Todd Zeile, retired Dodgers player, sued over failed real estate project

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Todd Zeile hit 253 home runs during a 16-year baseball career with the Dodgers, Mets, Yankees and eight other teams.

But he struck out when it came to a post-baseball foray into real estate construction financing, a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleged.

Two investors sued Zeile Feb. 18 in an effort to recover $100,000 they had loaned to a real estate developer in 2006 for a massive housing project in Mammoth Lakes, a loan for which Zeile signed a personal guarantee, investors Norman Sloan and Jeffrey Boren alleged in the lawsuit. At the time, Zeile said his net worth was $9.5 million, according to the lawsuit.

Zeile’s attorney, Robert Chapman, said the former big-leaguer did not guarantee the loan and does not owe the two investors anything.

“Mr. Zeile has no business or contractual relationship with these people. That’s the simple fact of it,� Chapman said.

The investors’ attorney, Stephen Z. Boren, declined to comment.

Sloan and Boren were among several investors who loaned $10 million to Mammoth Land Development Group, the lawsuit said.

In 2008, the development company breached the promissory note by failing to make interest and property tax payments, the investors alleged.

Zeile, who had his biggest year in 1997 when he hit 31 home runs and drove in 90 runs while playing third base for the Dodgers, retired from baseball in 2004. The 45-year-old Zeile has pursued a career in acting and movie producing after retirement. His credits include the movies, “Dirty Deeds,� and “I am,� according to the website Imdb.com.

-- Stuart Pfeifer