CLEVELAND — As far as debuts go, David Dellucci’s Cleveland Indians one was as disastrous as they come.
Joining the organization last year as the team’s most high-profile free-agent acquisition, the 34-year-old outfielder played in just 53 games before sustaining a hamstring injury that all but ended his season in June.
The injury, a torn left hamstring that required surgery, sapped any chance of Dellucci emerging from a slow start that saw him batting just .234 with four home runs and 20 RBIs. And, according to him, showing his new team and fans the real player he is.
“I didn’t have a chance to get in a rhythm,” said Dellucci, who was one of a handful of Indians at Progressive Field on Monday to kick off the team’s annual press tour, which makes a Lorain County stop Thursday at German’s Villa in Vermilion. “I started to swing the bat better before I got hurt, that’s fact. But I’m a much better player than I showed last year.
“I think (Indians fans) realize I’m a hard-nosed player.”
Dellucci admits that the take-no-prisoners approach he’s employed for much of his nine-year career might have led to the injury, which he sustained while trying to leg out a hit on a groundball. He also thinks his rush to get back, which led to a setback, prevented him from returning for the Indians’ postseason run. He was left off the playoff roster after playing in three September games.
“That’s what got me to this level. It’s hard to change,” Dellucci said. “But sometimes you have to let your body heal. Maybe if I would have taken that approach after surgery, I would have been able to come back quicker.
“As you get older, you’ve got to take care of your body more.”
Dellucci stuck around for his teammates’ postseason run, rehabbing the injury in Cleveland and traveling to New York and Boston for the Division Series and ALCS. Though he wasn’t on the field, he felt the pain from squandering a 3-1 series lead to the Red Sox.
“I think that we saw the finish line and we had our hands reaching for the World Series and we fell short,” Dellucci said. “I think partly because this was a young team, it affected us negatively instead of positively.
“But we’ve got that under our belt. If we get back this year, it won’t be that much of a distraction. We know we’ve been there. We put too much pressure on ourselves (last year).”
With the Indians not expected to re-sign Kenny Lofton, Dellucci will most likely return to the left-field platoon that was used at the beginning of last season – Dellucci playing against right-handed pitching while Jason Michaels is in the lineup against lefties.
Dellucci continues to rehab the hamstring injury this winter and predicts a return to baseball activities in spring training in February — though he has been hitting at cages in his hometown of Baton Rouge, La.
Dellucci, an avid LSU fan, was at the BCS National Championship Game in New Orleans and watched his Tigers beat Ohio State 38-24. 
“I received a number of calls and text messages in the first quarter (from Ohio State fans),” Dellucci said. “Then, surprisingly, no one would answer their phone in the second quarter.
“It was the two most deserving teams playing for the national championship. It was a great game with a better result for those from the South than those from the North.”
TV time
The Indians have finalized their 2008 television schedule, with SportsTime Ohio and WKYC Channel 3 teaming to air 153 regular-season games. Fox (Channel will televise eight games, which means just one — April 5 at Oakland — will not be shown locally.
STO, which will televise 133 regular-season games, will also air eight spring training games, beginning March 5 vs. Atlanta. WKYC will televise the home opener against the White Sox on March 31.
All games on STO and WKYC will be available in high definition.
Going fast
Single-game tickets go on sale March 1, with the Indians already experiencing a 21 percent hike in season-ticket sales, which have eclipsed last year’s total. The home opener sold out in just more than three hours.
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.

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