The March, 2008 edition of “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel”, which airs on HBO, included a segment about former baseball player Lenny Dykstra. Prior to seeing this segment, many may have thought that the reason for it even being included in the show had to do with the fact that Dykstra, along with 89 former and current players, was named in Senator George Mitchell’s report on steroid use in Major League Baseball. However, anyone who assumed that would have been wrong.
The segment was mainly focused on how Lenny Dykstra , who during his years as a player was often perceived as not being the brightest guy, had managed to become somewhat of financial guru. Dykstra spoke about how when he had retired from playing baseball in 1996 he had asked a financial adviser to invest his money. The adviser did that and it wound up costing Dykstra a great deal of his money. It was at that point that he took matters into his own hands and began learning everything he could about investment opportunities and the stock market. Dykstra then went on to open up a chain of very successful car washes and is now entering the magazine business. Dykstra’s first magazine is going to be released in the spring of 2008. The magazine’s title is “The Players Club” and it’s focus is on assisting professional athletes in making intelligent financial choices with the money that is earned during their playing careers. For some this may seem unnecessary because of all of the money that many professional athletes earn. But it is also true that many athletes, just like many others who obtain sudden wealth, can be very short-sighted in making their money last for them so that they can provide for themselves and their families throughout their lives. As stated before, Dykstra made a bad financial mistake when he retired and he was lucky enough to recover from it. He doesn’t want to see other’s make the mistake that he did.
Even though Dykstra has become wealthy enough to live in a home that used to belong to NHL legend Wayne Gretzky and drives a German car that is ridiculously expensive, his story of how it happened for him seemed slightly fabricated . What is meant by that is when listening to him throughout the interview, he came of as being really spaced-out. It is fascinating that someone that spacey could obtain the kind of success independently that he has. This is not to say that he is stupid, despite of the way that he was often thought of during his baseball career. But throughout the segment , Dykstra just seemed so detached from reality that it is hard to believe that he could have so much financial savvy independently. Then again, many people are extraordinarily gifted in ways that are not always apparent.
One topic that was surprisingly not raised in the segment is the recent lawsuit that was filed against Lenny Dykstra and his wife for failing to pay $111,097 to an accounting firm that provided accounting and tax preparation services for them in 2006. In fairness, the suit was filed on February 21,2008 and it is likely that the interview portion of the segment was filmed prior to that date. Also, an article that appeared in the New York Daily News on the same date that the suit was filed reported that Dykstra is going to fight the lawsuit. The charges eventually may be pr oven to be completely bogus. However, it seems that someone who is supposed to be as business savvy as Dykstra and is egger to give financial advice to others, would not allow such a situation to get to the point where a lawsuit had to be filed to resolve it. The company that suing Dykstra apparently sent him bills for the service that they provide to him and were not paid. So it’s not as though he didn’t have any warning that this was coming. Or could it be possible that Lenny Dykstra is not so singlehandedly responsible for his own financial success and those who are responsible didn’t inform him of this outstanding charge? Come on, $111,097 is a lot of money for someone to owe someone else and just ignore it.
During the final part of the segment when Bernard Goldberg sat down with Bryant Gumbel in “Real Sports” studio, Gumbel did bring up the topic of Dykstra’s being named in the Mitchell report. In a filmed piece that was cut from the actual segment, Dykstra denied ever using performance enhancing drugs. However, Goldberg told Gumbel that when the camera’s were off, Dykstra admitted to his use. Goldberg then claimed that he phoned Dykstra after the interview was taped to clear up Dykstra’s conflicting statements, at which point he said the filmed statement was the truth. Bernard Goldberg seemed legitimately confused by Lenny Dykstra’s contradictory statements and who can blame him? Dykstra is overall an pretty confusing and contradictory individual. Was he a baseball player who gave it his all and was tough as “nails” ? Absolutely, without a doubt. Did he use performance enhancing drugs? He probably did. Is he solely responsible for his post baseball success in the stock market? Who really knows? All that can be certain is that he living a life of wealth and privilege that his baseball career alone never could have afforded him, especially when considering that he hasn’t played in over 10 years. Whatever the truth may be, Lenny Dykstra was incredibly entertaining to watch when he played in the outfield and he continues to be as he apparently plays in the stock market.
