Based on his facial features this was pre-steroids.
With the recession continuing to ravage the nation, there’s been a lot of discussion about last week’s interview of CNBC’s Jim “Mad Money” Cramer by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. Stewart effectively picked apart Cramer’s reputation as a financial expert (at least from some reports — I didn’t watch it myself so I can’t comment personally). Putting aside how pathetic it is that a show on Comedy Central is doing a better job of journalism than any of the so-called “news” networks, now one of Cramer’s proteges — a former pro athlete — is also under attack.
Kevin Coughlin, a former photo editor for a magazine founded by former New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Lenny Dykstra, has written an article, “You Think Your Job Sucks? Try Working for Lenny Dykstra,” for the April issue of GQ magazine. It’s not a flattering picture, to say the least. It depicts seeming financial mismanagement, not to mention racist, sexist and homophobic comments, by Dykstra.
Dykstra managed to parlay his baseball career into a chain of car washes, and then turned his attention to the stock market, eventually becoming a columnist for TheStreet.com, a site co-founded by Cramer. He then started a magazine called The Players Club, distributed exclusively to professional athletes, with plans to expand it into a full-service company providing financial advice, luxury concierge services, etc. to those very same athletes.
In the GQ article, Coughlin says that Dykstra’s company is in terrible financial shape and the magazine is unlikely to publish another issue. He says there are multiple lawsuits pending against Dykstra and TPC because of bounced checks, nonpayment of bills for services rendered and loans not repaid. He alleges Dykstra, ostensibly a wealthy man, used Coughlin’s credit cards to rent private jets, sometimes without Coughlin’s permission, and refused to pay Coughlin’s final paycheck unless Coughlin signed a confidentiality agreement (Coughlin refused and hasn’t been paid).
Coughlin also paints an ugly portrait of Dykstra as a person:
At one meeting, Lenny goes off on how a particular layout looks “faggy”-despite the presence of a gay page designer in the room. (Later, Lenny says to me: “Did you see the look on that fag’s face?”) On another occasion, I field a call from Lenny about potential cover subjects while I’m at home; Lenny’s on speaker when he proudly states, for both my wife and me, that “nobody can call me a racist-I put three darkies and a bitch on my first four covers.”
The first four Players Club covers featured Derek Jeter, Chris Paul, Tiger Woods, and Danica Patrick.
“What was that, Lenny?” I ask.
“I said I put three spearchuckers on the cover!” he replies.
Dykstra told the Philadelphia Inquirer that “everything in there is a lie.” And perhaps it is. The article was written by a disgruntled former employee. On the other hand, Dykstra denied using steroids during his playing days, always joking that he took “real good vitamins” when his body suddenly turned larger, but he was named as one of baseball’s steroid users by the Mitchell Report in 2007, which cited clubhouse employee/steroid distributor Kirk Radomski and other sources.
on Mar 17th, 2009 at 12:15 am
He’s just a twit. Not every sports star should get into the business world. Primarily because they’re good at one thing, which is the sport they played before officially retiring. He’s a thief from what I read skimming over the link that was included in the blog post.
As far as the homophobia goes, that’s just plain rude. I mean, I can see why he feels insecure since his last name does have an inclusion of a derogatory term for lesbians; dyke. Though if you’re going to whinge about that, doesn’t that make you look less of a man? Maybe.
Ozzie Guillen, Mike Timlin, John Smoltz, Eddie Perez, Todd Jones and the other MLB players who’ve made sweeping statements and later had their statements retracted in various ways that didn’t necessarily do much justice. They’re all the same.
Credit: http://outsports.com/antigay/antigayrockerslist.htm
on Mar 17th, 2009 at 2:17 am
Take a look at Jim Cramer’s MSFT recommendations over a 2 year period. You can see that he flip-flopped quit a bit and likely lost viewers money.
http://www.stocktagger.com/2007/07/jim-cramer-microsoft-corporation-msft.html
on Mar 17th, 2009 at 8:16 am
Dykstra’s attitude and behavior reckons back to the gay rumors in the mid-Eighties when he came up through the Mets organization.
The source of irony layed in the fact this information came mainly from straight men in the field of sports.
on Mar 18th, 2009 at 9:03 am
He’s a moron. He played like a stupid punk during his baseball career. Now he’s acting like an idiot as a business man. And I never believed all the crap about what a financial genius he’s supposed to be these days. Watch any recent interview with him. He can barely put a sentence together.