David Dellucci is quite the story-teller.The Cleveland Indians outfielder sat among reporters Saturday morning and explained why he would miss the team's first three Cactus League games.
"Right before I came here on February 1st, I was fishing on the side of my lake, and I heard a little boy screaming. I ran over and an alligator had him by the leg. I jumped on the gator, poked him in the eyes, freed the kid, but he got me in my thumb. I got stitched and had surgery."Dellucci kept a straight face as long as he could and finally let it out.
"Just kidding," he said, smiling.So what really happened to Dellucci's thumb? Nothing quite as exciting as saving a little boy from the jaws of a gator.
The 35-year-old slammed it in a trailer tailgate at home while packing for Spring Training. The stitches should come out on Monday, and he'll be good to go within a week. He threw and took batting practice on Friday without any trouble, so hopefully this isn't the beginning of another sucky, injury-ridden season in Cleveland.
After batting .292 in 2006 with the Philadelphia Philles, the Tribe signed him with high hopes for three years, $11.5 million. A torn hamstring held him to just 56 games in 2007, then he hit just .238 with 11 homers and 47 RBIs last year. Not too impressive. The guy is going to end up on the bench, backing up Ben Francisco and possibly making an occasional start at designated hitter. Maybe he should think about wrestling alligators in his spare time?
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2 comments:
The story about the alligator is true. Here are pics.
http://tasteoflouisiana.wordpress.com/2009/02/22/why-we-believe-baseballs-david-duluccis-alligator-story/
Hey, at least the guy has a sense of humor about it!
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