Strange, but true: Dempster on DL after breaking toe

You can't make up stuff like this, so Ryan Dempster didn't try.

Dempster went on the disabled list Tuesday and could be out three weeks to a month with a broken right big toe.

"I'd like to have some nice, gratifying story of how I broke up a double play or something, saved a game," Dempster said. "But unfortunately, I didn't. I wasn't about to make up some story about what happened because somebody would end up finding a video or finding out somehow."

What happened, according to Dempster, was that he hurt the toe hopping over the dugout railing Sunday as the Cubs were celebrating their 8-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.

Dempster was scratched from Tuesday night's start against the Braves after X-rays revealed the non-displaced fracture.

"Sunday after the game, I was coming out of the dugout and was stepping over the top of the railing just sitting up on the ledge," he said. "I caught my left foot on the rail as it was coming over and just spun me around and slammed me into the ground.

"When I did it, I thought I just ripped my nail back from my foot. Unfortunately, the result wasn't very funny. If you ask Derrek Lee, he thought it was pretty funny because the first person when I looked up I saw was D-Lee, and he was laughing because I'm sure it looked hysterical from his angle. The unfortunate part was my foot, I guess, the way it hit came down straight on the ground."

Dempster said he hoped to miss Tuesday's and this coming Sunday's starts, along with just 1 after the all-star break. However, manager Lou Piniella said the injury was likely more long term. Piniella did not use the term "Cubbie occurrence," to describe this latest mishap, but it certainly applies.

"We were healthy for a day," Piniella said, one day after the Cubs got three players off the DL. "Actually, Dempster's sick about this, and so am I. It's something you never expect to happen. Just a freak thing."

Dempster said he'd have the toe X-rayed again before the team goes to Washington right after the break.

The 32-year-old right-hander is 5-5 with a 4.09 ERA. He wrested the title of staff ace away from Zambrano last year by going 17-6 with a 2.96 ERA.

"It's got a chance to heal pretty quick, and I'll just drink some Incredible Hulk juice and hope to be back," he said. "You never want to do anything like this. It's a weird thing. Three days before that, I took a ball off the shin, kick-saved one to myself, and I took a ball in the face in batting practice off the cage. I was just fine. Then something like this happens, and I have to put myself on the DL."