Nov 25 2011 06:22 AM
Re: Nailed
Happy Thanksgiving, Lenny.
 Former NY Mets outfielder Lenny Dykstra holds first sit-down interview since plea in grand theft auto case Jail, rehab humble Dykstra BY NANCY DILLON NEW YORK DAILY NEWS  LOS ANGELES — The former Met known as “Nails” claims his recent five-month stretch in county jail hammered home many much-needed lessons. In his first sit-down interview since copping a plea in his grand theft auto case, Lenny Dykstra — who earned his nickname as a hard-playing, hard-partying Met during the team’s wild days in the 1980s — says he learned his destructive addictions and major league ego cost him his fortune, his marriage and his freedom. “I really for the first time understand humility,” he said Thursday while smoking a cigarette on the patio of his private bungalow at The Hills rehab center. “It’s not everybody else’s fault. It’s not a coincidence that I’m here. It happened because I was using drugs and alcohol. It was a reality check.” Wearing a fleece sweatshirt and a court-ordered ankle monitor, Dykstra said his demons were wine, vodka, pain pills, party drugs and the rush he got blowing through his millions. “The way I lived my life helped me in baseball. But when you’re spending $28,000 for a bottle of wine and liking it? Nothing was ever enough,” he said, shaking his head. “The punishment gods said, ‘You know what we’re going to do? We’re going to put you in f---ing jail. We’re going to put you in the cooler because you have to pay for some things.’ ” Dykstra, 48, endured the death of his estranged mother while stuck in a Los Angeles County cell. He is now a voluntary patient on scholarship at The Hills, takes routine drug tests and calls his thinking “clear.” “I’m a partier, (and) it leads to making decisions that probably led to why I’m here right now. And that’s a fact that I have to admit,” he said. Dykstra’s long public fall from icon to inmate started during his 12-year career with the Mets and Phillies, and with the hard-headed recklessness that earned him his nickname. He helped the Mets win the 1986 World Series, had a short, ill-fated career as a stock-picking savant and went on to run a successful chain of car-wash businesses in southern California. Then his 2007 purchase of Wayne Gretzky’s $18.5 million mansion landed him in bankruptcy court, and everything unraveled from there. He was arrested in April on charges that he embezzled $400,000 from the bankrupt estate. The grand theft auto case followed, and if that wasn’t enough, he was also accused of exposing himself to women who answered his help-wanted ads on Craigslist.com. An April search of Dykstra’s residence turned up cocaine, Ecstasy, four boxes of the steroid Somatropin and a pink bag filled with syringes, police said. He faces up to four years in jail at his January sentencing for the car case. Dykstra declined to discuss his ongoing legal saga, but he was adamant that he’s not a bad person. “I’m not a criminal,” he said. “There will be a good ending. Just like I knew when I was growing up that I was going to be a Major League Baseball player. But there’s work I have to do and a price I have to pay.” He said he can count his remaining friends on one hand. Tears welled in his light blue eyes when he discussed his ex-wife, Terri, and the apologies he made to her and their sons during a recent family counseling session with Dr. Howard Samuels, owner of The Hills. “Lenny was scared to face them,” Samuels told The News. “He had a lot of shame about the things he had done. He did a great job taking responsibility.” Dykstra scoffed at reports that he recently bailed on a formal agreement to fight fellow former baseball star Jose Canseco in a celebrity boxing match. He said the Pennsylvania fan who ran his Twitter feed while he was incarcerated signed the contract without his full consent and then fabricated quotes for a press release. “It was confusing. I don’t know where I was misled,” Celebrity Boxing Federation founder Damon Feldman told The News. “We met with Dykstra at his rehab, he said he was 90% sure it would happen. He said the money was a little low, that he was worried about stepping in the ring. And then the next day he said he couldn’t get clearance.” Dykstra said the Pennsylvania-based fan later staged a fake Twitter war with him, attributing anti-Semitic remarks to the former All-Star. Claiming he doesn’t even know the password for the Twitter account bearing his name, Dykstra said he now is pursuing a restraining order. “To do the right thing with my cases, I have to get myself right,” he said. “I was living in a world of insanity.” |
I might take issue with the "was," but good luck to you.
