Ray Didinger to Lenny Dykstra on WIP: Where’s the money you owe me?

"Lenny, the way this thing works is somebody asks you to write a story for a fee, and you write the story, you expect to get the money," Didinger said on WIP.

In a bizarre call into 94.1 WIP on Thursday, former Phillies outfielder Lenny Dykstra (left) was confronted about money he allegedly owes to NBC Sports Philadelphia analyst and WIP host Ray Didinger.Read moreYong Kim, Staff Photographer / NBC Sports Philadelphia

by Rob Tornoe

Published Dec. 5, 2019, 10:57 a.m. ET

94.1 WIP host and NBC Sports Philadelphia analyst Ray Didinger has a simple question for former Phillies outfielder Lenny Dykstra: Where’s my money?

Dykstra, whose post-baseball career has been highlighted by a stint in prison and allegations of sexual harassment, randomly called into WIP Thursday morning after his name was mentioned among other professional athletes who have played in both New York City and Philadelphia.

But Dykstra was quickly confronted by morning show host Angelo Cataldi, who berated the former Phillies great as a “con man” and claimed he was living in The Twilight Zone.

“I’m embarrassed about the way you’ve performed your life since you left baseball,” Cataldi said. “I’m embarrassed for you and what you represented in this city.”

Dykstra ultimately hung up, but called back into the show after Didinger claimed he was owed $7,000 for stories he wrote for Dykstra’s now-defunct magazine, Players Club. Here’s part of the back and forth:

Didinger: For your magazine, you asked me to write two football stories. And I wrote them, and they appeared in your magazine. “I was promised $7,000, and I’ve never seen the money?

Dykstra: Wasn’t promised by me. Do you have a signed document?

Didinger: Lenny, the way this thing works is somebody asks you to write a story for a fee, and you write the story, you expect to get the money. That’s how it normally works.

Dykstra: Right, so this is word of mouth, huh? What… did rocks fall out of the sky and hit me in the head?

Didinger: Sounds like it.

Ultimately, Cataldi cut off the conversation to once again criticize Dykstra before hanging up on him.

“Lenny, you’re an embarrassment to this city,” Cataldi said. “You’re embarrassing yourself and you’re embarrassing us. We loved you as a player. It’s sad what’s happened to you. Get help.”

Didinger isn’t the only person who has claimed Dykstra held out payment for work on the magazine. As the New York Post reported back in 2008, Getty Images suspended business with Dykstra after being owed $40,000. And former editor Chris Frankie resigned over claims he was owed three months’ back pay.

“When I met him, he did seem pretty desperate,” Loren Feldman, the former editor of Philadelphia magazine who flirted with editing Dykstra’s magazine, told The Inquirer in 2010. “He was trying very hard to keep his magazine going and he was willing to do some crazy things to try to raise money.”

Photographer Kevin Coughlin detailed what it was like working for Dykstra in a 2009 piece for GQ titled, “You Think Your Job Sucks? Try Working for Lenny Dykstra,” claiming he was conned into paying $18,000 out of his own pocket for Dykstra’s private flights:

At about 3:30 p.m. on the Saturday before Labor Day, I receive a call from Lenny. Speaking in a voice even more slurred than usual, he says: “Hey, bro, a guy from this jet company is going to call you in a few minutes and ask for your credit card.”

“What the hell for, Lenny?”

“He’s not going to charge your card, bro. It’s just an authorization on it so I can reserve a private jet to get me to Atlanta, where I’m going to pick up half a million dollars in cash.”