Longtime Mets and Phillies star Lenny Dykstra’s need to win was so strong that he apparently resorted to blackmailing umpires during his 12-year big league career that ended in 1996.
Talking Tuesday with Fox’s Colin Cowherd, the three-time All-Star center fielder said he hired private investigators to track the private lives of umpires, the better to create a personal advantage.
“I said `I need these umpires,’ so what do I do?” Dykstra said. “I just pulled a half-million bucks out and hired a private investigation team. Their blood is just as red as ours. Some of them (the umpires) like women, some of them like men, some of them gamble. Some of them do whatever.
“It wasn’t a coincidence … do you think I that I led the league in walks the next two years, was it? Fear does a lot to a man.”
He went on to describe a trip to the plate with an unnamed umpire calling balls and strikes.
“Hey, so did you cover last night?’ ” Dykstra said he asked the ump. “He called a strike. `Oh, I don’t think you heard me. Did you cover the spread last night?’ ”
Dykstra, who led the league in walks in 1993 with 129, said he is writing a book about his baseball life and beyond, including the 6 months he spent in prison after being charged with bankruptcy fraud, then being arrested for grand theft auto.
He said life in prison changed him, although he said he’ll detail in his book why he doesn’t believe he should have been imprisoned.
