This second round matchup in the Bankruptcy Discharge regional posts up Thomas Jefferson, the father of American democracy, against Lenny Dykstra, great centerfielder and bankruptcy felon. Despite his unmatched achievements in the public arena, Thomas Jefferson could not control his spending impulse and owed his creditors an estimated One Hundred Thousand Dollars at his death in 1826. Lenny Dykstra mismanaged the millions he earned during his professional baseball career filed bankruptcy and lied about his assets, winding up in federal prison.
Thomas Jefferson won his first round matchup against Walt Disney in a battle of icons, and Lenny Dykstra comfortably outpaced Real Housewife Taylor Armstrong to reach this round.
The panel’s preference for Jefferson allowed him to enjoy a slim margin at the end of the first half, where points are tallied based on fame, debt and the opinion of the panel. However, in the second round fifteen points are up for grabs based on how much of a trainwreck these debtors made of their lives.
The allstar panel could not deny that Dykstra wrecked his life. Lisa Wong summarized his story simply as a famed baseball player who turned into a lying cheat. Jefferson, however, for all his patriotic glory, still found scorn from the panel. Meryl Starr condemned Jefferson for failing to live within his means, and also thought that his plan to sell lottery tickets to pay his debts was just a scheme. Paul Cohen was relieved that Jefferson was just president and not secretary of the treasury.
The panel found that Dykstra edged by Jefferson in this half, but the scoring resulted in a dead heat between the debtors. To break the tie we needed to compute the points to another digit, and Jefferson managed to barely squeak by Dykstra to earn a spot in the third round.