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Friday, August 28, 2009

Lenny Dykstra Hits Rock Bottom: Living out of his car

I opened my email this morning and found several news links regarding the sad state of Lenny Dykstra.

CNBC’s Jane Wells reports: “The Lenny Dykstra bankruptcy saga is like a reality TV show, which is exactly what he says he’s working on…There will be no lack of drama.”

Of what I know of Dykstra this comes as no surprise, but I read further. Dykstra non-chalantly tells Wells: “I don’t mean to be crude,” he says, “but where do they expect me to (go to the bathroom)?” He claims he has been “living in his car,” though last night he says he stayed in the lobby of a Westwood hotel.

Back up the truck. Did I read that correctly?

If I thought that was a misprint, I found this story on The Sporting News’ Sporting Blog: “Lenny Dykstra Is Back in the Driver’s Seat, Sleeping”. Another article, this one by John Carney of The Business Insider bluntly states: “Lenny Dykstra Is Living In His Car”.

OMG: Lenny Dykstra has officially hit ROCK BOTTOM.

Lenny Dykstra laughs at your claims of ROCK BOTTOM!

Gamingboy Posted: August 28, 2009 at 10:42 PM | 41 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
  Tags: business

Reader Comments and Retorts

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   1. AndrewJ Posted: August 28, 2009 at 11:47 PM (#3308158)
If you had told me in 1994 that 15 years later I'd be financially better off than Lenny Dykstra, I would have thought you mad.

Meanwhile, Bernie Goldberg continues to file stories for HBO's REAL SPORTS and write bestellers and millions take his work for gospel...
   2. SoSHially Unacceptable Posted: August 28, 2009 at 11:52 PM (#3308160)
OMG: Lenny Dykstra has officially hit ROCK BOTTOM.


That's Pfffbfft too Pfffbffft bad Pfffbttt for Pfffbfft Nails.
   3. RJ in TO Posted: August 29, 2009 at 12:25 AM (#3308181)
Lenny Dykstra laughs at your claims of ROCK BOTTOM!


Lenny Dykstra is confident that Lenny Dykstra can sink lower!
   4. Ray (RDP) Posted: August 29, 2009 at 12:33 AM (#3308188)
Meanwhile, Bernie Goldberg continues to file stories for HBO's REAL SPORTS and write bestellers and millions take his work for gospel...


Goldberg's politics aside, I don't see what's wrong with his Real Sports reports. They seem to be good, though I don't make a habit of watching them.

If you haven't seen his interview of the lone survivor of last February's boating disaster involving two NFL players and two college players (when their fishing boat capsized), I urge you to do so. It's quite good.
   5. Hang down your head, Tom Foley Posted: August 29, 2009 at 12:52 AM (#3308218)
Technically, it's probably not his car.
   6. AndrewJ Posted: August 29, 2009 at 12:52 AM (#3308219)
What got me recently steamed about Bernie Goldberg was this piece about George W. Bush.

Goldberg's politics don't offend me... his journalism all too often does.
   7. AJM Posted: August 29, 2009 at 01:29 AM (#3308287)
   8. villageidiom Posted: August 29, 2009 at 01:33 AM (#3308301)
Technically, it's probably not his car.
As long as it's not my car. I'd better go check.
   9. Designated Sitter (GGC) Posted: August 29, 2009 at 02:01 AM (#3308327)
As long as it's not my car. I'd better go check.


When I was in the Army, a buddy of mine lent his car to another soldier. The guy lived in it for a weekend with his wife and dog. I think he finally got it back when he called the MPs and they found the family in his car.
   10. hscs Posted: August 29, 2009 at 02:04 AM (#3308331)
Ashtray money, cash for clunkers, etc. Get well soon, Lenny!
   11. Sleepy supports unauthorized rambling Posted: August 29, 2009 at 02:07 AM (#3308332)
When I was in the Army, a buddy of mine lent his car to another soldier. The guy lived in it for a weekend with his wife and dog. I think he finally got it back when he called the MPs and they found the family in his car.


Takes a special woman to be an army wife...
   12. McCoy Posted: August 29, 2009 at 02:13 AM (#3308338)
Depends on the rank. Officers get paid quite well.
   13. Leroy Kincaid Posted: August 29, 2009 at 02:33 AM (#3308357)
As long as it's not my car. I'd better go check.

They don't nap! They make it their home. They urinate in there!
   14. Russlan will never be fond of Jason Bay Posted: August 29, 2009 at 02:39 AM (#3308365)
Doesn't Dykstra get a pretty decent pension?

I am surprised at the level of snark in this thread. This is pretty sad.
   15. Sleepy supports unauthorized rambling Posted: August 29, 2009 at 02:53 AM (#3308372)
He also technically still has 2 multi-million dollar homes, one "vacant due to mold", and a "temporary residence" provided by his insurance company, that he is choosing not to sleep in since his estranged wife is there. It's not like he's REALLY homeless.
   16. Tripon Posted: August 29, 2009 at 02:58 AM (#3308376)
I don't feel any sympathy for Dykstra. Here is a man who sold a successful business in his car washes to fund an business that centered on giving financial advice to athletes.

- That's pretty absurd on its face.

- If the athletes are going to get financial advice, its would come from their own agents, or family. Not freaking Lenny Dykstra.
   17. RB in NYC (Now with New iPhone!) Posted: August 29, 2009 at 03:03 AM (#3308381)
Here is a man who sold a successful business in his car washes to fund an business that centered on giving financial advice to athletes.
Well, that's not enough for me. If that was his whole story, guy has a good thing, doesn't know better than to sit on his winnings, blows it on bad investments and is now sleeping in his car, I'd be sad. But Lenny seems to have spent his time actively and unrepentantly screwing people over. So no sympathy from me.
   18. Tulo's Fishy Mullet (mrams) Posted: August 29, 2009 at 03:19 AM (#3308392)
as long as he has licorice he's fine.
   19. Maholm Shuffle Posted: August 29, 2009 at 04:03 AM (#3308406)
Maybe he can play himself in the Moneyball movie and revive his career, sort of like Mickey Rourke did.
   20. The Most Interesting Man In The World Posted: August 29, 2009 at 04:16 AM (#3308409)
Lenny Dykstra is sort of the Hans Moleman of the real-life baseball world - whenever something bad happens, I laugh.

Actually, that's not totally true - I do have a small degree of sympathy for Moleman.
   21. Benji Posted: August 29, 2009 at 04:17 AM (#3308411)
I expected this would happen to Lenny. I didn't expect the years of tycoon-dom.
   22. Long John McCaine Mutiny on the Bounty (scott) Posted: August 29, 2009 at 04:28 AM (#3308414)
Jim Cramer assured me Lenny was a genius at finance... and now I'm living out of his car!
   23. pthomas Posted: August 29, 2009 at 05:13 AM (#3308431)
Was the car clean?
   24. MM1f Posted: August 29, 2009 at 05:18 AM (#3308433)
Lenny Dykstra Hits Rock Bottom: Living in a VAN.. DOWN BY THE RIVER!
   25. Tripon Posted: August 29, 2009 at 05:22 AM (#3308435)
23. The Clarence Thomas of BTF (scott) Posted: August 29, 2009 at 12:28 AM (#3308414)
Jim Cramer assured me Lenny was a genius at finance... and now I'm living out of his car!
24. pthomas Posted: August 29, 2009 at 01:13 AM (#3308431)
Was the car clean?




You know what America needs? Public bath houses. Like the Japanese have.

Also, I could have posted a hotter one with naked chicks, but that was a bit too racy.
   26. Blastin Posted: August 29, 2009 at 05:31 AM (#3308440)
They got em in korea too. It's a lot of fun on a hungover weekend afternoon. Like today.
   27. Hello Rusty Kuntz, Goodbye Rusty Cars Posted: August 29, 2009 at 05:38 AM (#3308443)
Wally Backman is willing to sign a baseball saying Pete Rose lied if he can sleep in Lenny Dykstra's car.
   28. Crashburn Alley Posted: August 29, 2009 at 09:14 AM (#3308475)
#7: Thanks for linking to that song. I have a new favorite.
   29. Matt Clement of Alexandria Posted: August 29, 2009 at 12:36 PM (#3308487)
But Lenny seems to have spent his time actively and unrepentantly screwing people over.
Do you have a cite?

I thought Lenny had spent his time doing relatively worthless things like buying and selling stocks and telling people to buy and sell stocks. I didn't know he was doing anything actively repugnant.
   30. Swedish Chef Posted: August 29, 2009 at 12:47 PM (#3308488)
I thought Lenny had spent his time doing relatively worthless things like buying and selling stocks and telling people to buy and sell stocks. I didn't know he was doing anything actively repugnant.

What about writing bad checks?

A bit more about that, lovely quotes.

And then it all goes off the rails.
   31. Matt Clement of Alexandria Posted: August 29, 2009 at 01:13 PM (#3308492)
Gotcha. He's a criminal.

These paragraphs get at it pretty well:
Less than a month after The Players Club launched in April 2008, Dykstra found himself in a legal skirmish with the magazine's first publisher, the now-defunct Doubledown Media. A confidential settlement was reached after it was alleged that Dykstra had failed to pay $787,000 in expenses.

Later, managerial consultant Joanne Katsch filed a $630,000 lawsuit for breach of contract alleging her CSJ Consulting firm hadn't been paid.

At last count, Dykstra had been the subject of 18 different legal actions over the past six months. In the CSJ deal, Dykstra put up as collateral the Gretzky house and $23 million in promissory notes secured in 2007 as part of his sale of two Southern California car washes. According to court documents, Dykstra pledged the $23 million notes or took loans against them in at least four other instances, though they eventually were retired on Sept. 26.

Jeffrey Gubernick, attorney for the businessmen who originally bought the car wash facilities, contends Dykstra came back desperate for cash a year after the sale and agreed to retire the notes in return for a financial bailout. The businessmen, most of whom are from Iran but now live in California, agreed to pay nearly $13 million in debt, forgave $1 million Dykstra owed them, and also gave Dykstra $1.25 million in cash, Gubernick says. Dykstra filed suit in February, however, alleging the businessmen haven't covered almost $1 million of his debt.

"From our standpoint, that note is gone," Gubernick says.

But that's news to William [Billy] Jurewicz, founder of Space 150, a digital media company hired by Dykstra in May to build out The Players Club Web site. The deal with Space 150 was for $1 million. As proof he could cover the bill, Dykstra again put up the Gretzky house and the same $23 million notes.

The Minneapolis-based Web designers haven't been paid, even with the $23 million notes presumably retired in September. Instead, Jurewicz pulled his crew off the project shortly after Dykstra bounced separate $125,000 checks -- the first written on a closed account -- on Aug. 11 and Sept. 12.
   32. Esoteric Posted: August 29, 2009 at 02:57 PM (#3308515)
What I can't stop thinking about Dykstra's situation as described in the media is that it would make a pretty sweet issue spotter for a Bankruptcy or Secured Transactions exam.
   33. Gonfalon Bubble Posted: August 29, 2009 at 03:32 PM (#3308529)
He also technically still has 2 multi-million dollar homes, one "vacant due to mold"

I see a possible silver lining for Lenny. Is the mold edible?
   34. Harveys Wallbangers Posted: August 29, 2009 at 03:48 PM (#3308535)
Ya'know, back in my day folks just drank themselves into quiet ruin without all the uproar of legal action and articles in the press documenting the demise.

Lenny ain't no Tommy Bridges.......
   35. Jolly Old St. Neck Wound, Moral Idiot Posted: August 29, 2009 at 04:15 PM (#3308544)
Ya'know, back in my day folks just drank themselves into quiet ruin without all the uproar of legal action and articles in the press documenting the demise.

And it would be kind of nice to let that happen to Dykstra. You could visit any homeless shelter and find more sympathetic cases.
   36. Ray (RDP) Posted: August 29, 2009 at 04:38 PM (#3308556)
He was on Francesa's show about 18 months ago, for a couple hours I think, talking about how great this Player's Club magazine was going to be. Francesa drooled all over him, though probably Francesa didn't really understand what Dykstra was talking about.

So DID Dykstra legitimately make millions, either through car washes or stocks, before running into this trouble?
   37. Teufel's Graveyard Posted: August 29, 2009 at 04:44 PM (#3308559)
Isn't this possible this is just staged for his "reality tv show" that the excerpt says he is working on?
   38. jwb Posted: August 29, 2009 at 05:27 PM (#3308576)
I believe Dykstra's chain of carwashes were quite successful. This probably caused him to believe he was a lot smarter than he is.
   39. AndrewJ Posted: August 29, 2009 at 05:50 PM (#3308588)
Car washes in a car-happy place like California are a goldmine. I don't doubt Lenny legitimately made some serious $$ from them.
   40. J. Michael Neal Posted: August 29, 2009 at 11:16 PM (#3308777)
Car washes in a car-happy place like California are a goldmine. I don't doubt Lenny legitimately made some serious $$ from them.


Why? During the winter, I take my car through a car wash every couple of weeks to get the salt off. I doubt the folks in LA have this concern. Other than that, why bother?

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