Lenny Dysktra

The former baseball star is ARRESTED.

The strange thing about this case is how long it’s taken to develop. For several years now, there have been occasional feature stories on Dykstra’s strange degeneration into a professional con artist. The stories have been quite detailed– the sort of thing you expect to read after someone is already convicted and imprisoned. The feds must have been taking their time for some reason. But it looks like Dykstra’s house of cards is about to come crashing down.

In 1991, Dykstra and Philadelphia teammate Darren Daulton were lucky to survive A CAR CRASH while Dykstra was driving drunk and slammed into two trees.

He later impressed people with his toughness while playing Los Angeles: his saliva glands were destroyed by radiation treatment for cancer, yet he continued to play anyway.

But recent reports of his fraudulent business activities, which included attempts to defraud his own family members, reminded me more than anything else of former Ohio State and Colts quarterback ART SCHLICHTER, whose problems were rooted in compulsive gambling, and whose recurrent criminal schemes became almost comical after a certain point.