- Lenny Dykstra net worth was a whopping $58 million but is said to have dropped to a negative figure.
- His career is soon being forgotten as he has replaced all the great stints with fraud, bankruptcy, and other criminal charges
- The 61 year old former American football player has an ironical story of helping athletes with their finances while his went down the drain.
For people who are huge fans of American professional football and have been following the sports for years, the name Lenny Dykstra would definitely ring a bell. They would also be familiar with his huge earnings as Lenny Dykstra net worth rose to over $50 million.
The former professional football player turned serial businessman was worth $58. He played for the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. However, with his infamous habits, Lenny gained himself notoriety for mostly the wrong reasons.
When a search on his name is made, most of the details are all about his misdeeds and controversies. The implication of this is that he has relegated his footballing career to the background and all his career stints, are almost forgotten and going down the drain.
Lenny Dykstra Had $58 Million in Net Worth
Following a successful career that ran through for a little over a decade, Lenny was able to amass $58 million. He made his Major League Baseball debut in 1985 playing with the New York Mets. The end of his career was in 1996 when he retired while with the Philadelphia Phillies.
While playing professional baseball, Dykstra won the 3 times All-Star award thrice. He was also the World Series Champion in 1986 and in 1993, he won the Silver Slugger Award.
These aforementioned career highlights just go to show that the 61year old did indeed have an impressive career. He showcased unbridled skills that got him a lot of accolades and love.
Recent reports state that the former multi-millionaire is currently valued at a net worth of -$25 million. This is quite a huge blow as the fall is quite massive. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why Lenny Dykstra net worth suffered such a blow.
Lenny Dykstra Net Worth of $58 Million, Gone with the Wind
Reports have claimed that things began to go wrong for the baseball player since his retirement from the sport. From 2009, he began to suffer financial brokenness as well as bankruptcy charges.
The subsequent habits of Dykstra however did not ease up the situation as he went on to incur more debts to himself. This story of Grace to Grass cannot be complete without the mention that even his career as an athlete was somewhat of a hoax.
Years after his career had ended, Lenny faced accusations of being a user and addict. He admitted that he used body enhancers and growth drugs in order to look bigger and play better.
It would be recalled that Lenny was quite small when he first started to play American football. A lot of people actually thought that he wouldn’t make it in the sport because of his smallish nature.
However, towards the end of the 1990s, the smallish player began to look very robust and big. It was at this point that he had begun to use the drugs which he eventually got addicted to down the line.
According to the retired athlete, he was taking these enhancers with his cereals. He confessed that he took to them because he did not want to be beaten by opponents on the field of play. According to him, he had to do what he had to do so that he could play better and earn more.
With this revelation, Lenny Dykstra has been listed in a couple of publications about athletes who use steroids to boost their chances of winning.
Nonetheless, this seems to be the least of the baseball player’s fraud cases. He has actually been involved in fraudulent deals after filing for bankruptcy in 2009. Since then, it has been one issue or another surrounding him.
Whatever the situation may be, as long as it included squandering money that he did not even have, Lenny was known for it. He became broke and in huge debt which caused a huge dent in his reputation.
Lenny Dykstra owed a lot of people money from his family members to friends, partners, and even his employees. Let’s take a look at how Lenny Dykstra net worth dropped from his estimated value of $58 million to bankruptcy.
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Dykstra’s Unhealthy Habits and its Consequences
When he was no longer a player, Lenny started up a business with some of his family members. He sold the car wash in 2007 to the utter disapproval of his partners. He was further sued in relation to this and publicly accused of owing his brother Kevin $4million. Additionally, his family has disowned him for all the ill-treatment and dubious things Lenny did to them.
He also supposedly co-owned a car wash business, a partnership with the British oil company Castrol, a fueling facility, real estate, and a couple of other ventures.
In addition to this, he became a columnist for Jim Cramer’s ForTheStreet.com. With this job, he was paid handsomely by Jim, and people who wanted to read his article on the column would pay almost $1000 for it. With what he earned, he wasn’t satisfied as he became very greedy and wanted more.
This thirst for more money pushed him to publish his own magazine in 2008. The title of the magazine is Player’s Club and it was aimed at giving pro athletes financial advice. He started off distributing about 2000 copies of the magazine to clubhouses for free.
According to a report by Forbes, Lenny was only able to put out an edition of the magazine before things began to crumble. This crumble was facilitated by lawsuits and debts which Dykstra owed.
Things got so bad that the columnist began to steal from his estate and even sold memorabilia. He however hid the profits he made from the memorabilia and this landed him into more trouble.
For starters, Lenny lost money to bets and poker games, and this dates as far back as the early 1990s. He then bought a house that was valued at about $18 million, however, years down the line, the house was lost in a Ventura County foreclosure sale.
According to reports, Lenny was living in a $4 million house but greed prompted him into buying the Wayne Gretzky house. He hoped to flip the house but was unsuccessful and he ended up selling off properties from the house. He was eventually banned from the house and its premises.
Lenny Had More Shady Dealings Inspired by Greed
Philadelphia Phillies star, Lenny has been called out and sued one too many times in the past. One time it was a Nigerian doctor suing him for breach of contract, another time it was employees and prospective employees talking about deceit and misdeeds.
Apart from ripping off his partners as earlier pointed out, Dykstra took his deeds notches further. He went on to brag about his $58 million net worth and one of his employees who dealt with his finances called out his bluff.
In addition to being bankrupt, Leonard Kyle Dykstra as his given name has also faced charges of fraud and obstruction of justice. There are also charges of identity theft as well as grand theft auto, indecent exposure, and possession of drugs.
He has also been faced with allegations of failed or bounced checks as well as failing to pay rent. With this, he was subjected to even living in the lobbies of hotels or in his car for a period of time.
Some more accusations bordered around him being a sexual molester. There was once a case filed against him by a woman who claimed she was molested by the former MBL player.
When said woman dropped the case, another was opened by his house help who confessed that in order to keep her job, she had to perform oral sex on Lenny. She claimed that he threatened her and made her do this to him on the weekends.
Also, employees reported that once he had gotten very broke, he requested to use their credit cards to pay for stuff. Sometimes, he would even re-use their credit cards without their permission.
Kyle Dykstra once tricked his mother into using her credit card. He called her early one morning crying for her help. According to Lenny, he was stranded in Cleveland, Ohio, and needed over $20,000 to hire a private jet to return home. His mother obliged him and he never got to refund the money.
There are quite a lot of infamous activities in which Leonard got involved. These activities have seriously dented his reputation and career. However, he is still known for giving great financial advice which is ironic considering the state of his finances at the end of his career.
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Other Quick Facts about Lenny Dykstra
- He had an addiction to alcohol and other drugs too. He once had an accident with fellow baseball player Darren Daulton. The incident occurred on May 7, 1991, and both had serious injuries.
The athlete rammed the side of his Mercedes-Benz SL 500 into a tree on Darby-Paoli Road while returning from a bachelor’s party. It was reported that he had a measure of 0.179% blood alcohol content. It was later revealed that he would drink a liter of vodka in a day and got addicted to prescription drugs. Lenny was also caught with cocaine and methamphetamine in 2018.
- Leonard Kyle was once married to Terri for several years and they only got divorced in April 2009. He had a son named Cutter who is also a professional baseball player.
The retired baseball player’s other son Luke also plays for the Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball in 2018. From his first son, he has been made a grandfather of at least two grandsons. Cutter got married to actress Jamie Lynn Sigler. He apparently still lives with his ex-wife, Terri who has no plans of being more than housemates with him.
- He has been accused of being homophobic and racist. Lenny has also been accused of making terroristic threats. He was arrested on May 23, 2018. Kyle was once said to have pulled a gun on his Uber driver for refusing to change destination.
- Leonard Kyle Dykstra is an author. He authored ‘House of Nails: A Memoir of Life on the Edge.’
- Three of his uncles were all professional Hockey players. Pete, Jack, and Tony all played in the National Hockey League.
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