The Fall of Lenny Dykstra

Mike Fish of espn.com has nailed the player they used to call "Nails." Put simply, Lenny Dykstra's life is one big mess, and reports that he's some genius of a financial guru were greatly exaggerated. I hate to say it, but I hinted at as much about a year ago.

Read the whole thing, but it appears that Lenny Dykstra's life has spun out of control -- fights with family members, a trail of angry investors, employees, third-party contractors, lawsuits, all but criminal investigations and indictments. This is sad to see, but it also was hard to believe about a year ago that Dykstra was the flaming success some had made him out to be (including one fawning Philadelphia-area talk radio show host, who bragged about being invited to a big party introducing Dykstra's "Players' Club" magazine).

The whole thing, as it were, is very sad. It's not necessarily as though Lenny Dykstra's financial empire has crashed. It could be that it never was that good to begin with, with a trail of questionable decisions, but now they're all coming to a head from different vantage points, closing in on the former Major Leaguer and leaving him without any moves -- other than bankruptcy and a serious restructuring of his career ambitions and lifestyle.

And, as I wrote a year ago, the whole story of his glorious financial empire was hard to believe a year ago.

What a mess.