Lenny Dykstra

Leonard Kyle Dykstra (/ˈdaɪkstrə/; born February 10, 1963), nicknamed "Nails" and "Dude", is a former Major League Baseball center fielder. Dykstra played for the New York Mets during the mid-to-late 1980s and the Philadelphia Phillies in the early-to-mid-1990s.

The Mets signed Dykstra as a 13th round draft pick in 1981. A star in the minors, in 1983 he led the Carolina League in at-bats, runs, hits, triples, batting average and stolen bases (with 105, a league record for 17 years). That season, he hit .358 with 8 HR, 81 RBI, the above-cited 105 stolen bases, 107 walks but only 35 strikeouts. He was consequently named the Carolina League's MVP, and soon emerged as one of the Mets' prized prospects. While playing in Double-A in 1984 he befriended fellow outfielder and teammate Billy Beane, who later said that Dykstra was "perfectly designed, emotionally" to play baseball and that he had "no concept of failure." According to Beane, his first comments on seeing Hall-of-Fame pitcher Steve Carlton warming up were, "Shit, I'll stick him."

In 1985 Dykstra, deemed ready for the major leagues, was promoted to the Mets when the team's starting center fielder, Mookie Wilson, was placed on the disabled list. The rookie's play and energy were a big boost to a Mets team that surged to a 98-win season and narrowly missed out on the NL East crown. The following season, Dykstra was first intended to be platooned in center field with Wilson, but when Mookie suffered a severe eye injury during spring training Dykstra took over the position as outright starter and leadoff hitter. Later that season, the Mets released left fielder George Foster and moved Wilson to left. Mets fans soon nicknamed Dykstra "Nails" for his hard-nosed personality and fearless play. In 1986, he even posed shirtless for a "beefcake" poster under the "Nails" nickname. Moreover, Dykstra and #2 hitter Wally Backman were termed "the Wild Boys" for their scrappy play as spark plugs for the star-studded Met lineup.

With Dykstra as leadoff hitter, the 1986 Mets coasted to the division crown, outlasting the second-place Philadelphia Phillies by 21.5 games en route to a 108–54 season. The Mets ended up in the World Series after a hard-fought victory over the NL West champion Houston Astros in the 1986 NLCS, 4 games to 2. Dykstra will forever be remembered for his walk-off home run in Game 3, which is considered one of the biggest hits in Mets franchise history and the defining moment of Dykstra's career. He hit .304 in the 1986 NLCS, and then .296 in the World Series against the Boston Red Sox. But his leadoff home run in Game 3 at Fenway Park sparked the Mets, who had fallen behind 2 games to none even though those games were played at Shea Stadium. The home run made him the third Met in team history (along with Tommie Agee and Wayne Garrett, both of whose home runs also came in a Game 3, in the 1969 and 1973 World Series respectively) to hit a leadoff home run in the World Series. Following Dykstra's home run, the Mets rallied to defeat the Red Sox in seven games in one of the most memorable World Series of all time.