The 1986 Mets are back in the news, this time for a demand among the players of that winning team of the World Series. Lenny Dykstra (seen left above during a pre-game ceremony honoring that team in 2016), who played center field for the '86 Mets, is suing Ron Darling after a new book by Darling ( a star pitcher for that team that is now a Mets The badyst of SNY and a national badyst of Turner Sports, and who has been just up in that same ceremony of 2016, accused Dykstra of throwing racist mockeries against the pitcher Dennis "Oil Can "Boyd of the Boston Red Sox during that World Series." The badertions in question come from Darling's new book "108 stitches: loose threads, torn threads and the most reckless characters of My Time in the Game", and were published in an extract in The New York Post two weeks ago:
However, in Game 3 of the 1986 World Series, Oil Can was on the receiving end of the ugliest vitriol I've ever heard: in a bar, on a baseball diamond … anywhere. It was one of the worst and most shameful moments I've experienced in the game, and one of the great shames of the exchange was that I sat there with my teammates and I did not do anything about it. In fact, it resulted in a change of momentum that probably turned the Series around for us, and like most of the other guys in the bank, I stood up and applauded the positive result.
… The hero of Game 3 for us was also the hole in the game: Lenny Dykstra, one of the all-time baseball thugs. Do you know that it seems that there is always a man in every organization, in all areas of life, who gets away with it, murder is a figurative term in this case? That was Lenny. He was a criminal in every way, although during his playing days, his crimes were mostly interpersonal in nature. He treated people as if he were, walked as if he did not stink and was generally a human being, and, perhaps, the most confident and conceited player he had ever encountered. However, it was after he left the game that his behavior took a truly criminal turn; He ended up being sentenced to house arrest for an allegation of bankruptcy fraud, and was also charged with large-scale drug possession and theft charges, for which he received a three-year prison sentence.
… Lenny was heading towards us that night, as he did most nights when he was in the lineup, and while Oil Can was taking his last warm-ups on the mound, Lenny was in the waiting circle screaming every insult imaginable and unimaginable repented in his direction: disgusting, racist, hateful, hurtful things. I do not want to be too specific here, because I do not want to commemorate this dark and low moment in the history of the Mets that way, but I will say that it was the worst collection of insults and insults I had heard. – worse, I bet, to everything Jackie Robinson could have heard, his first couple of times in the league. Much worse than the Hollywood version of the abuse of Jackie by the opposing players that was on display in "The Story of Jackie Robinson." Much worse than what Kevin Garnett had said he would get under Carmelo Anthony's skin the night Melo went to look for K.G. in the locker room after a game of the Celtics-Knicks in 2013.
And yet, whatever Lenny yelled at Oil Can out there on the mound that night could have had the desired effect, because Dennis looked disturbed. It's amazing to me, looking back, that there are no images of the game that reveal Lenny's betrayal. I was out there, shouting in full view this stream of unconscious, within sight of anyone in one of the front rows and certainly within reach of the cameras and microphones that had been set up to record the game, but I guess the attention was on other side.
Dykstra filed a lawsuit for this in the Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday, alleging that Darling "maliciously portrayed the plaintiff as a racist, an immovable stain and a permanent cloud that will forever diminish Mr. Dykstra." Dykstra and her lawyer told Kirsten Fleming, Priscilla. DeGregory and Kate Sheehy of the Submit On Tuesday they argue that Darling "literally invented a story":
"This lawsuit sends a clear and loud message to anyone that you can not make up lies about people, he literally invented a story," Dykstra told The Post of Darling on Tuesday.
"You can not do that when there are millions of people listening to you, as Mr. Perfect does as an announcer," he said, referring to Darling's current career as a television baseball commentator.
Matthew Blit, the former center fielder's high power attorney, added: "It's pathetic: Darling and his other defendants knew that Lenny is down and intentionally, maliciously and illegally, he rammed a dagger of lies into his heart."
If this lawsuit comes to trial, it may be interesting to see what the various personalities involved with the Mets-Red Sox series have to say in court, and see if there is any video of what Dykstra said or did not say. Second baseman Wally Backman (who hit behind Dykstra in the lineup) told Long Island 1240 WGBB "I was on the deck with Lenny and I'll leave it at this: I know he did not say that." He did not say that. That's a fact, "and Dykstra's lawsuit claims that other players (including Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden and Kevin Mitchell) have said that Darling's story is false.
However, it is also remarkable that Darling has not specifically explained what he claims Dykstra said. "Did Dykstra X say?" It's one thing, but "Dykstra said something" dirty, racist, hateful and hurtful "? It's another question, and another question where Dykstra and Darling might have different opinions on the same comment. And the defamation law of the United States could present Some obstacles for Dykstra: On the one hand, he is not a public official, but he could be a public figure (especially considering that he has already written two books of his own, both of which refer to that 1986 World Series), which could mean that the standard of actual malice applies and had to prove that Darling's comments were made "knowing it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not." We'll see what happens, but Dykstra might have some challenges to prove that Dear knowingly made a false claim here.
This is also not the first demand that Dykstra has filed or threatened. In 2016, he filed a lawsuit in April 2014 that he filed alleging that he had been beaten by Los Angeles agents in jail and in a hospital. In 2017, he threatened a defamation lawsuit against a woman who accused him of badual harbadment while both were invited on Fox News; It is not clear if he ever really filed a lawsuit there. And last August, he filed a lawsuit against the CAA agency, alleging that he was rigid in a series of documents about his life that was released to Amazon but was not picked up. We will see where the latter is going. But it's certainly interesting to see Dykstra actually suing Darling for this book.
The[[The New York Post]
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