Saturday, July 21, 2001
Dunn gets instant respect
MIAMI — Adam Dunn was ready, but he wasn't prepared.The Cincinnati Reds' preeminent prospect had done everything possible to earn his promotion, but nothing that showed he expected it.
When The Call came Thursday afternoon — at 1:30 p.m. — Dunn was still dozing. He initially mistook the voice of Louisville manager Dave Miley for that of his mischievous teammate, Brandon Larson.
And when he realized it was for real, he knew he had nearly nothing to wear.
“The first thought that crossed my mind was that I had taken everything I had to the dry cleaners,” Dunn said Friday afternoon. “I had to get some of my stuff back.”
A ballplayer starts dreaming of this day about the time he whacks his first Wiffle ball, but when the big moment arrives he's sometimes found flat-footed. Adam Dunn had not been following the Adam Dunn story closely enough to know how frequently his coming was foretold and how much it was anticipated.
Had he been paying closer attention, Dunn would have kept his suitcase packed and his motor running. He would have been ready to go at the drop of a batting helmet. Yet in order to maintain his perspective through this heady summer, the outsized outfielder has hidden from his hype.
Wants to have good time
“I'm trying not to think too much about things because it might make me nervous,” Dunn said before his first big-league game, a 5-3 loss to Florida. “I'm just trying to have a good time.”
Because he stands 6-foot-6, weighs 240 pounds and swings his bat as if it were a No.2 pencil, Dunn's potential is obvious. What makes his superiors willing to rush the 21-year-old rookie are things that don't immediately meet the eye: Maturity, discernment, patience, equilibrium.
The Reds aren't sure what Dunn will hit, but they are confident he will handle it.
Reds coach Bill Doran first encountered Dunn as a roving instructor in the minor leagues, and was struck by the behemoth's advanced sense of the strike zone.
“Ninety-nine times out of a 100, you want them to be more selective,” Doran said. “He was the 1 per cent. There were times we talked about him being more aggressive.”
True to form, Dunn went to the plate for his first big-league at bat Friday and watched Matt Clement's first pitch called a strike. Then he swung and missed. Then he took a called third strike on the kind of curve ball that separates the big leagues from the bush leagues.
Dunn was 1-for-3 on the night — his first major-league hit was a sharp single to right field in the fourth inning — but his most remarkable moment may have been an intentional walk. With Reds runners at second and third base in the seventh inning, and Dunn at the plate representing the go-ahead run, Marlins manager Tony Perez ordered a base on balls in blatant violation of baseball's “book.”
“Sometimes you've got to go by the book,” Perez said. “But I don't believe that you don't walk the go-ahead run. The reports I got on (Dunn) is he's a good hitter. I don't want to pitch to him.”
Plainly, Dunn's reputation has preceded him. Reds manager Bob Boone visited Louisville Thursday to watch Jose Rijo pitch, and found fans anguished by Dunn's departure.
“He was turning into a legend down there,” Boone said. “They told me, "You're taking Babe Ruth from us.' ”
E-mail tsullivan@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/sullivan.
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SULLIVAN: Dunn gets instant respect
