With full apologies to the Classic Ruins’ Frank Rowe (above) for the headline, it should be stressed that some folks can’t merely sell a $7 million penthouse when they’re skint or close to it. Embattled ex-Mets/Phillies outfielder Lenny Dykstra learned this week that U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Geraldine Mund had rejected his bid to voluntarily dismiss his Chapter 7 case. From Friday’s Wall Street Journal and Patrick Fitzgerald of the Bankruptcy Beat :

In a strongly worded rebuke, Mund criticized Dykstra’s œlitigious attitude and unrealistic hopes and noted, “There are serious issues concerning the truthfulness of some of his statements. For instance, Mund doesn’t believe Dykstra, who is representing himself in his bankruptcy case, is actually writing his own legal papers.

“I write ’em all, dude” , said Dykstra in an interview. “I had to correct her on that. I said Your Honor, people have been telling me all my life, ˜you can’t do this, you can’t do that.’ If I’m not writing them, who the [expletive] is? I AM writing them.”

“Mr. Dykstra has many dreams and high hopes, but these are not always based on reality,” the judge said. She also has her doubts about Dykstra’s repeated claims that he was “sleeping on the street.”

Dykstra admitted he’s not literally on the street and says he’s now living in a high rise on the Wilshire corridor in downtown L.A. He sidestepped questions about how he came by the apartment.

“I just happen to be one of those lucky kind of guys,” said Dykstra “I’m a [expletive] lightning rod for money OK? But that doesn’t change the fact that I was put on the street.”

(thanks to Sam Hunt for the link to the NY TImes’ Real Estate story)