The Bronx Zoo, by Lyle, Sparky and Petr Golenbock
Inventory #: 00494
Price: $25.00

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The Bronx Zoo, by Lyle, Sparky and Petr Golenbock. Crown Publishers: New York, 1979. Edition: Eighth printing. ISBN: 0517537265. Hardcover, 248 pages. Black cloth with silver lettering on spine.

Condition: Book: Very Good. Spine ends lightly bumped. Jacket: Good Plus. Significant chipping along upper edge, especially at spine end. Lesser chipping along lower edge.

Contents: This book was named number 53 on Sports Illustrated's "Top 100 Sports Books of All Time" in the December 16, 2002 issue of the magazine.

From the jacket

An astonishing inside look at the World Champion New York Yankees and their coast-to-coast rivals.

Yankee teammate Graig Nettles described Sparky Lyle's year as going "from Cy Young to 'Sayonara,' " a year in which Sparky was relegated to an outcast's role as his team surged to the most dramatic comeback in baseball history. In THE BRONX ZOO, Sparky tells it like it is . . . Exposing the behind-the-scenes details of the Billy Martin-Reggie Jackson feud and describing the divisive role of Yankee owner George Steinbrenner. Sparky shows why a bruised and butter Thurman Munson retreats into angry and stoic silence . . . Why a physically and emotionally distraught Billy Martin resigns as manager, and what Sparky thinks about the events leading to Billy's resignation and rehiring.

THE BRONX ZOO lets us share the thrill of Ron Guidry's magnificent season -- a season that almost never was -- and the growing awesomeness of Goose Gossage striding from the bullpen and taking Sparky's job away. You'll see a crazed Lou Piniella kicking the team's brand-new 100-pot coffee maker into a pile of junk and Sparky discouraging tightwad Yogi Berra from mooching his toothpaste by putting White Heat Liniment in the tube. You'll read a blow-by-blow account of Sparky's fight with the Yankee front office to win a fair pay raise, and you will conclude that baseball bears an uncanny resemblance to blackmail.

Sparky's locker room candor will cause storms all over the American League. In L.A. ears will burn over Sparky's tales of the "Crybaby Dodgers." Groans will sound from Kansas City when Sparky claims that if the Royals played in the same division as the Yankees, they'd never get as far as the play-offs. If there's anyone left in Minneapolis who still likes Calvin Griffith, Sparky's discussion of the Rod Carew fiasco eliminates even that constituency. Boston's Bill Lee, Oakland's Charles Finley, Baltimore's Jim Palmer all get a a roasting; as do a cast of other luminaries and those who would, no doubt, have wished to remain in the shadows.

Closeup of chipping to upper margin: