Troubled former Philadelphia Phillies star
Lenny Dykstra is expected to be released from a Los Angeles County jail Sunday, family members told WTXF-TV Thursday.
Dykstra, who led the Phillies to the 1993 World Series, was sentenced for bank fraud and grand theft auto in 2012, according to the TV station. If accurate, it would mean
Dykstra would have served less than half of his three-year sentence, WTXF-TV said.
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Dykstra was sentenced in March 2012 in Los Angeles Superior Court to California state prison, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. In his sentencing, prosecutors said that in January 2011,
Dykstra, accountant Robert Hymers, and friend Christopher Gavanis tried to lease high-end automobiles there with phony information, reported the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Prosecutors said the men obtained a Ford Flex, a Lincoln and a Ford Mustang through the scheme, according to the newspaper. Dykstra pleaded no contest to grand theft auto and filing a false financial statement in connection with a scheme to use somebody else's paperwork to steal or lease several new cars, according to court records said the Inquirer. He tried to take back his plea at the time of sentencing, but was denied by Judge Cynthia Ulfig.
Dykstra earned the nickname "Nails" on the baseball field for his aggressive play. He started in the New York Mets farm system and eventually became the big league team's leadoff hitter.
He was a part of the Mets 1986 world championship team, according to the Baseball Library.
In 1989, he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies and enjoyed his best baseball career in 1993, leading the Phillies to the World Series where they lost to the Toronto Blue Jays. His aggressive play often left him injured with multiple stints on the disabled list throughout his career, said the Baseball Library.
Dykstra had to overcome off-the-field woes as well. In 1991, he was linked to a gambling probe in Mississippi, reported the Baseball Library.
This year, author Christopher Frankie released the book "Nailed: The Improbable Rise and Spectacular Fall of Lenny Dykstra," chronicling his rise as a baseball player, career as a financial analyst to his troubles with the law.
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