Oil Can Boyd said last week he believed Ron Darling’s accusations that Lenny Dykstra yelled racial epithets from the Mets’ on-deck circle ahead of Game 3 of the 1986 World Series.
But there was probably a reason the Red Sox pitcher didn’t hear them himself as he warmed up on the mound at Fenway Park.
According to his 2012 book “They Call Me Oil Can: Baseball, Drugs, and Life on the Edge,” Boyd had plenty of other things occupying his mind on that fateful day.
A selection from the book dug up by WEEI’s Evan Drellich shows there was family drama — his father had brought his stepmother despite Oil Can’s protests — that would’ve have been enough to throw anyone off their game.