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Lenny Dykstra was selected in the 13th round by the New York Mets as the 315th overall pick in the 1981 MLB draft. The Mets drafted three other outfielders before they picked Dykstra.
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In 1984, while playing minor league baseball in Jackson Mississippi, Dykstra met his now ex-wife Terri Peel.
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After Triple-A minor league game in Virginia, Dykstra's coach Bob Schaefer informed him that he would be leading off for the New York Mets the next night in Cincinnati.
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In Game 3 of the 1986 World series, Dykstra's leadoff home run began the Mets rally in order to come from behind in the series and win the World Series in the seventh game.
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The Mets traded Dykstra to the Philadelphia Phillies for Juan Hernandez before the season. The reason for the trade of Dykstra is Dykstra's "take no prisoners" wild attitude. Later on in the book Dykstra describes partying with his friend Charlie Sheen.
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After a long night of drinking Lenny Dykstra was driving his teammate Darren Daulton home when he wrapped his Mercedes around a tree. The injuries that Dykstra sustained caused him to miss the first two months of the 1991 season.
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The 1993 season was the first year that Lenny Dykstra began paying private detective agency $500,000 a year to dig up dirt on all of them MLB umpires. He would blackmail the umpires during games in order to get more favorable calls. In Nails, Dykstra tells the story of one when he asked an umpire, who had a family, if the umpire had enjoyed the gay bar that he went to the night before. Needless to say Dykstra began getting most borderline pitches called in his favor.
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The Philidelphia Phillies 1993 dream season in one of the most historic moments in baseball history. With a 6-5 lead and 2 outs in bottom of the 9th of Game 6 Dykstra felt confident the Phillies would get the win and move on to Game 7. However, Joe Carter of the Blue Jays had other ideas. Carter sent a 3 run walk off home run into the left field bleachers to win the World Series for Toronto. Dykstra can still vividly remember not knowing what to do after the homer.
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After 15 years of 162 games a season Lenny Dykstra finally retired. Over the course of his career he had 1,298 hits in 1,278 games played. He was an extraordinary outfielder and legendary competitor.
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At the age of four Lenny Leswick's mother married Dennis Dykstra. Dennis gave Lenny his last name and raised Lenny like he was his own son. Dennis Dykstra died unexpectedly from a brain aneurysm.
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After he retired, Dykstra became an extremely successful businessman. He opened his first car wash in Simi, California in 2007. Dykstra called this car wash the Taj Mahal of carwashes. On March 5, 2012 Dykstra was imprisoned on three counts of grand theft auto and one count of filing a false financial report.
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The first scene in House of Nails is Lenny Dykstra describing the day that he was released from Visctorville prison.
