Mets: Lenny Dykstra Sues Ron Darling Over Claims of Racism

Lenny Dykstra is keeping his promise and suing former 1986 New York Mets teammate Ron Darling for making false claims in his new book “108 Stitches”.

Ever since excerpts of Ron Darling’s new book were published in the New York Post, New York sports media has been having a field day with the New York Mets announcer. One thing that stood out among all the other unseemly accusations in Darling’s book was how Darling describes Lenny Dykstra’s behavior while standing in the batter’s box at Fenway Park during game 3 of the 1986 World Series against 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… worse, I’m betting, than anything Jackie Robinson might have heard, his first couple times around the league.

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This claims led to Dykstra calling into “The Michael Kay Show,” broadcast on ESPN NY and the YES Network, to defend himself, calling Darling’s claims “flat out lies,” among other things.  When asked if he plans on suing his ex-teammate, Dykstra quickly proclaimed, “I’m going to sue him and the publisher.”

Staying true to his promise, on Tuesday we found out that Lenny Dykstra has indeed filed a lawsuit against Ron Darling and St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Publishing Group in the New York Supreme Court, per the Associated Press.

Many will point to Darling’s near-perfect resume in order to come to his defense, while others will point to Dykstra’s shoddy history to cast doubt upon him. However, the fact of the matter is, no teammate has come out in defense of Darling, while Dykstra has had several Mets teammates (Dwight Gooden, Kevin Mitchell, Darryl Strawberry, and John Gibbons) vouch for him.

When asked to comment on Darling’s accusations, former Mets teammate and colleague on SNY, Kieth Hernandez only had this to say to the New York Post’s Mike Puma: “I do recall Lenny up there in the on-deck circle barking, but I was getting prepared and I didn’t hear a thing”.

Not much of a defense of Darling if you ask me.