Lenny Dykstra Sets the Bar Pretty Low When Bragging About His Latest 3-Year Run
From 1993-1995, Lenny Dykstra was twice named an MLB All-Star with the Philadelphia Phillies, and the year that he wasn’t selected, he finished second in the MVP voting. It was a strong three-year stretch for the three-time All-Star and World Series champ. Judging by what Dykstra’s been posting on social media lately, that might not even be his best three-year run.
Lenny Dykstra’s life after baseball hasn’t gone smoothly
Dykstra spent 12 seasons in the big leagues after the New York Mets selected him in the 13th round of the 1981 MLB draft. He spent the first seven-plus seasons in New York, helping the Mets to a World Series title in 1986. He finished his career by spending five seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies. He was a three-time All-Star and led the National League in hits for the 1990 and 1993 seasons.
After his career ended, Dykstra suffered through a series of business failures that eventually forced him into bankruptcy. In 2012, he was sentenced to three years in a California state prison for pleading no contest to grand theft auto and providing a false financial statement, according to NJ.com. He was released in July 2013 after serving six and a half months of his sentence.
In 2015, a porn star accused him of stealing $50,000 in jewelry. He also had an indecent exposure charge in 2011 and was accused of pulling a weapon on an Uber driver in 2018. In the Uber incident, police charged Dykstra with making terroristic threats and several drug offenses.
Dykstra’s hatred for former teammate Ron Darling
Dykstra makes no attempt to hide his feelings for former teammate Ron Darling, a pitcher on the ’86 Mets World Series team. He filed a suit against Darling for comments made in Darling’s autobiography, “108 Stitches: Loose Threads, Ripping Yarns, and the Darndest Characters from My Time in the Game.” Darling accused Dykstra of hurling racist slurs at Boston Red Sox pitcher Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd before Game 3 of the World Series.
Dykstra accused Darling of defaming his character. However, Judge Robert D. Kalish dismissed the case and said Dykstra’s tarnished image was a result of his own doing. In April 2019, Darling left his job as a baseball analyst to deal with a mass in his chest. Doctors discovered he had cancer. The following year, Darling’s broadcast partner, Gary Cohen, announced Darling was cancer-free.
Dykstra, however, believed the whole thing was a hoax. He seemingly still does. He has since changed his Twitter profile picture to a Mets uniform with the No. 12, Darling’s number. On the back of the jersey, it reads “Faked Cancer.”
Dykstra sets the bar pretty low for himself
While Dykstra continues to put down Darling on social media, he doesn’t do a heck of a job of making himself look good, either.
In April, while trying to show respect for police officers, he brought up his past. It wasn’t his past, as in baseball past. He was bragging about the last three years of his life.
“Speaking of respect for law enforcement … GUESS WHO NOW HASN’T BEEN ARRESTED FOR 35 MONTHS?!?!?,” he tweeted. Not only did he post it, but he also threw it in all caps, stressing how good his last three years have been. If that wasn’t enough of a brag, he has more.
As of Thursday, Dykstra is technically three days away from his three-year arrest-free anniversary, according to himself. He’s been pinning and retweeting congratulatory messages on his lack of recent arrests.
Good for Dykstra for staying out of trouble lately, but bragging about a lack of arrests in a three-year span on social media isn’t setting the bar too high.
