Lenny Dykstra

In HOUSE OF NAILS: A Memoir of Life on the Edge (William Morrow, on sale June 28, 2016, ISBN: 9780062407368, $27.99), former All Star centerfielder, world champion, multimillionaire entrepreneur, and imprisoned felon, Lenny Dykstra opens up, for the first time, about his outrageous rise and spectacular fall—a tale that The Daily Show'sJon Stewart once declared was "the greatest story that I have ever seen in my lifetime." Nicknamed “Nails” for his hustle and grit, Lenny Dykstra approached the game of baseball—and life—with mythic intensity. During his decade in the majors, a legendary member of the 1980s Mets and ‘90s Phillies, he was named to three All-Star teams and played in two of the most memorable World Series of modern the era (1986 and 1993). Known for his clutch hits, high on-base percentage, and aggressive defense, Lenny was later identified by his former minor league roommate Billy Beane as a prototypical “Moneyball” player in Michael Lewis’s bestseller. Tobacco-stained, steroid-powered, and booze-and-drug-fueled, “Nails” also defined a notorious era of excess in baseball. Then came a second act no novelist could plausibly conjure: After retiring, Dykstra threw his energies into several lucrative businesses, was touted as “one of the great ones” by Jim Cramer, called “baseball’s most improbable post-career success story” by the New Yorker, and purchased a $17.5mm mansion. But when the real estate bubble burst in 2008, Lenny lost everything, eventually serving two-and-a-half harrowing years in prison for bankruptcy fraud. Now Lenny opens up, for the first time, about his tumultuous career.