PINCH HITTER

New Book by Ron Darling Says Lenny Dykstra’s Racism Helped Mets Win 1986 World Series

New tell-all book by Mets pitcher Ron Darling outlines climate of vile racism during Mets winning streak.

A tell-all book from Mets star pitcher Ron Darling confides that one of the team’s secret weapons was their racist hitter Lenny Dykstra. An excerpt of 108 Stitches: Loose Threads, Ripping Yarns, and the Darnedest Characters from My Time in the Game, in the New York Post recounts Dykstra’s vile racism might have been the key to their historic 1986 World Series title. One specific instance is during Game 3 with Dennis ‘Oil Can’ Boyd, who is black, on the mound for the Boston Red Sox. “Lenny was leading off for us that night, as he did most nights when he was in the lineup, and as Oil Can was taking his final warmups on the mound, Lenny was in the on-deck circle shouting every imaginable and unimaginable insult and expletive in his direction—foul, racist, hateful, hurtful stuff,” Darling writes. “I don’t want to be too specific here, because I don’t want to commemorate this dark, low moment in Mets history in that way, but I will say that it was the worst collection of taunts and insults I’d ever heard—worse, I’m betting, than anything Jackie Robinson might have heard, his first couple times around the league.” Darling writes explicitly about racism during his time in baseball, calling Dykstra especially, “Not exactly the poster boy for America’s game, huh?”