Tough As Nails

"One day I'll sell luxury jets to athletes and won't have to worry about this pesky baseball crap."

Once every year or so an article surfaces in <insert name of esteemed sports publication here> about Lenny Dykstra’s current exploits. For a while it was a car-wash chain; then it was a magazine geared towards providing luxury services for pro athletes; then it was actually providing those services; and now it’s as an investment advisor (!). This year’s piece-du-jour is by Mike Fish for ESPN, and it’s a lengthy but good read about the man we once called “Nails.” Dykstra’s life might be a bit crazy and he may be all over the map business-wise, but one thing’s been made abundantly clear from this article: he’s kind of a dick!

But he was a damn fine baseball player, and you can’t take that away from him. We can only surmise how he could have been even tougher if he’d had a stache like many of his ‘86 Mets brethren. Today’s docile Mets could learn a thing or two from Nails.

Wild Boys

Wild Boys from 1986 Mets: A Year to Remember from The Wright Stache on Vimeo.

The Wright Stache recently received a copy of 1986 Mets: A Year to Remember from our dear friend Nerdzah Ball Soup at Nerd Baseball.  He converted the VHS to DVD and, well, I could not be happier.  After a proper viewing last night, I began the task of slicing it up into segments.  I’ll be sharing some gems with you in the coming days and weeks, but one clip deserved to be first.

Ladies and gentlemen, with the help of Duran Duran, I give you a profile of the gritty play of Wally Backman and Lenny Dykstra in a segment that Sports Channel and Rainbow Home Video call “Wild Boys.”

Enjoy.