On September 30, 1978, Lerch hit two home runs in a 10–8 win that clinched the National League (NL) East Division championship for the Phillies.

[3] During the season, Lerch fell out of favor with the team's manager, Dallas Green, and voiced an interest in being traded.

[7] Not long after the Phillies won the 1980 World Series, it was enmeshed in a scandal involving amphetamines that had been taken by several members of the team.

[9] Soon after testifying, Lerch was traded by the Phillies to the Milwaukee Brewers on March 1, 1981, for outfielder Dick Davis.

[11] Columnist Barry M. Bloom called it "perhaps the greatest tell-all baseball book since the late Jim Bouton wrote Ball Four in 1970.