Ron Darling: Lenny Dykstra racially taunted pitcher in '86 World Series

Former big-league pitcher Ron Darling has revealed alarming details about the behavior of an ex-teammate during the 1986 World Series between the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox.

In his new book, "108 Stitches: Loose Threads, Ripping Yarns, and the Darndest Characters from My Time in the Game," Darling wrote that former Mets teammate Lenny Dykstra used racists remarks to get under the skin of Red Sox pitcher Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd in Game 3 of the series.

"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," Darling writes, courtesy of the New York Post.

"I don't want to be too specific here, because I don't want to commemorate this dark, low moment in Mets history in that way, but I will say that it was the worst collection of taunts and insults I'd ever heard - worse, I'm betting, than anything Jackie Robinson might have heard, his first couple times around the league."

Boyd went on to allow six earned runs on nine hits over seven innings in the loss. It was the Mets' first victory of the historic series, which they eventually won in seven games.

That game was Boyd's final postseason appearance, while Dykstra played in the playoffs on two more occasions, including another World Series in 1993 with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Dykstra has had multiple run-ins with the law in retirement, with the most recent instance coming in May 2018 when he was arrested for possession of drugs and uttering terroristic threats.