May 2, 1977 - Sparky was fired up for his wedding

NEW YORK – Sparky Lyle was considered one of the more eccentric players on this memorable team. For anyone who read his best-selling book, The Bronx Zoo, written with esteemed author Peter Golenbock, you learned all about Lyle’s penchant for ruining cakes that were sent into the clubhouse by sitting on them.

So it should have come as a surprise to no one that when Lyle used this off day on the Yankee schedule to marry his second wife, Mary Fontaine Massey, he departed the church in a 1936 fire truck.

Lyle, of course, had won The Sporting News Fireman of the Year award in 1972, his first season with New York. And no left-hander had ever been better at putting out fires than Lyle because when he saved the first game of the Seattle series, it was the 180th of his career, a new Major League Baseball record for left-handers.

So a friend of Lyle’s, New York restauranteur Norman Momjian, conceived the idea of replacing the Cadillac that was supposed to transport the newlyweds from the church to the reception with the fire truck that used to be seen on Milton Berle’s television show in the 1950s.

“It’s quite a surprise,” Lyle said, “but not as bad as I expected.”

The entire wedding party hopped aboard and with sirens blaring, they were driven from the church at Fifth Avenue and 29th Street, all the way up to the reception at McTeague’s on East 79th.

Most of the Yankees were in attendance, as well as owner George Steinbrenner. Had Lyle gotten married in 1979, after the publication of The Bronx Zoo, you’d have to believe Boss George would have skipped.

As far as anyone knows, Lyle did not sit on his wedding cake.

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