The 1993 Profile Of Lenny Dykstra That Warned Us What Was Coming

Originally published as “Lips Gets Smacked” in the January 1993 issue of Philadelphia Magazine and later anthologized in The Best American Sports Writing 1994. “It’s Lenny F-ing Dykstra. What a mouth on this guy — not just the utterances that pass through it, but the actual physical mouth. Never closed, even when its owner is ruminative or silent, it is the control center for heavy traffic. Things go in (filtered tips of cigarettes and clear liquids and fingers, one or two at a time) and things come out (a stream of profanity and filtered tips and gusts of smoke and fingers and a tongue). His tongue loves his lips. You can’t blame it. They are fine lips, bountiful, shapely, ideal for pursing or pouting.”