When the Arizona Diamondbacks drafted David Dellucci in the 1998 expansion draft, he assumed it would become the worst move of his career. How could a team in Phoenix play baseball during the summer? He had no idea how well it would turn out.

Dellucci recalls playing in the Arizona Fall League and the excitement from the players during the draft.

"Players used to rush home and turn on the TV set to find out if they had been picked in the expansion draft," Dellucci told Arizona Sports 620's Burns and Gambo.

At the time Dellucci was a prospect for the Baltimore Orioles and had already won over the hometown fans with his athletic plays in the outfield and youthful presence on a club that had just won the AL East the year before.

"I thought the impression that I had made with the Orioles and with my status with the organization, there was no reason to watch or pay attention [to the draft]," said Dellucci. "I remember my roommates yelling and screaming for me to come in and look at the TV set and sure enough I had been picked by the Diamondbacks."

The Orioles had left Dellucci unprotected in the expansion draft, which allowed the D-backs to pick him up with 45th pick.

"It kind of threw me for a loop because as a young player you think you have your place in an organization and all of a sudden you're going to this brand new franchise that you knew nothing about," said Dellucci. "I get a phone call 20 minutes later saying ‘You need to be at the Bank One Ballpark in 45 minutes, you're doing an interview.' I had no idea what was going on."

The only thing Dellucci knew about the new ballpark was that "it looked like a big ol' warehouse." But he soon found out being drafted by this new team would eventually become the best thing that happened to him in his career.

"After stepping foot in the ballpark and meeting some of the coaches, [Brian] Butterfield and Buck Showalter and Jerry Colangelo, I had a very good feeling," said Dellucci. "I knew those guys were in it to win it and I'm happy to say I was on the very first team that almost lost 100 games and was still with them when we won World Series."

Dellucci will be one of the many former players making a return to Chase Field for the first ever D-backs Alumni Game. The game will be four innings and will start after the conclusion of the D-backs-Giants game on September 15.

"I was down there for the reunion and everybody looked great. They looked like we could all still play. There were some guys that went from a 2XL to 5XL," laughed Dellucci, without naming anyone in particular. "I'm just looking forward to seeing everybody put on their uniforms and see how they get around on the field."