Former MLB Star Lenny Dykstra: I Blackmailed Closeted Gay Umpires for a Better Strike Zone

Former Major League outfielder Lenny Dykstra is bragging that he used to spy on closeted, gay umpires, and then blackmail them to get favorable calls.

In an interview with Colin Cowherd on The Herd on FS1 that is being passed around quickly by TMZ, Outsports and others, Dkystra says bluntly that he spent $500,000 to hire "a private investigation team" that dug up dirt on umpires, including their sexual orientation, or extra-marital affairs, gambling and more. Then he threatened to expose the umpires in exchange for shrinking the strike zone, for example.

"Fear does a lot to a man," he said, explaining why the strategy worked and was never uncovered until now. "It wasn't a coincidence that I led the league in walks the next few years, was it?"

Dykstra wasn't exactly apologetic for his tactics.

"I do what I had to do to win, and support my family," he said.

Outsports editor Cyd Zeigler called for the MLB to punish Dykstra with a lifetime ban in the same way it had done for Pete Rose over gambling on games.

"What a pig," wrote Zeigler in reaction. "I'm not sure what is lower: Invading the private lives of men whom he should have viewed as his colleagues and then blackmailing them, or then using your children and wife as a shield to keep naysayers at bay."

Watch the moment from the interview below: