Some years ago, shortly after an indictment for bankruptcy fraud that, among other things, would see him spend six months in prison, financial genius Lenny Dykstra sought to explain to “the people of the great City of New York” how, exactly, he had come to file for (fraudulent) bankruptcy with $100 million in assets. “I did not get stupid overnight,” he said.
Likewise, one does not build a reputation overnight, and Lenny Dykstra has been building quite a reputation over the past three-and-a-half decades: in addition to the aforementioned bankruptcy and bankruptcy fraud, there’s also the grand theft auto, stiffing private flight companies, stiffing hookers, hanging out with Charlie Sheen, betraying Jim Cramer, sexual impropriety, bad tipping, steroid use, being a Met, etc., etc. And, unfortunately for Dykstra, the reputation he’s built is one that can only be enhanced, legally speaking, by published allegations that he called Oil Can Boyd all manner of racist slurs from the dugout.
A judge has dismissed Lenny Dykstra’s defamation and libel lawsuit against Ron Darling, ruling that the former New York Mets outfielder’s “reputation for unsportsmanlike conduct and bigotry is already so tarnished that it cannot be further injured….”
“Based on the papers submitted on this motion, prior to the publication of the book, Dykstra was infamous for being, among other things, racist, misogynist, and anti-gay, as well as a sexual predator, a drug-abuser, a thief, and an embezzler. Further, Dykstra had a reputation — largely due to his autobiography — of being willing to do anything to benefit himself and his team, including using steroids and blackmailing umpires,” Kalish wrote.
Kalish wrote that his court — the New York Supreme Court is a trial court, not an appellate court — “sees no legal basis for why it should use its very limited time and resources litigating whether Dykstra engaged in yet another example of bigoted behavior over thirty-years ago in a court of law.”
Turns out Dykstra was right when he told Howard Stern last month that the lawsuit would “never go to fucking trial.” But we can look forward to Darling’s libel lawsuit when Dykstra abandons his uncharacteristic reticence about his former teammate.
Dykstra says he has other dirt on Darling that will be made public at some point.
“Darling better enjoy that (Facebook watch party),” Dykstra said. “It’s going to be on the last (bleeping) things that he gets to enjoy. He’s pending doom. Time will pass. The truth will come out, and it’s ugly. You know how ugly it is? Multiply it by a million. We’re talking about one of the biggest frauds in the history of baseball that he pulled off. This is beyond his book.
“Why the (bleep) would he pick me for an enemy? I’m the last (bleeping) guy you’d want to pick. But he did, and now he can’t go back. There’s no going back.”
Lenny Dykstra’s past cited as defamation and libel suit vs. former Mets teammate Ron Darling tossed [ESPN]
Lenny Dykstra celebrating 2 arrest-free years instead of 1986 Mets reunion, vows ‘pending doom’ for ‘fraud’ Ron Darling [NJ.com]