Former Mets outfielder-turned-magazine entrepreneur Lenny Dykstra is embroiled in a bitter legal brawl with the publisher of Players Club, a financial advice and lifestyle magazine aimed at affluent pro athletes that Dykstra founded.
The finger-pointing by both Dykstra and the publisher, Doubledown Media, centers on cost overruns at the magazine, as well as charges by Dykstra that Doubledown used his name without permission to launch a newsletter and Web site called The Dykstra Report, which isn’t connected to Players Club.
“He thinks I’m going to buckle,” said Dykstra, referring to Doubledown President Randall Lane. “I don’t buckle – I go to war.”
Lane and his attorneys see it differently.
“Dykstra proved himself to be a mercurial, difficult client whose many idiosyncrasies and demanding personality imposed substantial costs on the planned publication and created excessive burdens for Doubledown,” the company claimed in a court filing. “At the same time, Dykstra began shirking his financial obligations to Doubledown.”
Dykstra, known by the nickname “Nails” when he roamed the outfield for the Mets in the 1980s, hired Doubledown as a custom publisher to handle the layout and distribution for Players Club on a contract basis for his fledgling TPC Operating LLC.
Doubledown claims that Dykstra ran up excessive costs and still owes the publisher more than $587,210. Dykstra claims that Doubledown used his name to start a new venture without his permission and that he has already paid the company $650,000.
The first issue of Players Club came out last month with Yankee superstar Derek Jeter on the cover, but even as they staged a gala launch party at the Mandarin Hotel there were signs of underlying tension.
The magazine circulates to about 25,000 athletes in 10 professional sports in the US and Europe.
Under the original agreement, Dykstra was to pay Doubledown over $1.4 million through August, according to terms of the original contract filed by Doubledown in the court proceedings.
Dykstra has since transferred the business to the custom publishing division of American Express Publishing.
“If you want to fight, take me on. Don’t go behind my back and bad mouth me,” said Dykstra.
Lane, when reached yesterday, said, “If he wants to pay us the money he owes, we’ll let him go on his merry way.” keith.kelly@nypost.com