws Left

Listed at6 ft 1 in · 182 lb

BornJuly 22, 1944 · DuBois, PA, USA

MLB debutJuly 4, 1967

Final gameSeptember 27, 1982

Seasons16 (1967–1982)

Boston Red Sox 1967–1971; New York Yankees 1972–1978; Texas Rangers 1979; Philadelphia Phillies 1980; Texas Rangers 1980; Philadelphia Phillies 1981; Chicago White Sox 1982; Philadelphia Phillies 1982

Percentile snapshot

No qualified season. This player never reached the qualification floor — 3.1 plate appearances, or one inning, per game his team played — in any archived season, so there is no season population to rank him inside.

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

127.4

95.5

sWAR

27.2

95.9

ERA+ measured against qualified careers (1,000+ IP), 1,334 of them; sWAR measured against every career in history, 24,011 of them. Only era-adjusted career stats carry a percentile — a raw career total gets a rank instead, because pooling the 1890s with the 2020s is a choice, not a measurement.

Season by season

Batting

Season	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	RBI	BB	SO	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1967	27	8	8	1	2	1	0	0	4	0	.250	.250	.375	.625	69.7	76.3	.282	1.2
1968	49	9	8	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	.125	.125	.125	.250	-55.0	-26.0	.117	1.0
1969	71	18	17	0	2	0	1	1	6	0	.118	.167	.118	.284	-34.2	-21.0	.145	2.5
1970	63	14	13	2	0	0	1	1	2	0	.000	.071	.000	.071	-99.6	-79.1	.054	0.6
1971	50	4	3	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.000	1.000	2.000	531.1	454.5	.933	1.3
1972	59	24	21	2	4	1	1	1	10	0	.190	.227	.238	.465	33.1	41.1	.224	2.7
1973	51	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	2.0
1974	66	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-125.7	-100.0	.000	3.7
1975	49	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1.5
1976	64	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	2.6
1977	72	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	4.2
1978	59	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1.4
1979	67	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	2.1
1980	59	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.6
1981	48	7	5	2	2	0	0	1	1	1	.400	.500	.400	.900	176.8	155.8	.440	0.0
1982	45	3	2	0	1	0	1	1	1	0	.500	.667	.500	1.167	259.9	231.7	.562	0.0

Pitching

Season	G	W	L	SV	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1967	27	1	2	5	33	11	14	42	3	43.3	2.28	1.085	8.72	2.49	71.5	152.3	1.2
1968	49	6	1	11	67	20	14	52	6	65.7	2.74	1.234	7.13	2.47	78.0	115.3	1.0
1969	71	8	3	17	91	29	48	93	8	102.7	2.54	1.354	8.15	2.99	78.5	150.1	2.5
1970	63	1	7	20	62	29	34	51	5	67.3	3.88	1.426	6.82	3.44	87.0	102.0	0.6
1971	50	6	4	16	41	16	23	37	5	52.3	2.75	1.223	6.36	3.51	95.6	133.2	1.3
1972	59	9	5	35	84	23	29	75	3	107.7	1.92	1.050	6.27	2.05	68.7	155.0	2.7
1973	51	5	9	27	66	23	18	63	4	82.3	2.51	1.020	6.89	2.34	63.4	146.5	2.0
1974	66	9	3	15	93	21	43	89	6	114.0	1.66	1.193	7.03	2.85	80.1	214.7	3.7
1975	49	5	7	6	94	31	36	65	1	89.3	3.12	1.455	6.55	2.52	68.0	118.8	1.5
1976	64	7	8	23	82	26	42	61	5	103.7	2.26	1.196	5.30	3.28	94.6	153.7	2.6
1977	72	13	5	26	131	33	33	68	7	137.0	2.17	1.197	4.47	3.18	79.9	183.8	4.2
1978	59	9	3	9	116	43	33	33	6	111.7	3.47	1.334	2.66	3.65	99.8	105.6	1.4
1979	67	5	8	13	78	33	28	48	9	95.0	3.13	1.116	4.55	3.87	92.7	133.6	2.1
1980	59	3	2	10	108	45	34	49	9	94.7	4.28	1.500	4.66	4.03	102.7	91.7	0.6
1981	48	9	6	2	85	37	33	29	4	75.0	4.44	1.573	3.48	3.95	110.4	80.6	0.0
1982	45	3	3	3	61	25	19	18	3	48.7	4.62	1.644	3.33	3.97	106.9	80.7	0.0

sWAR is the season TOTAL for a player who both hit and pitched: the record book carries one figure per season, not a split, so the same number appears on both lines rather than being counted twice.

Career totals

Batting

899

RBI

.1923

OBP

.2410

SLG

.2179

OPS

.4589

Pitching

G (P)

899

28th-most career G (P)

238

42nd-most career SV

SHO

1,390

SO (P)

873

BB allowed

481

ERA

2.881

138th-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.2752

446th-lowest career WHIP

K/9

5.65

462nd-highest career K/9

A total is called out only where it ranks in the all-time top 500; hover a figure for its rank and the size of the field it was ranked in. Ranks are absolute facts and carry no percentile — the population for "career home runs" would be an editorial choice, and the rank is not.

Best games

Batting

Date	Game	AB	R	H	2B	RBI	TB
1972-06-03	NYY @ CWS Gameday	2	1	1	1	1	2
1967-07-13	BAL @ BOS Gameday	1	0	1	1	0	2
1969-05-29	BOS @ KC Gameday	1	0	1	0	1	1
1982-06-05	PHI @ HOU Gameday	1	0	1	0	1	1
1967-08-01	ATH @ BOS Gameday	1	1	1	0	0	1

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1968-08-11	BOS @ DET Gameday	5.2	2	1	0	1	8	0
1974-06-05	NYY @ CWS Gameday	5.0	3	0	0	1	6	0
1967-07-16	DET @ BOS Gameday	3.2	2	1	1	0	6	1
1973-05-16	MIL @ NYY Gameday	3.2	6	3	1	0	6	0
1975-07-24	NYY @ CWS Gameday	4.2	1	0	0	2	5	0

Ranked from our own play-by-play game log, which begins in 1901 — not from the record book, so a career played outside it shows nothing here rather than a short list.

Honors

1× Cy Young Award3× All-Star

Major awards only — the awards table also records Player of the Week, and forty of those would bury seven MVPs. Hover for the years.