In Your Face : If Not Your Hair : That’s the Phillies’ Lenny Dykstra, Who Leads Off, Mouths Off, but Who Never Backs Off

The Dude, as he calls others and is called himself, reflects on his record-setting, reputation-enhancing performance of 1993 and says:

“I basically went from star to superstar. I basically proved I’m more than the best leadoff hitter in the game. It’s nice to have that recognition, but I’m more than a leadoff hitter.

“I proved I’m the impact player I’ve always considered myself to be, a situation hitter capable of getting the home run, double, walk, whatever the situation requires.

“I’ve worked hard and made myself into one of the top five players in the game. Do they pay leadoff hitters what they’re paying me?”

Lenny Dykstra prodded and carried the surprising Philadelphia Phillies to a National League championship and Game 6 of the World Series with a virtually unparalleled season that was rewarded with a four-year, $24.9-million extension that can stretch to five years and $30.4 million if the option is exercised.

The extension highlighted a winter in which the catalytic Dude proved again he is a man for all seasons.

Consider:

--He kept the peace and boosted the European economy while representing the major leagues on a five-day trip to Paris, Dusseldorf and Amsterdam during which he popped for a $13,000 dinner party at a noted Paris restaurant and bought his wife, Terri, a three-carat diamond for $41,000.

--He began what he hopes will be the entrepreneurial phase of his career by opening the Lenny Dykstra Car Wash in Corona Hills. He calls it “the Taj Mahal of car washes” and arrived for the opening in a rented limo. Attendants wear Phillies’ uniform tops, and the waiting room features $300,000 worth of memorabilia, which may interest the IRS, considering that Dykstra was among those interviewed in the card-show inquiry that has focused on Darryl Strawberry.

--He also illustrated that some things never change by engaging a Pennsylvania state senator in a verbal and--almost physical--confrontation when the senator objected to Dykstra’s language as they dined in a Philadelphia restaurant.

--He either fired--or was deserted by--longtime agent Alan Meersand, who announced in mid-January he was fed up with Dykstra’s behavior and no longer wanted to be associated with him.

“All I’ll say is that it was an interesting 13 years, and I chose to pass the torch,” Meersand now says, asked by the players’ union, it is believed, to desist from slinging mud.

Dykstra, who said he fired Meersand long before the extension was negotiated, declined to renew the verbal war.

“I don’t want to go down that road,” he said. “I mean, the things Meersand said were a comedy. That’s why he has no players left.”

Meersand represents Travis Fryman, Damon Berryhill, Darrin Jackson, Jesse Orosco and Steve Trachsel, a Chicago Cub rookie pitcher, among others.

Meersand’s attorney, Mark Kalmanshon, said he sent a termination letter to Dykstra on Jan. 19, at which point Meersand had not been notified--orally or in writing--that he was being terminated by Dykstra.

Kalmanshon also said Meersand was a member of the team that negotiated the extension and is still owed agent’s fees from the last year of the pre-existing contract, from the extension and from various endorsements. It is a contention, he said, Dykstra seems to be disputing.

“We’re at a preliminary stage on that,” he said, refusing to speculate on possible legal action.

For Dykstra, of course, life goes on, the controversies almost as persistent as the tobacco stains on his jersey.

“I wouldn’t be the player I am if I dwelt on the negative,” he said.

The year’s probation for illegal gambling in Mississippi, the near fatal injuries in the alcohol-related auto accident of 1991, the broken arm he suffered on opening day of 1992, the Philadelphia magazine account of his alleged rude and obscenity-laced treatment of employees and fellow gamblers during a night he lost $50,000 in Atlantic City have all had impact on his growth and maturity, he said.

And last year it could be measured in terms of motivation.

“I was fed up with people trying to judge me as a person, how I lead my life,” he said. “I wanted to shove it in their face by taking my performance to the next level.”

He did it in remarkable style, but even that was accompanied by dark rumors that refuse to die. Did desire account for the dramatic change in his physical stature? Did weight work in preparation for the 1993 season turn Little Lenny into a semi-hulk, or was it anabolic steroids?

“There always has to be a reason,” Dykstra said. “It’s as if hard work isn’t good enough. Nobody on this team runs more, lifts more, works more than I do, but no, there has to be the false rumors.

“Well, I’ve had so much written and said about me that I don’t pay attention anymore. All I can tell you is that I knew I had to get stronger--physically and mentally--and that it didn’t happen overnight.

“I knew if I wanted to get the focus off my lifestyle and put it where it should be, on the field, I had to be playing every day and I had to be stronger to do it. A 162-game season is an absolute grind. I wanted to be strong enough to finish it off.”

The only game Dykstra sat out in ’93 was the one the day after the Phillies clinched the division title. He batted .374 in July, .269 in August and .319 in September, closing strong.

He batted .280 and scored five runs in the six games of the stunning playoff victory over the Atlanta Braves, and he batted .348 with nine runs, four home runs, eight runs batted in and seven walks in the six-game World Series loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

“There’s no way we should have lost,” Dykstra said. “I can’t take anything away from Toronto, but we had them beat in Game 4 and Game 6 and our pitching couldn’t hold them. We should be world champions, but what can you do? I mean, it’s disappointing we didn’t win, but we had a lot of things to be proud of.”

Dykstra, in particular.

His in-your-face season included a major league record 773 plate appearances. He led the league in at-bats, walks, hits and runs, the first time anyone has led a league in each of those categories.

The 143 runs were the most in the National League since Chuck Klein scored 152 for the Phillies in 1932. The only other major leaguer to lead a league in at-bats and walks, statistics that work against each other, was Burt Shotton of the St. Louis Browns in 1916.

Dykstra batted .305 with 44 doubles, 19 homers and 66 RBIs. He took pitchers deep in the count, exacting a late-inning toll.

Said Phillie Manager Jim Fregosi: “I’ve never seen a hitter have as many quality at-bats as Lenny did last year. He absolutely lit our fire.”

Said Dykstra: “To lead the league in both walks and hits is something anyone would be proud of. It’s as if I got a walk whenever I didn’t get a hit, and a hit whenever I didn’t get a walk, but I was proudest of my consistency.”

Dykstra finished second to Barry Bonds in the most-valuable-player voting and said there was no disgrace in that. He said that the San Francisco left fielder is the game’s best player and had another spectacular season, adding, “But I’m not afraid to say I was a big part of the Phillies going from last to first.

“I put up some numbers nobody had before, and Bonds had that drought in September when they needed him the most. You could point to that and say that’s why they lost, why they sat home and watched us in the playoffs and World Series.”

The expectations mount, and Dykstra said he welcomes the pressure. Can he repeat?

“Like I said, I did some things last year nobody has ever done before, but I’ll have to find a way again. The key is that I have to do whatever it takes for us to win.

“We have the Braves in our division now and we could be without (John Kruk) until June (as he undergoes radiation after surgery for testicular cancer). It’s going to be tougher. For us to win again, my job is even more vital.”

Isn’t that the way a superstar should think, dude?