Len Dykstra is even more of an asshole than we imagined.

[RealityChuck]

https://nypost.com/2019/03/30/ron-darling-lenny-dykstras-racist-tirade-helped-mets-win-world-series/https://nypost.com/2019/03/30/ron-darling-lenny-dykstras-racist-tirade-helped-mets-win-world-series/



Briefly, Ron Darling writes that Dykstra shouted a bunch of racist taunts at Oil Can Boyd when he was on deck for the third game of the 1986 WS.

[stevejrogers]

To quote Billy Wagner, fuckin' shocker.

[Edgy MD]

No, that's pretty much the asshole I imagined.

[HahnSolo]

The freakin balls on that guy. To shout racist taunts with Doc, Darryl, Mookie, Mitch right there in the dugout?

[Edgy MD]

The freakin' balls on the Mets brass not to get rid of him 10 minutes after the World Series.

[Willets Point]

Edgy MD wrote: The freakin' balls on the Mets brass not to get rid of him 10 minutes after the World Series.

They were too busy shipping out Kevin Mitchell for racist reasons.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Straw, Mitch and Dykstra. That woulda been some damn outfield late 80s-early 90s.

[MFS62]

Edgy MD wrote: No, that's pretty much the asshole I imagined.

Exactly. I don't think it would be possible for him to be more of an asshole than we imagine.

Later

[Fman99]

Yeah, same. He's a shit-ass.

[metirish]

Lenny is a wanker I am sure, Darling too, selling a book ? it was so obvious after he came back to Twitter from a break he was selling something.

[whippoorwill]

Lenny just looks stinky. Breath, butt, pits, you name it



Plus Suzan walden called him a bucket of lust so what does that tell you



Damn autocorrect changed her name three times

[G-Fafif]

=metirish post_id=5861 time=1554144758 user_id=72]
Lenny is a wanker I am sure, Darling too, selling a book ? it was so obvious after he came back to Twitter from a break he was selling something.

[whippoorwill]

I think Keith did the same thing

[Lefty Specialist]

Well, when it's Lenny, I always imagine bad things. And he never disappoints.

[smg58]

Edgy MD wrote: No, that's pretty much the asshole I imagined. Exactly. I don't think it would be possible for him to be more of an asshole than we imagine. Later

He was my favorite Met at the time, which just seems unfathomable now. But he's long past the point where anything about him would surprise me in a negative way.

[Centerfield]

Lenny was one of my favorites too. It's amazing how little we knew.

[Frayed Knot]

I think it was always pretty knowable that he was a chowderhead.

That he turned out to be a barely civilized borderline sociopath was perhaps beyond what could be expected.

[Edgy MD]

It always makes a differences how old you are.



When I worked for our local parks department, at around 19 or so, I guess, I had to manicure the department's only MLB regulation-sized field. The Mets were sending a group to do a clinic for our local Little Leaguers.



I had been around (I was 19!) so I knew we'd get the guys at the end of the bench. But somehow, word had gotten around that Dykstra was going to be there. He wasn't, of course, but we got every 10-14 year old boy from four towns around packing the field to the point of danger, all for a clinic put on by Bill Robinson, Mel Stottlemyer, Rafael Santana and (I think) Randy Niemann.



I saw a friend of my mother's who was from two towns over, and she explained to me that she had brought her 13-year-old to see Dykstra, and he was heartbroken, but still an hour into the clinic, there was this buzz going that he might still arrive.



All I could think was, "That douchebag is the phoniest player in the league, — at least, now that everybody knows the truth about Pete Rose."



I found it unfathomable that nobody else could see through him. But these were boys. White boys who had a super-athletic, dirty, over-hyped white centerfielder that they could identify with. He even had a boyish stature. Half of them were wearing his number, and some were wearing eye-black (to an evening clinic).



I realized then that I might have fallen for him when I was younger too. I kinda, sorta, mostly fell for Lee Mazzilli. But Dykstra seemed to be working a hustle from the day he arrived. (Talk about making the easy plays look hard.)



It's a shame, too. He really was that great an athlete. Despite being from Southern Cal (and being a Floridian in spirit), he was actually from a hockey family, and three of his uncles played in the NHL.

[Centerfield]

I had no idea. I was 11 in '86 (I don't remember him doing much in '85). And generally even immature as far as 11 year olds go. Lenny was a little guy like me. He was a fast leadoff guy, played centerfield and even hit left-handed. I even tried out his stance for a while until my coach made me stop.



I had no clue. I couldn't tell who was a jerk and who was nice. If you told me Tim Teufel was out womanizing and getting into fights I would have believed that. But they were Mets, so that meant they were all awesome to me.



I think Jeff Kent was the first Met that made me think this guy might be kind of a dick. I would have been in HS by then.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, that adds up.



Of course, Teufel was getting into at least https://www.nytimes.com/1986/07/20/sports/4-mets-arrested-in-fight.htmlone fight in 1986.

[Centerfield]

Meanwhile, Straw refutes the story. Says he roomed with Lenny in the minors and Lenny "doesn't have a racist bone in his body."



Who was it that made the racist femur joke a while ago?



Per John Harper on twitter.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I love Darryl but don't believe anything he says.



I like that we're evolving sensitivities as a society but makes it really hard to contextualize what was "normal" for the eras

[Centerfield]

If I had to guess, I'd say yes, this definitely happened, but that this type of thing was a lot more common than Ron would have you believe, but maybe Lenny took it a step further because he's Lenny.



I used to hear stupid shit from opposing players all the time and this was during middle school and HS.

[G-Fafif]

As part of his publicity tour, Ron guested on Darren Meenan's (the 7 Line Guy) Orange and Blue Thing, a fine podcast with a video component (Darling had Darren to his house to tape it). At one point, Ronnie was asked about his playing career ending and prefaced his answer by saying there are two names he'll never forget, "Julio Vazquez" being the first of them. Who the hell was that, I wondered. Does he mean Javier Vazquez? What does Javier Vazquez have to do with Ron Darling?



Ron identified Julio Vazquez as the pitcher who took his place in the Mets' rotation. Oh, I realized, he means Julio Valera, sort of deflating the claim that his is a name Darling will never forget.



My hunch (from thirteen years of SNY, besides the above anecdote) is Ronnie doesn't have the most amazing retention of detail, and given that Dykstra no doubt said disgusting stuff regularly, it may be hard to pin down exactly when and where Dykstra uttered a particularly disgusting remark. It might have been in the on-deck circle before Game Three of the World Series. It might have been some other time about some other person. It's more than thirty years ago. Who remembers?



"Nailed" by Christopher Frankie, which came out in 2013, detailed that among other fine qualities, Dykstra's skeletal structure includes quite a few racist bones.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I was kind of annoyed that Darling wrote a book about how much he regrets his performance in Game Seven of the 1986 World Series, which the Mets won, and didn't express any regret about his performance in Game Seven of the 1988 NLCS, which was much more damaging to his team.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Dykstra phoned a radio show, refuted Darling's claims and https://nypost.com/2019/04/02/ron-darling-digs-in-lenny-dykstra-has-backers-as-fight-gets-ugly/says he plans to sue Darling and the book publisher.



Lest your forget he's Lenny Dykstra and therefore a piece of shit, he added that he would “drop [Darling] like a red-headed fucking stepchild.”

[kcmets]

"Jussie Darling" haha

[Centerfield]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I was kind of annoyed that Darling wrote a book about how much he regrets his performance in Game Seven of the 1986 World Series, which the Mets won, and didn't express any regret about his performance in Game Seven of the 1988 NLCS, which was much more damaging to his team.

I don't think they win in 1988 even if Ron is on.

[Bunt the First Two]

Well, some Mets take to brawling

And some Mets take to the blow

Some Mets chase all the cameras

Always making a big show

And some Mets will trash an airplane

Or kill a girlfriend's cat

Folks think that they're all assholes

But I'm a bigger 'hole than that



Some Mets will claim they're blackballed

Or benched because of race

Some want to slug Tom Niedenfuer

Or Davis in the face

Some Mets tear up Cooters

And knock a Houston cop out flat

Folks say the Mets are assholes

But I'm a bigger 'hole than that



　I'm a showboat defender

　On an alcohol bender

　I'm laden down with gambling debts

　My habits, disgusting

　My cock, always thrusting

　And I think that I'm the face of the Mets



　I dive when I don't haveta

　I didn't vote for NAFTA

　I wrap my car around a pole

　My drugs give me a chubby

　I buy 'em from the clubby

　I'm a genuine five-tool HOLE!



Some Mets will grow a mullet

But none more douchier than me

Some Mets will cheat with PEDs

But I sell untainted pee

I'd be better with Phillies

Getting jacked until I'm fat

'Cuz if you think these Mets are assholes

Man, I'm a bigger 'hole than that

[LWFS]

I mean, given just a little bit of debt-related pressure, the guy defrauded his mother to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars, without a second thought.



Dykstra's long been in that figurative place in my mind (and, I think, in the public consciousness) that Bill Simmons used to call "The Tyson Zone." You could promulgate almost any story on earth about the guy's depravity, and I'd probably assume it was true.