Lenny Dykstra is rookie manager of the Reds' Single-A team in Stockton, Calif. (Jeff Swinger photos) | ZOOM |

        SARASOTA, Fla. — It's the ninth inning and your favorite team trails by two or three runs. A rally requires base runners. The leadoff batter swings viciously and misses the first pitch. Or maybe the count's 2-0.

        Either way, it's dumb baseball.

        Lenny Dykstra intends to teach aspiring Reds smart baseball.

        As the rookie manager of Cincinnati's Single-A Stockton, Calif. affiliate, colorfully named the Mudville Nine, Dykstra wants to show his players the way he played for 12 years.

        “When you think about it, there are only a handful of guys who are that much better than the rest,” said Dykstra, who's helping conduct training-camp workouts. “You have your Griffeys and your Rodriguezes, but the rest are all in the middle — about even. So it's the ones who know how to do the little things, prepare and know how to play the game that break out.”

        That's essentially how Dykstra made himself into one of the National League's top center fielders with the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies, infuriating opponents and enchanting his fans. A bunt single here. A walk there, followed by a stolen base. Maybe a diving catch. Always intense effort.

        “Hard core,” said left fielder Dmitri Young, describing Dykstra. “That guy was awesome. Ultra-aggressive.”

Dykstra feeds the pitching machine. | ZOOM |

        Dykstra, 38, has never managed or coached professionally.

        Having an aura like Dykstra's helps.

        “A coach who didn't play in the big leagues can't tell a prospect anything,” said Young. “A Lenny Dykstra can tell that prospect, "I did this in the big leagues for 15 years.' He'll have that respect factor right there.”

        Said Reds minor-league director Tim Naehring: “Young players love to have people around who they looked up to. It's going to be just another variable we can offer these guys.”

        Being positive is another benefit. Witness Dykstra as he ran bunting drills during a recent workout.

        “Did you bunt much last year?” Dykstra asked outfielder Austin Kearns, Cincinnati's highly regarded outfield prospect.

        No, Kearns replied.

        “Man, you've got good form,” Dykstra said.

        Players such as the 20-year-old Kearns are the ones Dykstra must reach. Asked about Dykstra later, Kearns smiled.

        “I think anybody who watched him loved the way he played,” Kearns said. “He played hard all the time. Whenever a guy like that gives you advice you're definitely going to listen.”

        Prospects can respect Dykstra for his .285 lifetime batting average, his .376 career on-base percentage or the World Series ring he won with the 1986 Mets. But Dykstra's body of work with the Phillies served as his most impressive credential. He played for mostly ordinary Philadelphia teams, with the exception of the 1993 NL champions. Yet the Phillies were 264-230 from 1991-96 with the oft-injured Dykstra in the lineup and 169-243 without him.

        “All these jerseys, everything you see here revolves around one thing: Winning,” Dykstra said as he stared around the empty minor-league clubhouse. “If you don't win, bad stuff happens. Let's face reality. Reality is teaching these guys how to be winners. That's what they pay us for.”

        A handful of other clubs pursued Dykstra as a coach, but his desire to manage and stay close to his home in Thousand Oaks, Calif., led him to the Reds.

        The one-year probation Dykstra received from the commissioner's office in 1990 for gambling — he lost a reported $50,000 playing poker — never hampered his efforts to find a baseball job.

        “He's been through a lot, on and off the field,” Naehring said. “Those are the people you learn the most from.”

        “I don't really want to talk about it. It's been over and done for a long time,” Dykstra said. “It's just part of growing up as a young player.”

        The only negative aspect of Dykstra's past that follows him is the back pain that ended his career. He performs back exercises for about 15 minutes daily, trying to keep himself limber.

        Obviously, Dykstra won't try to duplicate Mike Greenwell's comeback bid.

        “Comeback? I just want to finish 18 holes of golf,” Dykstra said.

        He quickly added, “But you know what? If I had to do it again, I would do it the same way.”

        That's why the Reds hired him.

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