Atlanta Braves Killer, Evil Genius – Lenny Dykstra Speaks Out About Dirty Past

Former New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies centerfielder, Lenny Dykstra, opened up on Fox’s FS1 Colin Cowherd show about his old playing days and suspicious activity on and off the field.

Dykstra made a name for himself as a Mets in the late 1980’s, but really shined when he was a part of the Phillies.  He was known for behind extremely aggressive and getting on base.  But aggressive not always at the plate.

Dykstra had extremely high walk totals from 1990 through 1994.  In 1993 he had a total of 129 walks…which was an insane amount if your name isn’t Barry Bonds (or other great home run hitters).  Bonds had 232 walks in 2004 which is a single-season record.  Dykstra had 640 walks in his 12 year career in the MLB.

While on the Cowherd show he expressed his prodigious walk totals didn’t come from a great eye, but hiring great private eyes.  In an effort to get a huge contract, he spent $500,000 to hire private investigators to turn up dirt on Major League Baseball umpires.  Then he used that intel to persuade them into giving him a favorable strike zone.

Dykstra signed a large contract with the Phillies after the 1994 season.  He played for only two more seasons, but was paid out by the Phillies for an additional two years.  From 1995-1998, he received 24,400,000 from the Phillies – only playing 1995 and 1996.  Injuries plagued Dykstra during his career.  He launched one final comeback attempt in Spring Training of 1998 before retiring at the age of 35.

"“I said I need the umpires, [so] what do I do?  I just pulled out half a million bucks and hired a private investigate team to follow them,” said Dykstra.  “Their blood is just a red as ours.  Some of them like women, some of them like men, some of them gamble, some of them do whatever.”"

Cowherd then asked Dykstra whether he ever threatened the umpires, and he responded with…”it wasn’t needed.”

"“Fear does a lot to a man.  (I’d ask) did you cover last night?  They’d call a strike.  Oh, I don’t think you heard me.  Did you cover the spread last night?“I had to do what I had to do to win and to support my family.”"

During his career, he always seemed to hurt the Braves one way or another.  He had a career batting average of .311 against the Braves – one of the highest averages versus another team.

Luke Dykstra, Lenny’s son, was drafted by the Braves in the 7th round of the 2014 MLB draft.  In 2015, Luke played with the Rome Braves and the Danville Braves with a combined slash line of .296/.337/.403 for the 2015 season.

.