A HEAVY METAL HITTER
David Dellucci: Diamondbacks' "hitting machine"
By GLENN GUILBEAU
Advocate sportswriter
 Advocate staff photo by Bill Feig Former Catholic High and Ole Miss standout |
HOUSTON - Before Arizona Diamondback David Dellucci made an ESPN breakdown segment, which he did Thursday night and again Friday morning for his torrid hitting, he made MTV News.
But that was for an error, perhaps the most regrettable in the budding career of the 25-year old former Ole Miss outfielder from Baton Rouge - Catholic High School. Dellucci, who leads the Diamondbacks with a .394 batting average and is 9 for 17after starting every game since Sunday because of injuries, made the miscue as a rookie last summer at his home Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix. |
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Heavy metal musician David Mustaine, the lead guitarist for Dellucci's favorite group, Megadeth, and unbeknownst to Dellucci a Phoenix native, was sitting in the right field foul area when Dellucci fielded a foul ball there and - trying to be cool - flipped it to Mustaine.
Unfortunately, the foul ball truly was. It reportedly hit a beverage Mustaine had in hand and soaked the hard rock star. "That night I'm watching MTV at about two in the morning and they're talking about it," Dellucci said after going 2 for 5 in the D'back's 7 to 4 victory at the Astrodome Wednesday night. "I never actually saw what happened but MTV was saying I doused him with beer. So I was real worried." Mustaine, though, was asked by area reporters about what happened and revealed his favorite D'back was Dellucci, who led the National League in triples in 1998 with 12 even though he wasn't a regular. "I called him, and he wasn't upset at all," Dellucci said. "He told me I didn't spill anything on him. He said all I hit was his son's Hot Wheel cars. I don't know if that's what happened because I never saw it. He might've just been trying to be nice. I don't know." Dellucci and Mustaine are good friends now, but just about everyone else in Major League Baseball has been ducking Dellucci of late. "He just rakes the ball," said Arizona team-mate Luis Gonzalez, who has batted behind Dellucci in the No.3 hole the last four games going into Arizona's home game with Los Angeles Friday. "I mean, he just rakes it." Gonzalez, who had a 3O game hitting streak this season and a 23 game streak in 1997, knows hitting and knows Dellucci. "He's another one of those Louisiana kids," said Gonzalez, who played at South Alabama. "Last year he played a lot. This year it's been tough on him because he hasn't played as much because he kinda got squeezed out by some veterans but he's done a great job. Now he's getting the opportunity to play." Arizona, trying to add some age to its team after a last place finish in the National League West in 1998, signed veteran outfielders like Gonzalez and San Diego Padre star Steve Finley last off-season. "He could go to a lot of places and play every day," Gonzalez said. "Whenever trade talks come up (with the trading deadline on July 31) his name comes up because a lot of people know about him. It seems like every time he does play he gets two or three hits." Gonzalez is not exaggerating. Dellucci went 1 for 3 Monday, 3 for 5 Tuesday, 2 for 5 Wednesday and 3 for 4 Thursday in Arizona's 2 to 1 win over Houston. "He's been getting an opportunity to play lately for three reasons," said Arizona manager Buck Showalter. "No.1 we've got to use the DH because we've been playing American League teams. No.2 we've had injuries. And No.3 he's been playing real well. We're always looking for a chance to get him in the lineup. He's had about 100 at-bats this year (after 416 last year when he hit .260), and he's done well. We felt like David was a keeper last year and that's why he's still here." |  Advocate staff photo by Bill Feig Arizona right fielder David Dellucci runs the ball in after catching a fly ball at the warning track in the Astros 2 -1 loss to Arizona. |
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Dellucci has 43 hits in 109 at bats this year with seven doubles and 15 RBI's. As a starter, ESPN says, Dellucci is 33 for 68 for a .485 average.
"This guy's a hitting machine," Astros announcer Milo Hamilton said admiringly Thursday night during the game. "And he wasn't even supposed to play much this season," color man Alan Ashby added. "I accept my role whatever it is," said Dellucci, who also has 10 hits in 36 pinch-hitting appearances (.277) with six RBIs. "Early in the year I was just pinch-hitting and I took it as an opportunity to help my career down the road. If you're known as a good pinch-hitter, you're valuable and they'll slip you in there whenever they can to give somebody a break. Then lately, the next thing I knew I'm in the lineup more. The hardest part is coming to the ballpark and not knowing if your name will be on the lineup. Last year, I knew every day I'd be in the lineup." Dellucci, however, does not want to be traded for guaranteed every day player status. He wants to be part of the bright future of the Diamondbacks, who are contending for the National League West title this season. "This is one of the top organizations in baseball," he said. "We have the best facilities, great fans, a great stadium and some real characters on this team. This is where I want to be. I want to be part of the future here. I'll be disappointed if I get traded." Dellucci, a music buff, also prefers the lifestyle to that of Oxford, Miss., where he led the SEC in hitting in 1995 and set 10 Rebel records. "I don't think anybody from Mississippi even knows who Megadeth is," he laughed. "I started listening to them back then and I didn't even know they were from Phoenix until after I was up here. I just love the rhythms. They're really not as heavy metal as the name sounds." Dellucci is also a neighbor of Stevie Nicks and has made friends with Alice Cooper, an original heavy metal rock star who also lives in Phoenix. Cooper has invited Dellucci to the grand opening of his new nightclub called "Cooper's Town." "This is a great place to live," Dellucci said. "I really love it. You just go to the movies around here and you might see some superstar. And they all follow the team. Alice Cooper is a huge fan. But my home will always be in Baton Rouge. I love going down to Grand Isle to fish or to False River and Old River." "I hate that I miss the Tarpon Rodeo every year. That kills me." Dellucci said he would have loved to play baseball for LSU but he was only offered a chance to walk on with books. "Or it was walk on and earn books, I can't remember which," he said. "Ole Miss offered a complete scholarship" Before that, though, a baseball scout changed Deilucci's mind about his future. Dellucci, a 10th round pick by Baltimore in 1995 and ninth round pick by Arizona in the 1997 expansion draft, always wanted to be a football player and played defensive back at Catholic, making the most of his 5 foot 10, 165 pound frame and getting scholarship offers from Northeast and Northwestern State. But while a senior at Catholic in 1992, a local major league scout asked him a question about football: "Do you want to walk when you're 40 years old?" "After that, I was all baseball," Dellucci said. "I knew I made the right decision a few months later at Ole Miss, when I saw all those monsters in the athletic dorm." |
News article as it appeared in the Baton Rouge "Advocate" Saturday, July, 24, 1999
Wrist Condition May End Dellucci Career
By BOB BAUM
AP Sportswriter
PHOENIX - David Dellucci, the promising young outfielder for the Arizona Diamondbacks will undergo surgery on his left wrist this week to repair a rare, serious condition that threatens his career.
Even with the operation to shorten the radius bone in his forearm, tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, there is no certainty that Dellucci will be able to play professional baseball again.
"This is a very serious condition. This is not a minor problem," said Dr. Don Sheridan, an orthopedic wrist and hand surgeon who will perform the operation. "It's also one that is not easily fixable or 100 per-cent fixable. I think David has got about a 70 percent chance of having a good result."
His condition is a form of vascular necrosis similar to the hip disorder that ended Bo Jackson's football career and a condition that may be the cause of NFL running back Garrison Hearst's ankle ailment.
In the wrist, the condition is known as Kienbock's disease. If not corrected, it would result in the bone in Dellucci's left hand slowly dying and "turning to rubble," Sheridan said.
The condition, which Sheridan classified as an injury, was caused by the length of Dellucci's left radius bone combined with the repeated jarring that comes with playing baseball, especially at the high-octane intensity level that is Dellucci's trademark.
Dellucci, who was batting .394 in limited duty, had worked his way into the starting lineup in recent weeks. He was 16 for 32 in his last nine games.
Dellucci said Sunday that he did not announce he would have the surgery until he had a chance to talk to his family late Saturday night.
"I'm scared that there's a chance this may fail, but I can't look at it that way," he said. "I've been over-coming odds all my life to get here. This is just another bump in the road to get over."
Dellucci said the wrist has been bothering him for a long time but the pain had become unbearable the last few weeks.
"If I keep playing with it the way it is, my bone would pretty much disintegrate in my hand," he said. "The best thing to do is get surgery, and the sooner the better. I've never had a broken bone. I've never had any trouble whatsoever. This is just a case where one bone is longer than the other, and every time I take a shot to this hand, nothing is there to brace it. It's a serious operation, and it's something I have to do to keep playing."
The repeated jarring of the radius bone has damaged one of the many small, dice-sized wrist bones known as the lunate, Sheridan said. That, in turn, has cut off much of the blood supply to the hand.
"If David continues to play, he is at high risk and is almost certain to sustain irreversible damage such that it would be career ending", Sheridan said.
Dellucci's penchant for constant hustle, diving for balls in the outfield and sliding head-first on the base paths "probably contributed" to the problem, the doctor said.
Sheridan planned to shorten the radius bone by 3 or 4 millimeters to more evenly distribute the force across Dellucci's wrist.
If the surgery is successful and the recovery goes well, Dellucci would be ready for spring training next year.
"I think if anybody has the ability to come back from an injury like this, it would be somebody like David," Sheridan said. "He's young, is in extremely good physical condition and he's demonstrated that he has the desire and motivation."
But would he be able to play with his previous fervor?
"Depending on how it turns out, hopefully it will be a good wrist for him that won't interfere with his ability to play," Sheridan said. But I probably will hold my breath every time I see him dive for a ball."
To replace Dellucci on the roster, the Diamondbacks called up first baseman Erubiel Durazo, who was the top hitter in the minor leagues this year with better than a .400 average at both Class Double A El Paso and Triple A Tucson.
News article as it appeared in the Baton Rouge "Advocate" Monday, July, 26, 1999
Dellucci's Wrist Surgery Goes Well
by The ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHOENIX --- ArizonaDiamondbacks outfielder David Dellucci, Baton Rouge native, underwent surgery Tuesday to repair a damaged bone in his left wrist, a condition that threatens his career.
"Everything went extremely well," said Dr. Don Sheridan, who performed the 2½ hour operation. "The technical aspects of the operation couldn't have gone better."
Sheridan removed 3 to 4 millimeters of the radius bone in Dellucci's left forearm.
He also leveled the wrist joint to even out the pressure all along his wrist.
Dellucci had a condition known as Kienbock's disease. Because the radius bone was longer than the ulna bone in his forearm, there was undue pressure on one of the small dice-sized bones in his wrist called the lunate.
With each blow to the wrist, Dellucci was losing more circulation in his hand. Without the surgery, the bone in his hand would have disintegrated and his career certainly would be over, Sheridan said. With the surgery, Sheridan has predicted about a 70 percent chance that Dellucci will be able to play professional baseball again.
In about two weeks, the wrist will be put in a cast that will remain in place for about two months. Dellucci hopes to be ready to participate in spring training.
Dellucci's parents, grandmother and some close friends were at the hospital when the surgery was performed.
News article as it appeared in the Baton Rouge "Advocate" Wednesday, July, 28, 1999
UNOFFICIAL UPDATE ! ! !
January 1, 2000
David Dellucci's surgery to shorten the length of the radius (a bone in his left forearm) by 3 to 4 milimeters went well. The purpose of this surgery was to lessen the pressure on the bone in his left wrist called the lunate. David's high intensity level of play was compromising the blood circulation to this particular wrist bone and it was begining to show damage.
The bone in his left forearm is mending. He has undergone consistent and gradual rehabilitation after the surgery. He has been called back by the Arizona Diamondbacks to attend training camp which is scheduled to start in February 2000. He is returning to Phoenix in January, a month early, to continue rehabilitation and gradually work up to his usual level of play in preparation of training camp and the upcoming season.
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