A good buddy of mine, Cy Young Award winner and former Yankee Sparky Lyle's favorite song is The House of the Rising Sun. Every time we would be sitting on the deck, drinking a few beers and just enjoying the company, he would have me get out my guitar and play music for him and the other folks assembled. I did so gladly. Early on in our relationship as friends, he let me know that his favorite song is "House of the Rising Sun", so I always play it for him. Which brings me to the subject of this thread. I have already written the first verse of the song, which I will put at the end of this post. I am going to give you all some bio data, and interesting facts about Spark, and you can help me finish the parody. I am then going to record it on my computer and send it to him. Anyone whose verse makes the final cut will get a credit when I send it to him, and I will send you a copy as well. Here we go with the data:

Real name is Albert Walter Lyle. He never remembers being called that. He was such an active kid that he was known as a real spark plug. They called him Sparky from the get go. He tells me he would get in trouble in school because the teacher would call him Albert and he didn't know that it was him she was talking to. The teachers thought he was being a smart aleck.

He was born and raised in Dubois, Pennsylvania. His birthdate is July 22, 1944.

Sparky loved baseball, and played it in school, and he also played American Legion ball. The way he got noticed and picked up happened as a result of a 22 inning American Legion game. Sparky ended up pitching 17 of those innings, never letting a run in. A scout for the Baltimore Orioles saw this, was mightily impressed, and the Orioles signed him to a minor league contract. But Spark never pitched for the Orioles. They left him unprotected and the Boston Red Sox drafted him in 1967.

Sparky is known as the prototype of the modern day reliever. He became that by learning to throw a slider. Managers in his day were frustrated, because they knew what Sparky was going to throw, told the batters what to expect, they knew it was coming, ...... and they still couldn't hit it. The story of how Sparky developed that pitch is an amazing one in itself. Here it is as Sparky told it to me: He was in the farm system with the Boston Red Sox. One day Ted Williams (can you imagine?) was talking to him, and Williams said, "kid, to be a great reliever, you have to have one pitch that you can throw over and over and get a batter out. Just one, but it has to be devastating and you need to be able to throw it anytime and get a batter out. Do you know what the best pitch in baseball is, kid?" Sparky answered that he did, and gave the answer most pitchers would give, "the changeup". Williams looked at him and said, "Nope, it's the slider. Do you know why? Because it's the one pitch that even when I know it's coming, I can't hit the damn thing". And Ted Williams walked away, but he never told Sparky how to throw it. So Sparky spent the rest of that season and all winter trying to make the ball slide, and finally he figured it out. The pitch was devastating. He became the Red Sox's bullpen ace and a few seasons later he was traded to the Yankees for Danny Cater (who?) and a player to be named later. That became known as the second worst trade that Boston ever made, Ruth being the first. Sparky became the best at what he did, and this culminated with him winning the Cy Young Award (first AL reliever ever to accomplish this) in 1977.

Another great story Sparky told me involved the great catcher, Elston Howard. Elston played most of his career for the Yankees, but was traded to Boston in 1967. The manager of the Red Sox had such respect for Elston, that he told the pitching staff that anyone who shook off a sign from him would be fined $50.00. This is when Sparky was making but $5,000.00/year. He got several of those fines, until finally Elston Howard took pity on him, came out to the mound and told him, "Sparky, if I give you a sign you don't want, just stand there. Don't shake it off, just stand there, and I will give you something else.". Spark told Ellie, "Why don't you just not give me any signs, because I am just going to throw sliders anyway?". They agreed, and that was that.

Sparky was known as a clubhouse prankster, and his favorite prank involved cakes in the clubhouse. Whenever someone would bring a birthday cake in the clubhouse, Spark would pull down his pants and plant his butt cheeks in the cake. He got pretty good at leaving a perfect print in cakes. This went on for years.

Today, Sparky manages a minor league team in Bridgewater, NJ, the Somerset Patriots. He loves baseball, considers himself a Yankee to this day. One of the things he really enjoys is when a hot young pitcher with a great slider tells him who he learned it from, and they trace it right back to Sparky, and the guys he taught it to.

OK, the first verse, to the tune of House of the Rising Sun, goes like this:

There is, a house, they say Ruth built,
In the Bronx, NYC, USA...
And many's the legend, was built in that house,
I'll sing of one, today.

OK, take it from there, and let's work out some verses together.

Thanks,

Mick