Driving Lenny Dykstra

In an exclusive tell-all interview, Scott Engel sat down with Lenny Dykstra’s limo driver in an effort to find out what the enigmatic ex-All Star has really been up to the past few years. The account of Dykstra’s whereabouts and daily deceitful practices portray a desperate man now trying to live off his Major League Baseball career with the Mets and Phillies.

Before Dykstra had many of his possessions from his playing days auctioned off on-line to satisfy $31 million in debts, Lenny asked his limo driver to help him sell some of the merchandise. We know that Lenny intended to bid on some of his own stuff, so if he was able to get any of it back, perhaps it’s still for sale. Check out Lenny’s email below for a potential list of items that may still be available.

The troubles of former Mets and Phillies outfielder Lenny Dykstra have been well-documented. Most recently, he was indicted by a federal grand jury in a bankruptcy fraud case. Dykstra is facing up to 80 years in prison if he is found guilty on all charges.

If Dykstra has to go to prison, though, he cannot count on getting a ride there. In 2009, Dykstra took advantage of a limousine driver from New Jersey who continued to drive him around while not being paid and even offered to help him find shelter when the former major league standout had no place to sleep. The driver, who we will call Jerry, is a lifelong Mets fan who saw stars in his eyes and emptiness in his hand when he decided to get involved with one of his former heroes. When Dykstra demonstrated he had no real means of paying Jerry for his services, Jerry finally realized a guy that was always a winner on the field played a losing game off of it. You’ll never see Jerry wearing a jersey with No. 4 on it.

“I didn’t think he was penniless, an outcast of society,” Jerry said. “This guy was one of the 1986 Mets. He was a hero. And he turned out to be a lying, cheating user.”

Jerry once cheered Dykstra on as a Mets fan. When he met him in person, he did not realize he was getting involved with someone who misused other people’s credit card information and would end up sleeping in a print shop in the town that he and his teammates used to own three decades ago. Jerry would ultimately watch Dykstra go from center field in a highly memorable World Series to being slumped in the back seat of one of his cars.

Jerry, who is 47 years old, grew up in Queens. In the 1970s, he and his friends used to ride their bicycles to Shea Stadium to watch the Mets. Years later, he happened upon an opportunity to be the driver for one of the most iconic figures in Mets history. Dykstra will forever be lauded for his 1986 postseason heroics, most notably his game-ending home run against the Astros in the National League Championship Series. You can still see a healthy number of No. 4 jerseys at Mets home games these days. Jerry was thrilled to be working with “Nails.”

“I was giddy,” he said. “It was like I was a schoolboy again.”

Jerry estimates it was the month of May in 2009 when he saw Dykstra standing on the corner of Third Avenue in the high 40s, hailing a cab. Jerry instantly recognized Dykstra and pulled over, offering to take him anywhere he wanted to go. Jerry and Dykstra instantly hit it off, and Dykstra then asked Jerry to run him to various places around town for approximately five days. Despite stories of Dykstra being a notorious rabble-rouser in the past, Jerry said Dykstra’s trips that week were uneventful.

“He was pretty cool,” Jerry said. “There was nothing crazy. No partying or drinking.” Dykstra would ask to be driven to restaurants or a lawyer’s office. But Jerry did find it unusual when he would drop Dykstra off at one high-end hotel one night, only to be asked to pick him up at another the next time he was summoned.

Jerry estimates that he was charging 50 to 60 dollars an hour at that time for his services, and Dykstra ran up a bill of well over $1,000 by the end of the week. Yet instead of paying Jerry outright as he left town to return home to the Los Angeles area, he gave him $100 cash and a credit card number that belonged to Dykstra’s “assistant.”

“I ran the number, and it went through,” Jerry said. “Two to three days later, I got a call from the bank, denying the charges.”

Jerry called Dykstra’s assistant, who told him that Dykstra was a “good guy”, but she needed her card for her mortgage payment. Jerry held off on charging Dykstra’s assistant. “She told me Lenny does not have any credit cards, he has issues and problems. But I had gone days without getting paid. He would always tell me tomorrow, tomorrow. He would pay me tomorrow. I was also paying gas, tolls and losing money on other possible jobs.”

In the summer of 2009, Dykstra asked Jerry to pick him up at a New Jersey airport. Jerry met Dykstra and he was not alone. Dykstra had a lady friend with him. Jerry estimates she was in her mid-20s, and was of foreign descent. Jerry dropped Dykstra and the woman off at a New York City hotel. Later that night, Dykstra asked Jerry to take him to dinner, without the woman. That evening, he received a call from the woman, who appeared to be in a dire situation.

“She said Lenny asked her to put the hotel on her card, and she did not want to do that, because the hotel was over $500 per night.” Jerry learned that Dykstra had met the girl in Los Angeles, and they were “hanging out and drinking” when Dykstra asked her to come to New York with him in his private jet. “She told me she was supposed to meet Lenny for dinner but she was hesitant to go. She said she didn’t know anyone in New York, and she was alone, hungry and nervous. Her flight was not until the next day at 2 p.m. so I took her to a diner and got her a hamburger.”

Then Jerry met up with Dykstra, who claimed the girl was “crazy” and “full of s–t” and she just wanted his money. He added that he requested oral sex from her and she declined. Jerry dropped Dykstra off at a different hotel than he had taken him to upon his arrival in New York. By that point, Dykstra had rung up over an additional $400 in driving expenses. Dykstra then gave Jerry another credit card number to use for all the outstanding charges.

Jerry ran the card, the charges were accepted, and the next day, he received a call from a person who claimed to be the owner of the card Dykstra had provided. The person said he did not authorize the charges and warned Jerry that if he did not “backcharge” the card, he would take the issue up further with his credit card company. Jerry complied, and then called Dykstra’s assistant, who informed him that the card belonged to a business associate of Dykstra’s.

Dykstra’s assistant started detailing some of the issues he was involved with, including a divorce from his wife that had led to him being kicked out of his home. By this point, Jerry was well aware of Dykstra’s various troubles that had been made public, and Dykstra had even asked him to help him sell some of his memorabilia from his playing days. Jerry found out Dykstra had also owed his assistant a lot of money. “She said her husband wanted to ‘shoot’ Dykstra and she was fearing she would get a divorce because she was in the middle of it.”

Jerry then went to pick Dykstra up at his lawyer’s office, and told him “I cannot drive you around anymore, you owe me money.” Dykstra then asked Jerry to buy him a sandwich and some Red Bull beverages. “So I get him the sandwich and two Red Bulls, I spent another $15.” Dykstra had several bags of luggage with him, put them in the trunk, and sat in the back of Jerry’s car he was driving. “The first thing he does is mix the Red Bull with vodka, he gets hammered, and passes out in the back of the car.”

At that point, Jerry fully realized his World Series hero was a broken man and a burden. Lenny Dykstra, the man who had spurred Mets comebacks in the 1986 playoffs and World Series, was not about to launch a comeback against his problems or the alcohol in his system that night. The guy who had talked the big talk against the likes of Steve Carlton now was mumbling to himself in a back seat of a car he hadn’t even properly paid to use. Jerry called Dykstra’s assistant again.

“I said, what the f—k am I supposed to do with this guy? I can’t just drive him around, and I am losing money. I can’t work for free.” Jerry estimated Dykstra had owed him $1,300 by that point. Dykstra’s assistant instructed Jerry to take him to a hotel where he could get a room. “Everyone knew him at the hotels. He’s an ’86 Met. The doormen and everyone else knew him.”

Jerry would soon learn that the hotel staff knew him too well for his troubles, too. Jerry dropped Dykstra off on a Friday night, and refused to deal with the situation until Sunday afternoon. “I had to make some money.” Jerry finally spoke to Dykstra’s assistant on Sunday afternoon, and was informed that Dykstra was living on the streets and had not eaten in three days. The hotel staff did not even want him in their lounge. Dykstra spent the weekend on the streets, sleeping twice in a Kinko’s print shop.

Jerry informed his wife of the situation, and they made him a plate of leftovers from their Sunday family dinner. “When I saw him that night, he was wearing the same clothes from three days ago, and he ate the food like a ravaged animal. He scarfed everything down.”

Jerry reminded Dykstra that he was still owed money. Dykstra then opened one of the many pieces of bags he was carrying, and revealed some of the remains of a once-glorious career. Jerry noticed a commemorative vase from the Phillies’ 1993 championship season that was broken. Dykstra gave Jerry a bowl he received to honor him as an All-Star during his Philadelphia tenure, and a batting practice jersey of his from the ’93 World Series.

“Lenny told me I could get two grand for the stuff,” Jerry said. “He said sell it, take what you need for yourself and give me the rest. I called a collector who said he would give me 400 for the bowl and 600 for the jersey.” Dykstra then gave Jerry a vintage humidor, which the ex-player said had an estimated value of $20,000. Jerry dropped Dykstra at his lawyer’s office and received a call from him on Monday, but declined to pick Dykstra up. Jerry then received a call from Dykstra’s assistant, who said the ex-player was sleeping in his lawyer’s office and had no place to go until his flight left for Los Angeles later that week.

Jerry said he could not afford to put Dykstra in an expensive New York hotel, but would willingly foot the bill for a five-day, $350 stay at a Newark Holiday Inn. Jerry’s wife had suggested Dykstra stay with them at their home. “I said I love the guy, but I can’t do it. The Holiday Inn is the best I could do.” Dykstra’s assistant informed Jerry that the ex-player did not want to stay at the Holiday Inn.

Jerry finally took Dykstra to a New Jersey airport when it was time for him to get out of town. “I had not seen him in two days, and he had not showered and his pants were falling down.” Jerry later learned that Dykstra did not get out on the day he was supposed to, and slept in the terminal. Jerry never heard from Dykstra again. Well, at least not directly.

Jerry sold the bowl and jersey for $1,000, and the humidor was damaged to the point where it was nowhere near the value Dykstra estimated. Jerry simply gave it away to family members. A few weeks later, Jerry received a call from the woman Dykstra had brought to New York with him earlier in the year. She asked about a photo Dykstra had given Jerry of the ex-player with former teammate Darryl Strawberry. She wanted Jerry to make copies of the photo for Dykstra’s usage. Jerry said he did not need the picture, and if he simply received a check for the 600-plus dollars he was still owed at that point, he would gladly Fedex the original to Dykstra. That was the final contact of any sort he ever had with Dykstra.

In the end, Jerry was out a few hundred dollars. But more importantly, he got too close to one of his heroes, and was burned. Sometimes, it’s simply best to watch some of your favorite players from the stands. He even gained insight as to how Dykstra felt about the team he had once fought unforgettable baseball wars with.

“He hated the Mets,” Jerry said. “He said Darryl Strawberry had to beg him to come back for a reunion of the ‘86 team. He would say “f—k those sc—bags.”

Jerry still maintained hope that in those private moments with Dykstra, he had seen the worst of the player he had once admired.

“I was hoping against hope that he would straighten himself out.”

LENNY’S LIST: In an email dated June 2009, Dykstra asked Jerry to help him sell off some of his items from his playing days. TheXLog.com has obtained the list as typed by Lenny himself.

* While we don’t know what “Memorablia” is, we do know that Lenny was looking to sell some of his memorabilia.

Items of Memorablia

1986 WS CHAMPION NY METS – WORLD SERIES RING (PERFECT CONDITION)

1986 WORLD WS CHAMPION TROPHY – ORIGINAL 1986 METS

WORLD SERIES GAME JERSEY 1986 METS

1993 WORLD SERIES RING (PERFECT CONDITION) (PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES)

1993 – 2ND IN MVP VOTING – LEAD LEAGUE IN HITS, RUNS SCORED, WALKS AND AT BATS – I HAD MORE PLATE APPEARANCES THAN ANYONE IN THE HISTORY OF BASEBALL?

1993 PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES WORLD SERIES (GAME JERSEY)

1993 PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES WORLD SERIES TROPHY (PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES)

1990 NATIONAL LEAGUE ALL-STAR RING

1994 NATIONAL LEAGUE ALL-STAR RING

1995 NATIONAL LEAGUE ALL-STAR RING

SILVER SLUGGER AWARD BY LOUISVILLE SLUGGER – THIS IS VERY VALUABLE AS THEY PICK THE BEST 9 PLAYERS FROM BOTH LEAGUES

NATIONAL LEAGUE “PLAYER OF THE WEEK” WRISTWATCH – GIVEN TO ME BY THE NATIONAL LEAGUE WITH SPECIAL ENGRAVING

SIGN AS MANY MET UNIFORMS AS NEEDED – SIGN AS MANY PHILLIE UNIFORMS AS NEEDED

PERSONALIZED PAINTING (ORIGINAL) BY LEROY NEIMAN (1986 NY METS)

I HAVE ALL OF MY 1986 – 1988 AND 1993 PLAY-OFF AND HOME RUN BALLS

FIRST NIGHT HOME RUN BALL – THERE IS ONLY ONE OF THESE IN THE WORLD

IN CLOSING, I WILL SIGN AS MANY:  BATS, BALLS, PICTURES, ECT, AS NEEDED – FOR YOU TO MAKE A NICE PROFIT.

Respectfully,

Lenny K. Dykstra