DURHAM, N.C. — One arrives here convinced phenom Adam Dunn should be called up to the Reds, and one leaves here convinced he should stay in Triple-A until major-league rosters are expanded Sept. 1. Not because he isn't ready for the majors. He is.

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        But the kid is only 21, has played only two full seasons of baseball above the high school level (where baseball was never his No.1 sport), and is having the time of his life with the Louisville RiverBats. Where does it say he has to be called up to Cincinnati now and be spotlighted as the savior of a team having arguably the most moribund season in franchise history?

        “I'm in no hurry,” Dunn said. “I don't have a timetable. It's out of my control (as to) when I get called up. I'm not going out there saying, "Man, I'd better go 4-for-4 today or they aren't going to call me up.'”

        Just because Dunn isn't lobbying for a call-up doesn't mean he wouldn't welcome it.

        “The main reason everybody plays the game (professionally) is to get to the big leagues,” he said. “When you're on JV, you want to be on varsity.
        You always want to be on the highest level.”

        After one night of watching Dunn here, and another in Charlotte, it's obvious the kid has great ability — and not just in the batter's box, where he has a quick bat, good eye and a beautiful swing. (He's left-handed.) He went first to third on a groundout to third and beat out an infield hit to shortstop. In Charlotte, he threw out a runner at home on a no-bounce throw from left field that helped Jose Rijo survive a rocky third inning.

        “He's a great-looking player,” Rijo said. “He's ready for the big leagues right now.”

        In 91 games (Double-A Chattanooga/Louisville), Dunn is hitting .327 with 30 homers and 81 RBI.

        “If the game's on the line, I never get nervous at the plate,” Dunn said. “I don't know if that's good or bad. Maybe it comes from playing quarterback (at the University of Texas). I learned that if you're jacked up at quarterback, you're not going to be able to do the things you need to do.”

        Dunn believes there is less chance of getting hurt if he collides with the catcher rather than slide into him. (This may have something to do with the fact Dunn is 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds.) One thing he would never do is tiptoe in to try to avoid injury. He likes dishing it out.

        “I thought I might get to do it (collide with the catcher in scoring a run against Durham),” Dunn said. “My first instinct isn't to slide — it's to lay out the catcher. If I was 5-foot-5, I'd probably change my approach a little bit.”

        Two months ago, Reds general manager Jim Bowden told The Enquirer that Dunn needed to work on his defense and baseball instincts. Dunn has made great strides.

        “I basically played only the one full year of baseball in high school, 30-something games,” Dunn said. “Most guys played summer baseball, but I was getting ready for football. Really, I haven't played hardly any baseball.”

        Until his first season of pro baseball in 1998, he had never played the outfield.

        “I'd always played infield and pitched,” Dunn said. “People don't realize how hard it is to judge a ball. It's tough going back on a fly ball. When I first started, I really didn't want a fly ball hit to me. Now if it's hit to me, fine, the guy's out. I've gotten a thousand times better. I'm no Gold Glover yet, but I plan to be.”

        He gets his best thrills on D.

        “If you hit a home run, people say, "That's what he's supposed to do,'” Dunn said. “But if you make a good defensive play, even one of the so-called "little things' — cut off a ball hit in the gap, hold the guy to a single, and then your pitcher throws a double-play ball — you're doing something right.”

        He has improved considerably his tendency to drift on fly balls; now, he gets to the spot quickly, said Louisville manager Dave Miley. Dunn has also gotten good at handling the ball hit down the line. But he's still learning. Is the majors any place for a player who isn't yet as good as he can be defensively? Shouldn't Dunn finish his refinement in Triple-A?

        “If we were talking about a different 21-year-old, or a different player, I'd have a tendency to agree,” Miley said. “But this guy, I believe, can handle anything that's thrown at him.

        “I'm not saying that if Adam went to the big leagues tomorrow that success would be there automatically. All I can say is that when he's called up, my money is on Adam to be able to handle it. He has a lot of confidence. A lot of times in baseball that's more than half the battle.”

        Some of the media and many talk-show callers in Cincinnati are clamoring for Dunn's call-up.

        “I try to stay out of it,” Dunn said. “That's the least thing I worry about right now. I'm just trying to do the best I can here.”

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