Former New York Mets pitcher Ron Darling on Tuesday stood by the allegation he made in his new book that Lenny Dykstra shouted racial slurs at a Boston Red Sox pitcher in the 1986 World Series.
Darling went on the ESPN radio show “Golic and Wingo” to reassert his claim that Dykstra, his former teammate, hurled racial insults at Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd prior to his first at-bat of Game 3 of the World Series.
“I heard what I heard and I put it in the book for a reason,” Darling said, referring to his new book titled, “108 Stitches: Loose Threads, Ripping Yarns, and the Darndest Characters from My Time in the Game.”
In the book, released Tuesday, Darling wrote that Dykstra was “shouting every imaginable and unimaginable insult and expletive in his [Boyd’s] direction — foul, racist, hateful, hurtful stuff” while in the on-deck circle. Further, Darling wrote that the insults were “worse than anything Jackie Robinson might have heard.”
For his part, Dykstra went on ESPN Radio’s “Michael Kay Show” on Monday and threatened to sue Darling. Further, Dwight Gooden and Kevin Mitchell told Kay on Monday that they never heard Dykstra slur Boyd.
But Darling said Tuesday that there’s “no chance that I misremembered it.”