LENNY DYKSTRA

At a California high school in the early 1980s, there was a star athlete named Lenny Dykstra. He was fast, played with grit and was driven to play Major League Baseball. Dykstra was also a star football player despite being only 5'10" and 165 pounds. His lack of size made him realize that football was temporary, but baseball was something he would do for life. His speed was something that was in style at the time in baseball, with guys like Rickey Henderson, Tim Raines, Ron LeFlore and Willie Wilson starring in the Major Leagues with their elite speed and base stealing prowess. Dykstra had the kind of speed that teams coveted in that era and seemed to have the kind of tools necessary to succeed at the next level. He was enough of a prospect that he was dealing with a dilemma that most high school baseball players would dream of having: whether to go pro or take a scholarship to play Division 1 baseball. His path would be defined by whether or not the Major League teams saw his small stature as an impediment, and if so, he would end up as the starting center fielder at Arizona State University. They did not, and he was drafted out of high school in the 13th round by the New York Mets.

Dykstra tore up the minors. He was an absolute beast at the plate and a demon on the basepaths. Dykstra was only a teenager his first two years in the minor leagues, but he played like a grown man. He dominated on the basepaths and was on base nearly half the time. His disruptive baserunning was enough to catapult him from a relatively late draft pick into a legitimate Major League prospect. In his second year in the minors as a 19 year old, Dykstra stole 77 bases and scored 95 runs. The next season, he stole 105 bases, scored 132 runs and began to show power at the plate too. New York had clearly struck gold with the undersized outfielder from Orange County. He was consequently named the Carolina League's MVP, and soon emerged as one of the Mets' prized prospects. While playing in Double-A in 1984 he befriended fellow outfielder and teammate Billy Beane, who later said that Dykstra was "perfectly designed, emotionally" to play baseball and that he had "no concept of failure." According to Beane, his first comments on seeing future Hall of Fame pitcher Steve Carlton warming up were, "Shit, I'll stick him." This is the kind of confidence that takes an undersized scrapper to the Major Leagues.

In 1985, Dykstra was promoted to the Mets when the team's starting center fielder, Mookie Wilson, was placed on the disabled list. The rookie's play and energy was a big boost to a Mets team that surged to a 98-win season and narrowly missed out on the NL East crown. The following season, Dykstra was expected to be platooned (sharing time with another player in baseball is often referred to as a "platoon") in center field with Wilson, but took over the position as outright starter and leadoff hitter when Wilson suffered a severe eye injury during spring training. Later that season, the Mets released left fielder George Foster and moved Wilson to left. Mets fans soon nicknamed Dykstra "Nails" for his hard-nosed personality and fearless play. His rookie year was relatively successful, but it was his sophomore campaign that caused him to break out. He hit .295 (and .300 in the playoffs, being integral to the World Series victory for the Mets in 1986), dominated in Center Field and even finished in the top 20 in MVP voting.

 Things were looking bright for the Mets and their fans as the team entered into the 1987 season, but they missed the playoffs and Dykstra regressed offensively. The following year, the team won 100 games, but Dykstra continued to leave the front office wanting more, and by the middle of the next season, Dykstra was traded away. The player they received for Dykstra was exciting spark plug Juan Samuel, a triples hitting machine who was also the league's most strikeout prone hitter, accumulating more over the previous four seasons than anyone else in baseball. However, while Samuel was also very fast, he was a vastly different player than Dykstra. Samuel was not nearly as popular with fans, and his legacy with Mets fans is one of disappointment and the trade is widely panned still to this day. "The day that Lenny Dykstra was traded was a terrible day in the Mets franchise history. No one seems to mention this trade, but it was awful. Lenny Dykstra AND Roger McDowell (the inventor of the hot foot) both were traded to a division rival, the Phillies. In June of 1989, the Mets moved two of their most beloved heroes of the '86 Championship team and Dykstra eventually helped bring the Phillies to the World Series in '93 while endearing himself to their fan base as he did with ours." Dykstra became a World Series hero for his new team while the man they got in return played 86 games and batted just .228 before wearing out his welcome in New York. After just six months, Samuel was traded away.