Ex-baseball great Lenny Dykstra files for bankruptcy
Celebrity financial crash of the day: Former Major League Baseball star and Lake Sherwood resident Lenny Dykstra filed for bankruptcy protection today in Los Angeles, listing less than $50,000 in assets -- and debts totaling between $10 million and $50 million.
The 46-year-old Dykstra, who played for the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies, retired in 1996. He has since been involved in a number of entrepreneurial ventures, including a string of car washes, an investment column for Thestreet.com, and a service called the Players Club Operations that offered credit cards, charter jets and other services to athletes.
In April, he bragged to espn.com that he was worth $60 million.
Evidently not.
In the bankruptcy petition he said he owes JPMorgan Chase & Co. $12.9 million and Bank of America Corp.’s Countrywide and credit-card units a combined $4.2 million, according to Bloomberg News.
Dykstra also owes almost $1 million to jet charter services, about $342,000 to celebrity lawyer Daniel Petrocelli and $229,000 to literary agent David Vigliano, Bloomberg said.
From the espn.com piece in April:
"And after thumbing through a series of lawsuits that stretches from coast to coast and chatting up his business associates, you wonder if this aspiring financial Pied Piper is, indeed, living in a fantasyland. You wonder if the dream, built on glitz and greed in a time of economic uncertainty, is a teetering house of cards. You wonder if anyone this side of Bernie Madoff has ticked off more people -- business partners and family, alike -- than Lenny K. Dykstra.
"The lawsuits suggest that one of two things is going on here: Either Lenny hates to pay his bills, or he's a financial train wreck.
"Just in the past two years, Dykstra has been the subject of at least 24 legal actions, including 18 since November. Three suits hit the courts on Jan. 29. He's been sued by publishers and print companies, by three different groups of pilots and by a Maryland-based financial and litigation consulting firm that offered expert testimony on his behalf in an earlier lawsuit. He's even been sued by a die-hard Mets fan who was the best man at his wedding 20-some years ago, though that New York investor claims there is no bad blood."
Dykstra’s Lake Sherwood home, which he bought for $18.5 million in 2007, began to show up in pre-foreclosure-activity listings in April.
-- Tom Petruno
Photo: Lenny Dykstra. Credit: Amy Sussman / Getty Images
This guy was talked about by Jim Cramer of CNBC fame as a wizard.
I wonder how Cramer will deal with this situation..
Posted by: brian | July 08, 2009 at 01:31 PM
Lenny, bypass all the homeless shelters and head for Santa Monica and just sleep on the beach; the shelters are horrifying and don't help anyways; lots of ex-your-types living on the beach...actually it's not that bad and you'll stay in shape with the athletic swings & bars and have a great tan too. Good Luck
Posted by: August | July 08, 2009 at 01:41 PM
Sounds like ol' Lenny was pretty adept at putting on a good image for quite a while but ultimately it was all smoke and mirrors. It also sounds like he is a complete flake in that he got in WAAAAAAY over his head and continued to string people along when he knew there was no way he was going to pay them what he owed. From his bankrupcy petition it sounds like he will be lucky be be able to rent a 1 bedroom apartment in Reseda.
Posted by: Chuck Wavy Dean | July 08, 2009 at 02:23 PM
Well, the guy still is good at one thing, he is making lots of money for lots of lawyers. Outside of this, I do not see a wizard here!
Posted by: Arclight | July 08, 2009 at 02:33 PM
Nails has gone off the rails.
Posted by: Mets-I-Am | July 08, 2009 at 02:56 PM
Are we really that surprised. The man is dellusional at best....Thanks to my co-worker for sharing this, as I have been ranting about how idiotic he is for years....
Posted by: Insight | July 08, 2009 at 03:12 PM
Better not to have had - then to have had and lost. He had a successful car wash business that most everyone would have been more than happy to live off of - He had dreams or delusions that stretched far beyond his education and/or talent.
Posted by: jason | July 08, 2009 at 03:16 PM
He was involved with Jim Cramer - that was his first mistake.
Posted by: B Clemenb | July 08, 2009 at 03:45 PM
Interesting article on Dykstra in the New Yorker last March.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/24/080324fa_fact_mcgrath
Posted by: Alan | July 08, 2009 at 03:48 PM
Haven't heard about Dykstra since reading Moneyball a few years back... and in that book he wasn't exactly painted as a genius: he was smart enough to be a great baseball player, but partly because he didn't dwell and wallow in mistakes and shortcomings. I had no idea he got into finance.
Posted by: Steve G | July 08, 2009 at 04:20 PM
Lenny tried to hire me to edit his magazine a few months ago. Even signed me to a one-year/$200,000 contract. But I stipulated that he pay the first two weeks up front, and he never came up with the money. Then this came out...
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4084962
Posted by: Greg Anderson | July 08, 2009 at 04:29 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CGXqRsqr6I
Posted by: PV | July 08, 2009 at 04:30 PM
Wow. On a look at the New Yorker and ESPN pieces, he deserves all he's about to get.
Posted by: Steve G | July 08, 2009 at 04:39 PM
I would not be surprised to also learn that Dykstra was a juicer in the Majors.
Did you ever notice how his body looked unnaturally pumped up toward the end of his career?
Posted by: John | July 08, 2009 at 05:16 PM
Jim Cramer said that Lenny Dykstra was going to be "one of the great ones!" Can anyone explain to me how Cramer has a job? Jon Stewart had already exposed him and should have ruined his crediblity, but then Cramer also shilled for this guy? What self respecting person would follow Cramer's advice? CNBC should be ashamed.
Posted by: Happy4LA | July 08, 2009 at 05:17 PM
I did a Google search on "Lenny Dykstra" and then read a couple of the articles that came up. Man, from what is contained in these articles Lenny Dykstra is really bad news. Complete flake is not a strong enough term to describe him -- maybe mentally ill is more appropriate. I hope that enough people read these articles so that no one ever gets burned in business dealings with Dykstra. Lenny should be put in jail so that he cannot defraud anyone ever again.
Posted by: Chuck Wavy Dean | July 08, 2009 at 05:34 PM
Fox News had this guy on regularly a few years ago.
Posted by: Phil | July 09, 2009 at 12:17 AM
another cracker bites the dust!
Posted by: shindiggy | July 10, 2009 at 03:29 AM
I have observed that there are basically three types of people in the world: takers, givers, and those in between.
Dykstra is a taker.
Obama is a taker.
Takers utilize bullsh*t to get what they want. Again, Dykstra and Obama.
However, if I had to invite one of them to dinner at my house, it wouldn't be Obama.
Posted by: terry | July 10, 2009 at 06:37 PM