“The members of the 1986 world champion Mets walked somberly through the doors of the Christ Fellowship Church in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., one sunny day last February. Darryl Strawberry,Mookie Wilson, Howard Johnson and Wally Backman, names engraved in Mets lore, were there for the funeral of Gary Carter, the team’s Hall of Fame catcher, who had died at age 57 of brain cancer.
Lenny Dykstra, who patrolled centerfield, also was among the more than 2,000 mourners.
In Game 3 of the 1986 National League Championship Series against the Astros, Dykstra hit one of the most important home runs in Mets history, a walk-off shot that drove in Backman. At 5-9, small for a professional athlete, Dykstra personified the fire and toughness on a team of fighters. He played all out, all the time. He was cocky and brash.
Many of his former Mets teammates had not seen him in years. All they knew of him were the rumors — that Dykstra, who had lived in mansions and flown in private jets, was flat broke, sometimes sleeping in hotel lobbies. Now he was under house arrest after being charged with federal bankruptcy fraud — stealing and selling property that no longer belonged to him — and he needed the permission of a federal judge in Los Angeles to attend Carter‘s funeral.
Dykstra’s appearance stunned his old teammates. No longer was he the tough guy nicknamed Nails. His once-strong body was bent over. He looked far older than his 49 years.
“His health, it looked like it was in decline,” former closer Jesse Orosco said. “He was a little bit slouched over and he was talking a little different.”
At times he was incoherent, Backman said. Through the mumbling, “it was hard to even understand Lenny.”
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