It wasn't that shocking, unfortunately, to learn that Michael Jackson had died young, but now here's a news flash that's even less surprising: Lenny Dykstra is broke!
UPDATED: Phillie-turned-would-be stock-option guru Lenny Dykstra owes more than $10 million to JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and other creditors, and owns less than $50,000 to pay them with, his Los Angeles bankruptcy filing says. NEW: Read Dykstra's bankruptcy filing
"Sometimes the difficult decisions in life are the most necessary," Dykstra wrote me in an email. "In the end, the restructuring will definitely be a good thing."
As a baseball fanatic I'm not here to condemn the Dude -- after all, the man did excel for both the team of my misguided youth and my mature baseball choice, the Phillies -- but I am here to condemn someone. That would be those financial writers and gurus who produced glowing profiles of Dykstra and his idiot savant stock-picking abilities back in the mini-boom of the mid-1990s, when a guy with darts could have been a brilliant stock picker. Remember the Jon Stewart takedown of CNBC that resonated with so many people. This is another sterling example of badly misguided business journalism at work.
To bring the thing full-circle, no one was a bigger fan of Dykstra's alleged financial talent than the man who was completed demolished by "fake" newscaster Stewart, and that was CNBC's Jim Cramer. As Cramer told HBO back in the halcyon days:
Cramer: "If I didn't know any better I would tell you that everything you hear from Lenny is an act. Because there's no way that he would ever, that you would ever feel like he's as smart as he really is, if you listen to him. Now, there are probably four or five people in the world who, if they sent me an e-mail, told me to learn a stock, I would actually take them seriously."
Goldberg: "And he's one of them?"
Cramer: "He's one of them. He's one of them."
Comment removed.
This is all pretty strange because I would think taking the advice of a retired baseball player based on the advice of a hyperactive, shouting, prop-comic disguised as a business sage would money in the bank. I guess it's the same as believing a politician/community organizer can run the banking system, auto industry, and the entire healthcare sector of the country while saving the entire earth from burning to a crisp by controlling the very chemical 6 billion of us exhale every couple of seconds.— jmc- Comment removed.
What I don't get is how Dykstra filed Chapter 11 reorginization, when he owes over $10 million, but has only $50,000 in assets. Chapter 7 liquidation awaits him, and he better watch out for the complaints to determine dischargeability.— AHiredGun- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
"Jim Cramer. Obama endorser." . . . . . Hmmmm...the kiss of death?- Dykstra is too big to fail! Bail him out for goodness sake!— JerryCurlan
- Comment removed.
- BigCH, I'm doing the appendectomies on 2nd and Chestnut today.— JerryCurlan
- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
E-mail Will by clicking here.
PLEASE COMMENT WITH PASSION...
...but not with racial slurs, potentially libelous allegations, obscenities or other juvenile noise. Such comments will, at our discretion, be deleted in their entirety, and repeat offenders will be blocked from commenting. ALSO: Any commenter advocating killing any government official will be immediately banned.
Thanks.
- Atrios
- Kiko's House
- Suburban Guerilla
- Booman Tribune
- All-Spin Zone
- Philly (Dragonballyee)
- Afro-Netizen
- Rowhouse Logic
- MyDD
- Bad Attitudes
- Billmon
- iFlipFlop
- CorrenteWire
- upyernoz
- Tattered Coat
- Fables of the Reconstruction
- Slacktivist
- Citizen Mom
- The Next Mayor
- Philly Future
- Philadelphia Will Do
- Philebrity
- Young Philly Politics
- Phillyblog
- Welcome to Phillyville
- Phawker
- A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago
- Keystone Blog
- Philadelphia - America's Hometown
- BlankBaby
- Above Average Jane
- Phillyist
- Metroblogging Philadelphia
- The Clog
- Josh Marshall
- Daily Kos
- Juan Cole
- Oliver Willis
- Andy Borowitz
- War and Piece
- Wonkette
- BuzzFlash
- Raw Story
- Cursor
- Crooks and Liars
- Swing State Project
- Kevin Drum
- Talk Left
- AmericaBlog
- Hullabaloo
- Mad Kane
- Think Progress
- Jesus' General
- The Carpetbagger Report
- Majikthise
- Echidne of the Snakes
- David Sirota
- Glenn Greenwald
- TBogg
- Fire Dog Lake
- Taylor Marsh
- Matthew Yglesias
- Jon Swift
- Drudge Report
- Beer Leaguer
- The 700 Level
- Dick Polman
- Balls, Sticks and Stuff
- Shallow Center
- Philling Station
- Phillies Nation
- A Citizen's Blog
- The Good Phight
- Romenesko
- Editor and Publisher
- Pressthink
- Buzzmachine
- The Inksniffer
- Media Bloodhound
- Eat the Press
- Mickey Kaus
- Media (Huffington Post)
- Blinq
- The Corner
- Instapundit
- Andrew Sullivan
- Free Republic
- James Taranto
- Blonde Sagacity
- ScrappleFace
- Blogorrhea
- February
- January
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- January 2008
- News | Sports | Business | What's Happening | Restaurants & Food | Entertainment | Living | Marketplace | Jobs
