Nails: Lenny Dykstra, the Rise and Catastrophic Fall of Baseball's Self-Made Man Series Name: Off the Diamond: Baseball's Criminal Cases Series Number: Book 6 - Softcover

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"Mr. Dykstra's days of playing games with the public and the legal system are over. With these federal convictions, Mr. Dykstra's fraud and deceit have been exposed for all to see." — U.S. Attorney André Birotte Jr., July 16, 2012

"I don't think I'm a bad person. I made some bad decisions." — Lenny Dykstra, at his federal sentencing, December 3, 2012

Two NLCS walk-off home runs. A World Series ring. Three All-Star selections. A career batting average of .285 and a .375 on-base percentage across 12 professional seasons. The leadoff hitter who helped the 1986 Mets win the World Series and sparked the 1993 Phillies to the pennant. One of the better offensive players of his era. A genuine career, genuinely earned.

Also: bankruptcy fraud, concealment of assets, money laundering, grand theft auto, cocaine, Ecstasy, synthetic human growth hormone, lewd conduct, assault with a deadly weapon, a $50,000 sink sold at a consignment store, baseball memorabilia laundered through a cashier's check in someone else's name, women who answered Craigslist ads and found a man with a knife, a housekeeper who alleged she was forced to perform oral sex as a condition of keeping her job.

Nails tells the complete story of Lenny Dykstra.

The Career — The 13th-round draft pick who led the Carolina League in six offensive categories in 1983. The walk-off home run in Game 3 of the 1986 NLCS against Houston closer Dave Smith. The 1986 World Series. The trade to Philadelphia. The 1990 season with a .418 on-base percentage. The 1993 season in which he led the National League in hits, runs, and walks while finishing second in MVP voting to Barry Bonds. The walk-off home run in Game 5 of the 1993 NLCS against Mark Wohlers, rounding third base and shouting "DIDN'T I?" He had done it twice. Two NLCS walk-off home runs, in two different decades, for two different franchises.

The Reinvention — Car washes and quick-lube businesses, sold for $51 million. The Wayne Gretzky mansion for $18.5 million. A Rolls-Royce Phantom. A Gulfstream II jet. A $400,000 Bentley. A $10,000 German shepherd. The Players Club magazine, lavish Manhattan launch party, dozens of employees who went unpaid when it folded. Jim Cramer calling him "one of the best" stock prognosticators. The New Yorker profiling him as an improbable investment genius in March 2008. A claimed net worth of $60 million.

The Collapse — 24 legal actions in a two-year period. Chapter 11 bankruptcy filed July 7, 2009: $31 million in liabilities, $50,000 in assets. The Gretzky mansion stripped of its contents after creditors seized it — stoves, chandeliers, a $50,000 sink sold at a consignment store. Baseball memorabilia sold to a Las Vegas dealer, proceeds laundered. Cocaine, Ecstasy, and synthetic HGH found at the arrest scene. Women from Craigslist, a knife. A housekeeper who needed her job.

The Reckoning — Federal indictment on 13 counts. Guilty pleas to bankruptcy fraud, concealment of assets, and money laundering. Three years in California state prison for grand theft auto. 270 days in jail for lewd conduct and assault with a deadly weapon. Six and a half months in federal custody. Released June 2013.

After — Lenny Dykstra at 63, telling the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2026 that the lifestyle is over, that he's blessed, that he's done with the drug and alcohol abuse and the womanizing. "That lifestyle is over. I don't have to say it. We all know it."

The final volume of the Off the Diamond series: baseball's criminal cases told in full.

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