Lenny Dykstra's descent

by **Bob Loblaw** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 10:20:31

He looks like Bud Selig's oldest son.

by **TheDude24** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 16:12:13

Dykstra is the makings of a hit reality show. See Osbourne, Ozzy.

by **karn** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 16:15:04

Jesus Christ...that photo of Nails eating licorice is so bad ass its unbelievable. He clearly did not give a single f**k that someone was taking his picture

by **karn** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 16:16:35

[Dykstra] also lamented the sight of a hunched-over elderly woman crossing the street.

"See that? I'm going to be walking like that. I crashed into too many walls," he said.

by **Houshphandzadeh** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 16:16:58

I saw that picture a bunch of times and just thought it was a lawyer or the guy who is suing him or something. But it really is him.

by **cartersDad26** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 16:17:09

cartersDad26 wrote:man it sucks when you find out your childhood heroes were scumbags. i worshiped the dude.

sigh. say it ain't so dude.

by **Woody** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 16:17:51

When questioned about the allegations from Halcyon Jets that he bounced a $7,000 check earlier this month, sayeth The Dude:

“That’s my f**kin’ ashtray money, bro, I don’t even know if I flew on their plane.”

Assuming a member of the NY Post didn’t necessarily believe that Lenny was a rich man, he reiterated:

“See that purple label, bro? (pointing to the inside of his suit jacket) That’s seven large”

by **Woody** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 16:19:00

cartersDad26 wrote:
cartersDad26 wrote:man it sucks when you find out your childhood heroes were scumbags. i worshiped the dude.

sigh. say it ain't so dude.

Lenny has been a scumbag since, like, forever. I thought it was pretty common knowledge that he's a douchebag

Website · by **Wolfgang622** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 11:10:15

Woody wrote:
cartersDad26 wrote:
cartersDad26 wrote:man it sucks when you find out your childhood heroes were scumbags. i worshiped the dude.

sigh. say it ain't so dude.

Lenny has been a scumbag since, like, forever. I thought it was pretty common knowledge that he's a douchebag

Yeah. But as a kid, I think you kind of gloss over these things in your mind. For example, everyone knew he had driven himself and Darren Daulton into that tree while ragingly drunk, but as a kid, I was willing to overlook it in a way I wouldn't be now. And that's probably not even the worst thing he ever did - it was more his attitude afterwards. I remember my parents being quite angered by his "it's no big deal - go fuck yourselves" attitude toward the media when they got theit shot at asking him about it. But again, Lenny was my guy, so I was unaffected then.

by **gusmoney** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 11:44:08

GQ paints unflattering portrait of Dykstra

CLEARWATER, Fla. - A story in the April issue of GQ magazine paints a damning portrait of Lenny Dykstra, the former Phillies star turned business man.

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/20090316_GQ_paints_unflattering_portrait_of_Dykstra.html

YOU THINK YOUR JOB SUCKS? TRY WORKING FOR LENNY DYKSTRA

http://men.style.com/gq/features/landing?id=content_8558

He also seems to relish letting go a long, leisurely fart for the amusement of his employees...

Lenny’s all-time favorite workplace prank is saying something outrageous just to see how those around him react. Sometimes the jokes are on himself. During one of my first visits to the office, Lenny—a known steroids user, according to the Mitchell Report, though he’s repeatedly denied it—blurts out to me and two other employees that “back in the old days, we’d rub some HGH [human growth hormone] on our elbows and knees.” No one knows whether he’s joking or not. Other times, Lenny’s attempts at humor can be downright offensive. At one meeting, Lenny goes off on how a particular layout looks “####”—despite the presence of a gay page designer in the room. (Later, Lenny says to me: “Did you see the look on that ####’s face?”) On another occasion, I field a call from Lenny about potential cover subjects while I’m at home; Lenny’s on speaker when he proudly states, for both my wife and me, that “nobody can call me a racist—I put three darkies and a bitch on my first four covers.”

The first four Players Club covers featured Derek Jeter, Chris Paul, Tiger Woods, and Danica Patrick.

“What was that, Lenny?” I ask.

“I said I put three spearchuckers on the cover!” he replies.

by **The Dude** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 12:20:08

Sounds like every boss I've had

by **allentown** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 12:41:53

mozartpc27 wrote:Dykstra's always been a questionable character, but on the other hand it was obvious to me a long time ago that he was probably the smartest "baseball" man to ever put on a Phillies uniform. I always hoped they could coax him into being a hitting coach, but Milt's done a fine job.

If he could stay sober, I'm sure Lenny would be an excellent hitting coach someday - he gets it.

He's the smartest baseball man in his own mind perhaps. Do you really think he is a better baseball mind than guys like Dallas Green in his prime, Bob Boone, Pete Rose, Jamie Moyer, Richie Ashburn, Bowa to name just a few?

by **JayBallz** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 12:58:52

I saw a teaser about it earlier, so I was just waiting for it to hit. Sounds worse than I thought it could be.

by **drsmooth** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 12:58:59

The Dude wrote:Sounds like every boss I've had

I don't know about "every", but plenty - that tendency to assume the real, hard work of any business just gets done somewhere, somehow; the indifference to attending to the work as opposed to the rituals of "I'm in charge"; the overuse of the 1st person singular

by **Rev_Beezer** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 13:18:34

Note to self: if Lenny Dykstra ever asks me to use my credit card for him, DON'T DO IT.

Website · by **Wolfgang622** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 14:01:22

allentown wrote:
mozartpc27 wrote:Dykstra's always been a questionable character, but on the other hand it was obvious to me a long time ago that he was probably the smartest "baseball" man to ever put on a Phillies uniform. I always hoped they could coax him into being a hitting coach, but Milt's done a fine job.

If he could stay sober, I'm sure Lenny would be an excellent hitting coach someday - he gets it.

He's the smartest baseball man in his own mind perhaps. Do you really think he is a better baseball mind than guys like Dallas Green in his prime, Bob Boone, Pete Rose, Jamie Moyer, Richie Ashburn, Bowa to name just a few?

When you hear Dykstra talk about hitting, it's very clear that he understands things in the way a sabermetrician might. I remember hearing some comments he made on WIP once about the art of hitting - he talked about it in terms of probabilties, which in turn meant waiting on the pitcher (i.e., taking a lot of pitches). This is why he laid into Mitch - because Mitch didn't throw enough strikes, and got himself into predictable hitting situations too often (not that I agreed with his decision to attack Mitch Williams, 15 years after the fact, on the air while drunk or high or both - like I said, he is a jerk).

I think that, unlike a lot of hitters - especially those from the "old school" era of baseball - Dykstra truly believes that a walk is as good as a hit. I've never heard him talk about this part explicitly, but it would be a natural enough consequence of the part of his hitting philosophy I have heard him outline. I'd be willing to bet he would be the sort who would emphasize on base percentage over raw batting average, and understand that strikeouts are like any other out 99% of the time, and that building a whole strategy on just trying to make contact will often cause someone to be a worse hitter in terms of overall production, because they will end up swinging, weakly, at too many pitches that are strikes, but not pitches to hit. That means, occasionally, you look at a called third strike - but if the overall consequence is that your line drive % goes up, you're probably doing the right thing.

If I'm right about Dykstra's ideas about hitting, they are really a rare quality among hitting instructors. Listen to how often managers and even hitting instrructors talk about cutting down on strikeouts, which, paradoxically, usually means swinging at more, rather than less, pitches. That is why those strategies fail, and I believe Dykstra knows this.

That said, in fairness, whatever they say to the media, Charlie and Milt are pretty clearly doing a good job with the Phillies hitters in these regards, as they are usually among the league leaders in pitches seen, etc. So I don't know that the Phillies need Dykstra. But, if he weren't such a jerk, I think he could really offer something to a team currently working on older, more outmoded theories.

And yes, yes, a hundred times yes, I think Dykstra knows more about hitting than Pete Rose ever did, or will. Same for Bowa. And probably - though I'm less sure about it - Bob Boone.

Maybe not Ashburn and Moyer.

by **BigEd76** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 15:44:41

Dykstra article on the front page of ESPN

by **Slowhand** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 22:06:24

Lenny's got some serious problems.

I love, though, how everyone in that family says "dude".

by **BrianOrange** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 22:13:05

I can't remember an article that portrays someone in such a bad light. And I bet 95% percent of those things said about him are accurate.

by **FTN** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 23:15:36

one of my favorite threads ever

His business plan is another story. He talks plenty about that during the early interviews for this story. Asked if the ambitious design to provide a handful of specialty services for pro athletes is in place, Dykstra says confidently, "Have I got a 12-inch c---, or what? Of course, it is all in place. It might not look like it, but everything I do is part of a plan."

Archived

Lenny Dykstra's descent