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       SARASOTA, Fla. -- Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn were taking batting practice on one of the back fields at the Ed Smith Stadium complex one day this spring.

        To break up the routine, a friendly wager was put on the proceedings: He who hits the fewest home runs buys dinner. Dunn was burying Griffey early. Then came the last round, and Griffey kicked in. He sent one towering shot after another beyond the right-field fence -- way beyond, so far beyond, in fact, that he had a group of spectators, standing maybe 50 feet behind the fence, scrambling.

        ''That's a veteran,'' Griffey said. ''You've got to throw a little bait out there every so often. You throw a hook with no bait on it, the fish aren't going to bite. Let him get ahead, while you get in your rhythm, then take it from him.''

        Reds fans would like nothing better than for the competition to continue into the season. Griffey one-upping Dunn's home run totals can't be a bad thing for the Reds.

        Since the day Dunn arrived at Cinergy Field, Reds general manager Jim Bowden has been saying his two sluggers have the potential to hit between 50 and 60 home runs each.

        The Reds are marketing this as the last season of Riverfront Stadium/Cinergy Field. A better theme: Griffey & Dunn: The First Full Year.

        Having two such sluggers in the lineup is very rare in baseball, even in the 70-home runs era. How rare?

        ''Ask Casey Stengel what it's like,'' Reds manager Bob Boone said. ''He had Maris and Mantle.''

        New York Yankee greats Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle hold the record for most home runs by teammates. They combined for 115 in 1961 -- the year Maris broke Babe Ruth's record with 61. Barry Bonds and Rich Aurilia set the National League record of 110 last year when Bonds hit 73 and Aurilia 37.

        With Griffey and Dunn, it's all speculation -- at least the Dunn half of the equation. Griffey has hit 56 twice. With 40 this year, he'll become the youngest player ever to reach 500.

        ''If I'm healthy, the rest will take care of itself,'' Griffey said.

        ''We know how great Griffey is,'' Boone said. ''We don't know how great Dunn is. We certainly can surmise, and hopefully it all comes true for us. I think it will. When? I don't know.''

        Dunn hit 51 homers last year in the minors and majors combined. But, despite all he did last year, he still is a major-league neophyte. He has only 19 career major-league home runs.

        But he's carrying 19 tons of expectations.

        ''I think there's a lot of potential there for good numbers,'' Dunn said. ''Then, again, you can say we're going to hit 100 home runs combined all you want. But you have to go out and do it. I'm not making any predictions.

        ''I'll go out there and play. That's why I don't set goals. Whatever happens, happens. It isn't going to happen because I want to make it happen. It's just going to happen.''

        ADDED MOTIVATION?

        Griffey says having another slugger in the lineup isn't what motivates him.

        ''I don't compete with teammates,'' Griffey said.

        That's his story, and he's sticking to it. But in his last 12 years in the big leagues, Griffey has led his team in home runs 10 times. The two he didn't, he spent time on the disabled list.

        His best home run seasons came when teammates were bashing away, too: In 1996, Jay Buhner hit 44, Griffey 49; in 1997, Buhner hit 40, Griffey 56; in '98, Alex Rodriguez hit 42, Griffey 56.

        DIFFERENT PLAYERS, SIMILAR CIRCUMSTANCES

        Griffey and Dunn are very different people and players.

        Griffey is married with two kids; Dunn is a kid at 22 and very single. Griffey is a Cincinnatian transplanted to Florida; Dunn is Texan through and through.

        Griffey is 32 with 13 years in big leagues; Dunn is 22 with 13 weeks in the big leagues.

        Griffey drives a Mercedes coupe; Dunn drives a truck.

        Griffey is shy around strangers; Dunn strikes up conversations on the elevators.

        Griffey is the son of a baseball star; Dunn is the son of a welding company owner.

        Griffey is 6-feet-3 and lean at 205 pounds; Dunn is

        6-feet-6 and bulky at 250 pounds.

        Griffey has won 10 Gold Gloves; Dunn jokes about getting a license plate with E-7 (error, left field) on it.

        Griffey was destined to be a baseball star from the time he was 16; Dunn favored football until he was 20.

        But the two have one thing very much in common: The weight of great expectations.

        Griffey says his were heavier.

        ''It's not even close,'' Griffey said. ''I was in a situation where I was going to save baseball in Seattle. We had established players. I was 19. All the attention was on me. He has a chance to go out and play with other guys who are going to get attention. That makes his job easier. That's great.''

        Dunn isn't expected to save baseball in Cincinnati, but he's expected to be the next Mark McGwire. ESPN's Peter Gammons says 2001 will be remembered as the last year of Mark McGwire and the first year of Adam Dunn.

        Dunn isn't comfortable with that, but he can live with it.

        ''I'd like to sit here and say I don't think about it, but you can't help but think about it,'' Dunn said.

        Dunn says he's never talked to Griffey about the burden of the expectations.

        ''That's probably something I should do,'' Dunn said. ''If anyone would know, it would be him. He seems to handle it OK.''

        Griffey's advice would be: ''All I want Adam to do is go out and have some fun and make the adjustments to the adjustments they're going to make on him. It's not how many home runs hit. If he hits a home run, he hits a home run. I'd rather have a couple of hits than a home run.''

        WITNESS TO HISTORY

        Part of the reason Reds hitting instructor Jim Lefebvre returned to coaching was the chance to work with Dunn. If Dunn turns out to be what people think he'll be, Lefebvre can add him to the list of budding stars he had a hand in developing.

        Lefebvre was Griffey's first manager. He was Mark McGwire's and Jason Giambi's first hitting coach.

        Lefebvre says Dunn is in a class by himself at this stage in his development.

        ''I haven't see anyone like him,'' Lefebvre said. ''He's 6 foot 6, 245, 250. He can run the 40 in 4.5. He has a great eye at home plate. In my opinion, he's much further along than Mark (McGwire) when I had him in Oakland. Mainly because Mark didn't have the discipline this guy has. Over the years, Mark developed that. He became one of the most disciplined players in the game. I think that's one of the real interesting things about Adam.''

        Dunn led the Reds in on-base percentage at .371 last year. But Lefebvre isn't projecting that Dunn will be the next Mark McGwire.

        ''The biggest thing I don't want to do is talk about it too much,'' Lefebvre said. ''That's the last thing a young player needs to hear. They start to worry every at-bat, every game about how many homers they hit.''

        Lefebvre is taking the same approach with Dunn that he took with Griffey: Leave him alone.

        ''The one thing I told my coaches with Junior is we're going to let him play,'' Lefebvre said. ''Let him get his feet on the ground. We're not going to overcoach him. If he wants advice, he'll come to us. Let him get his at-bats. Let's go from there.''

        Lefebvre says Dunn and Griffey, both left-handed hitters, can help each other.

        ''I think they can really help one another by talking,'' he said. ''How do you approach hitting? Up here, it's not so much about changing your swing. It's how you approach different situations and how to get it done. That's why it's really good to have similar type of styles together.''

        Griffey's theory has always been to worry about getting hits and let the home runs come. Griffey, despite the 460 home runs and four American League home run titles, will tell you with a straight face that he's not a home run hitter. Lefebvre will encourage Dunn to take a similar approach because he's seen it work.

        ''I'll tell you a good example of that,'' Lefebvre said. ''In Oakland, we had a young player, a left-handed hitter. My theory has always been: Be a good hitter first. The other things will come. He worked his way around, learned how to hit, made contact and became a good ballplayer. Then, after a while, he got his strength. That guy is Jason Giambi.

        ''If Adam focuses on becoming a good hitter, he is definitely going to be one of the premier hitters in the game. He's going to learn his trade. I think we should be very patient with him. He has a good idea. He needs to play, play in the big leagues and get at-bats. Figure out what is to be a big-league player.''

        STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

        Griffey is almost exactly 10 years older than Dunn. Griffey was born Nov. 21, 1969; Dunn was born Nov. 9, 1979.

        Griffey, the first player picked in the 1987 draft, got to the big leagues at 19, 2 1Ž2 years earlier than Dunn. Griffey's home run stroke took time to develop. He never hit more than 30 his first four years in the big leagues.

        Still, he was the youngest player to reach 350, 400 and 450 home runs, and he'll likely be the first to 500.

        To have the same number of home runs at age 23 that Griffey had, Dunn would have to hit 68 this year.

        THEY'RE BUDS

        Griffey's and Dunn's lockers, at Cinergy and Ed Smith, are almost next to one another. One of Dmitri Young's problems with Griffey was that Griffey's humor was a little too personal, a little too biting. Dunn doesn't have that problem.

        He gives as good as he gets.

        When the storm of criticism of Griffey from other camps was still blowing, a member of the media created a bogus Web page on which Dennys Reyes ripped Griffey. Dunn saw it and asked that it be changed to make it look like Dunn was doing the ripping. It was, and Dunn proudly showed a printout to Griffey.

        Griffey is constantly getting on Dunn when he gets out of drills. Griffey lit into him when Dunn was used at designated hitter in a game. ''Twenty-two years old, and DH-ing?'' he said.

        Dunn laughed and fired back. He has always treated Griffey as if he were one of his teammates at New Caney High in Texas.

        ''It probably would be different if I hadn't met him before I came up (to the big leagues),'' Dunn said. ''I met him my first big-league spring training. That's when he first got over here with the big hype. My first big-league spring training, you had (Barry) Larkin, you had Griff, you had Deion Sanders. You had a football Hall of Famer and two baseball Hall of Famers. It was unbelievable.

        ''Now, I don't look at him as Junior, the superstar baseball player. I look at him as my buddy. He's a good guy.''

        ONE HOT MONTH

        Griffey and Dunn gave Reds fans a glimpse at what they could do together in August. Both got hot and stayed hot. Dunn ended with 12 homes and 27 RBI for the month; Griffey with 11 home runs and 29 RBI.

        It was the most homers two Reds had ever hit in the same month. Dunn broke Hall of Famer Frank Robinson's Reds and National League rookie records for homers in a month.

        ''That was a lot of fun,'' Dunn said. ''We both swung the bat pretty well in August. That's something where two players get hot at the same time. That's going to be fun to watch.''

        The Reds record for homers by a duo in a season? Ted Kluszewski (47) and Wally Post (40) combined for 87 in 1955. The only other pair to each hit 40 or more in a season was Johnny Bench (45) and Tony Perez (40) in 1970.

        But don't try to get Griffey to talk about it.

        ''I don't set goals,'' he said. ''If I stay healthy and stay consistent, things are going to happen. That's the only thing I wish for. Not only for myself, but for my teammates. I don't say this person is going to do this and that.''

        Dunn just wants Opening Day to get here.

        ''I'm as excited, if not more, this year than when I got called up,'' Dunn said. ''It's one of those things; I'm ready to get going. Once everything starts, everything will calm down and I can go to playing baseball.''

        THE PAYOFF

        The batting practice competitions are real. Griffey lost one earlier this year and paid off with a meal at a Japanese steakhouse. Dunn still owes Griffey from the one in which Junior put on the home run show. It was pointed out that Dunn should get some kind of break. After all, Dunn makes $250,000; Griffey makes $12 million.

        "Yeah, I should,'' Dunn said. ''I'll take him to McDonald's. I'll let him supersize, though.''

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