The Peculiar Truth about the Scandalous Ballplayer
Published in
3 min readJul 16, 2024
- There’s an old adage: Never meet your heroes. They’ll only disappoint you. During his career in Major League Baseball, Lenny Dykstra was considered a hero. His scandalous life since then has disappointed many sports fans.
- He played for the New York Mets (1985–89) and the Philadelphia Phillies (1989–1996). He won a championship with the Mets in 1986.
- In 1993, arguably his finest year in the Majors, Dykstra had more walks than any other player. He was runner-up for the National League MVP, and his team went to the World Series.
- During that season, he also engaged in steroids and blackmail. But those facts remained secret for decades… until he later revealed them.
- After retiring from baseball, Dykstra owned a car wash in his native Southern California. Charges were filed against him, and later dropped, for sexually harassing a teenage employee. When the car wash failed due to Dykstra’s mismanagement, his investors — including some family members — avoided him.
- 2005: Dykstra got involved in stock trading thanks to CNBC star Jim Cramer. He let Dykstra write a stock-picking column for his website, and subscribers coughed up nearly $1,000 each annually for his predictions, even though Dykstra had little prior expertise. The column didn’t last long because his…
