Kiners Korner Chronicles No. 15: His Best Fan

Welcome back to the Kiners Korner Chronicles — the real ones. We've brought back Tom Seaver's homecoming, a new owner taking his seat, an umpire holding court in a rain delay, and Gary Carter's first day as a Met. This time we rewind to a Sunday afternoon in the middle of that miracle summer — July 13, 1986 — and a short tape that packs two shows into one. In the first segment, Lenny Dykstra brings along the most unusual guest in Kiner's Korner history: his mother. In the second, the Mets honor Rusty Staub on his day at Shea.

Dykstra was 23 years old and tearing up the National League, and Ralph knew exactly how to introduce the pair of them: Lenny, "and also with Lenny Dykstra, his best fan. A person who knows him better than anybody else in the world. And that person is Marilyn Dykstra, his mother."

The Game — Sunday, July 13, 1986

Sunday, July 13, 1986. A crowd of 41,128 came to Shea for the last game before the All-Star break, and the Mets finished off a sweep of the Atlanta Braves, 2–0, behind Ron Darling, who scattered nine hits, walked three and struck out seven in a complete-game shutout that ran his record to 9–2. Doyle Alexander was nearly as good for Atlanta — four hits and no walks over eight innings — but the only two runs he allowed were both Lenny Dykstra, and that was the ball game.

Dykstra led off the first with a triple to center and came home on Wally Backman's groundout. The 1–0 lead got its test in the sixth. Ken Griffey singled and stole second, Bruce Benedict walked, and Glenn Hubbard singled to center — and Dykstra came up throwing. Griffey never got there: the throw beat him home, Gary Carter blocked the plate, and the lead survived. In the bottom of the inning, Dykstra did the rest himself, driving an Alexander pitch out to right for his fourth home run of the year. Two runs — one scored, one driven in — and a game-saving throw in between. Ken Oberkfell went 4-for-4 for Atlanta and it didn't matter; the Braves stranded ten men against Darling, and the Mets rolled into the break in first place, right where they'd been all summer.

The Show

Marilyn Dykstra is the star of the first segment, and it isn't close. Ralph asks if she thought her little boy would grow up to be a major league star, and she tells him about the kid back in California who, every night before he'd go to bed, "slept with his bat, his ball, and his glove," and who used to pray — "please God, let me be a pro ball player someday."

Then she tells the Rod Carew story. Young Lenny would go down to Angel Stadium and try to sneak into the dugout, and one day the phone rang at the house: "You better come down to the station and get your son, because he was trying to get to see Rod Carew, who was always his idol." She had to go pick him up at the station. "We'll never forget that."

Ralph, delighted, turns to Lenny: "But you sure have an attractive mother... that doesn't hurt anything at all."

Lenny, for his part, spreads the credit around the way that whole club did in 1986. "We just got a total team effort right now," he says. "If we can continue to play the way we played the first half, I've got to believe we're going to run away with it." Then Ralph rolls the replays, and Lenny walks him through the sixth inning. On the throw home: "I don't think he got a good turn around third," he says — and "Gary did a great job blocking the plate." The throw itself? "The ball skipped real well for me." On the homer, one inning later: "I just waited that time, Ralph. And that ball felt real perfect. Hit it on a sweet spot." It was his fourth of the year — a year after his only home run of 1985 had come in his very first game as a Met.

Ralph does the math out loud: Dykstra has hit in six straight games, with 16 hits in his last 24 at-bats. Lenny shrugs it off the only way Lenny could. "When you're hot, you're hot," he says. "Can't do no wrong." And before the segment ends, Ralph circles back to the guest of honor — hasn't his mother been bringing him luck when she's at the ballpark? "She seems to," Lenny says. "When I was in the minor league, she came out and visited me. And I seem to play well there too. So it'll probably be her for the World Series too." Three months later, she would have had a pretty good seat for it. Marilyn gets the last word, asked if it's a thrill to watch her son play like this: "It certainly is. Thank you."

The second segment belongs to Rusty Staub, and to the day the Mets gave him. Staub had retired after the 1985 season, closing a 23-year career, and July 13 was Rusty Staub Day at Shea — a pregame ceremony in his honor before he came up to the booth. "My family was all here," he tells Ralph. "As much as I tried to contain my emotions, it was very emotional. I deeply appreciate the ballclub doing that for me."

The part of the day he keeps coming back to is the gift — or rather, the give-back. The ballclub's generosity meant Staub could donate $25,000 to his scholarship charity. "We were going to be able to send some kids to school," he says. "And that really is something I wanted to do." He explains that his own break came the same way: "Although it was a scholastic scholarship, you can bet it was because I could play ball. I'd like to return that if I can a little bit."

Then Ralph rolls the ceremony: Keith Hernandez, speaking for the team, telling the crowd how much the Mets loved Rusty and missed him, and presenting a plaque — "Daniel Joseph Staub, for meritorious service." And just when the emotion of it was getting heavy, out came the teammates, surprising him in orange wigs. "When I saw these crazy guys coming out with the wigs," Staub laughs, "I figured I had a chance." Ralph closes it the way only Ralph could, tracing the road back to Montreal and Le Grand Orange — the Expos, the Astros, the Tigers, the Rangers, and nine years with the Mets.

Two guests, one Sunday afternoon: a 23-year-old at the top of his game with his mother beside him, and a 42-year-old craftsman being thanked by an entire ballpark. Eight minutes of tape, and the whole summer is in it. More rescued shows are on the way as we work through the tapes one by one. And if you're sitting on a tape of this show — any tape, any year — the hunt is still on, and we want to hear from you.

Down on the Korner — the book Howie and I wrote about this show and these Mets — is available here.

Watch the rescued episodes as we revisit them: the Kiner's Korner archive playlist.

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