Sorry, Not Buying Dykstra's Denial

In 1991, Lenny "Nails" Dykstra hammered his Benz into a tree on a road off Philadelphia's Main Line with a Phillies teammate, Darren Daulton, as a passenger. Dykstra suffered a broken collarbone, broken ribs, broken cheekbone and punctured lung. Dalton suffered a broken bone under an eye. The pair was coming from a bachelor party for John Kruk. Dykstra was charged with driving drunk.

In 1999, three years after he last played baseball, Dykstra was cleared of sexual battery and child annoyance charges against a 17-year-old female employee at a car wash he owned. The Ventura County, Calif., district attorney's office that prosecuted him concluded: "While the district attorney believes that the defendant did engage in the conduct as originally described by the victim... the charges alleged in the complaint cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury."

In 1999, three years after he last played baseball, Dykstra was cleared of sexual battery and child annoyance charges against a 17-year-old female employee at a car wash he owned. The Ventura County, Calif., district attorney's office that prosecuted him concluded: "While the district attorney believes that the defendant did engage in the conduct as originally described by the victim... the charges alleged in the complaint cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury."

In 2007, Dykstra was pinned as a steroids abuser in The Mitchell Report.

Earlier this week, Dykstra dismissed a charge in a GQ article from a former employee at Dykstra's rag-a-zine, The Players Club, that Dykstra expressed racist and homophobic beliefs with impunity only John Rocker could appreciate it. The former employee charged that Dykstra referred to Derek Jeter, Chris Paul, and Tiger Woods as "darkies" and "spearchuckers," and Danica Patrick as "bitch."

Dykstra defended himself a little more eloquently to The Philadelphia Inquirer: "Everything in there is a lie. I'm not going down in the dirt with this guy [accuser Kevin Coughlin]. He's [ticked] off because he got fired."

If Dykstra, who amazingly re-invented himself in retirement as a Jim Cramer-like stock picker, wants to prove he isn't what his former employee charged, he would be wise to file defamation lawsuit post haste and pray that he wins. For his past suggest that the proof is in his pudding.

Dykstra was among the invited celebrants at last season's end for a goodbye for Shea Stadium, where he started his often combative career. It's been reported that he wouldn't mind having a hand in baseball again, as a coach if not a manager.

Baseball remains one of our most-troubled sports when it comes to image, particularly with the steroids cloud hovering over its head. The last thing it needs is a renewed association with an apparent lout like Dykstra. Good riddance.

Kevin B. Blackistone is a panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn, the Shirley Povich Chair in Sports Journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, and a frequent sports opinionist on other outlets. A former award-winning sports columnist for The Dallas Morning News, he currently lives in Silver Spring, Md.