Lenny Dykstra Claimed That He Blackmailed Major League Umpires To Get Calls

Last we checked in on former New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Lenny Dykstra, he was getting into a fight with his ex-teammate Mitch Williams at a roast back in May. Apparently incapable of staying out of the news, Dykstra went on The Herd with Colin Cowherd on FS1 and claimed that while he was a major leaguer, he spent $500,000 on private investigators to spy on umpires, and then he would use the information obtained to blackmail the umps into giving him calls.

Dykstra: Their blood is just as red as ours. Some of them like women, some of them like men, some of them gamble, some of them do whatever.

Colin Cowherd: So you had PIs, tracking umpires through your career or just a few years?

Dykstra: Through like after I got the money…when I was trying to get the money. It wasn’t a coincidence that I led the league in walks the next few years, was it?

Cowherd: So you really think…

Dykstra: I don’t think, I know.

Cowherd: Did you bribe them?

Dykstra: No, fear does a lot to a man.

Dykstra is far from a reputable source, but just to be clear, if he is indeed telling the truth, it is absolutely insane that an All-Star player had people spying on umps and used information from their private life to get calls in games. Dykstra told Cowherd that he “just did what I had to do to win and support my family” but that is a pretty skewed way of looking at blackmail if you ask me.

At this point there are no secondary sources to confirm this, but hopefully soon we hear from either the PIs that Dykstra allegedly hired, or some of the umpires who were around in the late ’80s and early ’90s to see if they would be willing to confirm the three-time All-Star’s claims.

For the record, Lenny Dykstra led the National League in walks with 129 in 1993.