David Dellucci of the Cleveland Indians will miss the start of Spring Training after cutting his left thumb, an injury that required stitches.

How did Dellucci hurt his thumb? Well, here's his first recounting of the story to reporters.

“Right before I came here on Feb. 1,” Dellucci said dejectedly, “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 (the gator) got me in my thumb. I got stitched and had surgery.”

It's a pretty interesting story, but of course it's not true.

Instead, Dellucci admitted that he cut his thumb on a truck tailgate while moving his things for Spring Training. The injury required surgery to close the cut and reattach the nail to the nailbed, which does not sound fun. He is expected to have the stitches removed in a few days and will be back to full strength soon.

That hasn't stopped him from telling his gator story. While the media now knows the truth, he said that “There are about a dozen guys in this clubhouse who still believe it."

Indians’ Dellucci out with thumb injury [Yahoo!]

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