At least Dykstra won't read this
We've got it TiVo'd and plan to finally get around to watch the latest episode of HBO's "Real Sports," which came out Monday and has the usual numerous replays for the next couple of weeks.
The story on Mike Marshall, the former Dodgers pitcher, intrigued us most.
The other story on Lenny Dykstra, the former Phillies dusty-ol' center fielder currently living in the house Wayne Gretzky and family once owned off the Sherwood Country Club track in Thousand Oaks, has already amused us.
Here's the liner notes from the HBO PR guys:
BERNARD GOLDBERG: “Is it true you once said you don’t read books because they might hurt your batting eye?”
DYKSTRA: “Yeah. You got to rest your eyes man, plus it makes you think too much.”
GOLDBERG: “Reading?”
DYKSTRA: “Too confusing.”
GOLDBERG: “Reading?”
DYKSTRA: “Yeah, I still don’t like to read.”
GOLDBERG: “And I’m supposed to follow your investing advice?”
DYKSTRA: “Only if you like money.”
Cut to CNBC’s JIM CRAMER: “I think people don’t think of Lenny as sophisticated. But I am telling you, Bernie, that not only is he sophisticated, but he’s one of the great ones in this business. He’s one of the great ones.”
GOLDBERG: “Lenny Dykstra.”
CRAMER: “Lenny Dykstra. Lenny Dykstra.”
GOLDBERG: “The one …”
CRAMER: “…Lenny Dykstra, I know. It’s like, ‘Lenny Dykstra? Now come on Jim, Lenny Dykstra?’ Yeah. Yeah.”
GOLDBERG “Jim Cramer is the host of Mad Money on CNBC and like Lenny, he’s also a little nuts …Except, unlike Lenny … Cramer went to Harvard … he worked at Goldman Sachs on Wall Street … and he started his own Hedge Fund … and made a fortune. And one day, out of the blue, he got an e-mail from someone who said he was Lenny Dykstra.
CRAMER: I" emailed him back, I said, ‘Okay listen Lenny,’ you know, quote ‘Lenny.’ And he goes, ‘No it’s me. Lenny Dykstra.’ And I go back and I said, ‘OK, what years did you play for the Phillies?’ I’m thinking it can’t be him. And the next thing I know he says, 'Let me show you my ideas.' And he sends me ideas, and I went to the editor of the TheStreet.com and said, ‘Look, I got to tell you, a guy who is applying the same skills to money that he applied to sports. It’s brilliant.’”
GOLDBERG: “You know, he doesn’t sound like those guys at Goldman Sachs.”
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 email, 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.”
Now let's all head over to Lenny's Car Wash in Simi Valley and get cleaned up.
UPDATE: A pretty good chance Lenny D. won't read the current issue of Sports Illustrated as well, where new backpage columnist Chris Ballard does a story on him, writing: "Here are Seven Reasons to Entrust Your Life Savings to a Man Called Nails."