House of Nails: A Memoir of Life on the Edge

A wild and entertaining sports memoir of legendary center-fielder Lenny Dykstra, offering a no-holds-barred account of his life, a Shakespearian tale of highs and lows spanning his years with the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies and his post-baseball career.Nicknamed ''Nails'' for his toughness and grit, Lenny Dykstra approached the game of baseball (and his after-hours activities) with mythic intensity. In his decade in the majors (1985-1996), he was named to three All-Star teams and played in two of the most memorable World Series of the modern era: winning the championship with the iconic 1986 New York Mets, and playing a starring role in the 1993 World Series with the Philadelphia Phillies, a fall classic that inspired Roger Angell to write, ''This series will linger in mind not just for its immoderate events but for its panoply of featured players and character actorsa double touring company seemingly assembled by Hogarth or Fellini.''Known for his clutch hits, high on-base percentage, and aggressive defense, Lenny was later identified as the prototypical ''Moneyball'' player by his former minor league roommate Billy Beane. Tobacco-stained, steroid-powered, and booze-and-drug fueled, Nails also defined '80s and early '90s baseball's culture of excess.Then came a second act no novelist could plausibly conjure. He threw his energies into several lucrative businesses, was touted as an investment guru by Jim Cramer, and launched a magazine for professional athletes. The New Yorker ran a 5,000-word profile under the headline: ''Baseball's most improbable post-career success story.'' But when the real estate bubble burst, Lenny lost everything, eventually serving two and a half years in prison for bankruptcy fraud. Now, he's ready to tell all.An epic tale of winning big and losing it all, House of Nails is the eagerly anticipated firsthand account of a most remarkable American life.