Slugger Dunn bounces back
Slugger atones in big way as White Sox chase division title
White Sox’s all-or-nothing guy atones for awful 2011,
CHICAGO Chicago White Sox slugger Adam Dunn stepped into his suburban Houston garage in December, stared at his bats against the wall and nervously picked one up.
It had been two months since he had picked up a bat, two months of contemplating whether he wanted to swing one again.
“That was so big for me,” Dunn told USA TODAY Sports. “I was worried that if I picked up that bat and it didn’t feel good, I was going to call my agent and tell him, ‘ We need to have a sitdown and re-evaluate my career here. I’m not going to go through another year like that again.’
“I was not going to put all of these people in a predicament. I was going to go home and say, ‘Thank you, I appreciate everything, but I’m done.’ ”
Dunn grabbed his bat, went outside to play a little with his buddy and suddenly discovered the game could be fun again. He called his agent, Brian Peters, that evening and told him he was going to keep playing. He had three years remaining on his fouryear, $56 million contract.
The White Sox are the ones reaping the benefits of his return as a pre-eminent power hitter. He has led them to first place in the American League Central. Dunn on Monday became the second left-handed hitter in team history to hit 40 homers. He hit No. 41 later in that game and has 94 RBI.
His batting average? After Tuesday’s 4-3 loss to the Cleveland Indians, that sits at .209, an unsightly number in almost any context.
But Dunn, 32, one year removed from a nightmare season, knows it can be much worse.
He had one of the worst statistical seasons in baseball history last year, hitting a career-low .159 with 16 doubles, 11 homers and 42 RBI. He was six plate appearances short of qualifying for the lowest batting average ever. He hit .064 (6-for-94) against lefties. The season mercifully ended with him being hitless his last 22 at-bats, homerless in his last 91.
“I want to make up for last year,” Dunn says of a 2011 season in which the White Sox finished 79-83, “because me playing the way I did, it cost us the playoffs. I know it did. There’s no doubt in my mind. If I just have my normal year, we make the playoffs.
“I didn’t care that people were saying, ‘Oh, he’s finished. He’s done. He’s old. He’s this or that.’
“What bothered me the most is that if I just do what I normally do, we make the playoffs, plain and simple.”
In a season Dunn says he “wouldn’t wish on my own worst enemy,” he didn’t complain. He had an appendectomy April 6 and returned a week later.
Even now, he is playing with a torn right side muscle. He missed seven games with the injury but didn’t want his best chance at the postseason to fade while he sat in the trainer’s room.
“I don’t want to ever go through what I did last year, knowing that my team didn’t make the playoffs because of me,” Dunn says.
LOTS OF POSITIVES
This year, Dunn is getting mentioned in better company: Babe Ruth.
Oh, there are plenty of ugly numbers surrounding Dunn, such as:
His major league-leading 210 strikeouts.
His pedestrian .338 on-base percentage.
His mere 47 singles, six more than his home run total.
But there are others that earn Dunn much respect, from the statsbased crowd and from his peers.
Dunn, who has 15 homers off lefties this season after none in 2011, leads the league with 101 walks.
And Dunn could become the first player since Ruth to lead the AL in homers, walks and strikeouts.
He is the first player to have at least 100 walks, 200 strikeouts and 40 homers in a season.
“I don’t care what anyone says, that’s impressive,” Detroit Tigers MVP candidate Miguel Cabrera says. “He’s a power hitter. You want your power hitters to drive in runs and hit homers. That’s what he does.
“What he’s doing this year is impressive.”
It just doesn’t always look so good in the box score, not with that .209 batting average next to your name.
“There are all of these crazy stats out there,” says Ryan Braun, the defending National League MVP. “You literally hear a new advanced stat every day. But at the end of the day, to win games you need to drive in runs and score runs. Those are the two most important statistics.”
Says New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter: “The last time I checked, you beat a team by scoring more runs. That’s what makes him so impressive. I’m not a big numbers guy, but what he’s doing helps his team win games.”
SLUGGING AWAY
Dunn, 6-6, 285 pounds, understands the criticism of his strikeout total. He has struck out at least 164 times in every full season he has played. He is 13 strikeouts shy of Mark Reynolds’ alltime record for a season.
“People don’t think I get mad when I strike out, but I get (mad) at every one,” Dunn says. “I just don’t show it. Don’t get me wrong; there are times when there’s nobody on base and two outs, and I’m trying to hit a homer. It’s better than me at first base with two outs. But I know there are times you need to change your game.”
Dunn, a career .240 hitter, says he could hit for a much higher average if he sacrificed his power.
He hit .260 two years ago with the Washington Nationals, the fourth full season in which he reached that barrier. Yet, for him, the batting average number means nothing more than the number of calories on the back of a beer can.
“I wish the batting average wasn’t in box scores,” he says. “That’s the first thing everybody sees.
“I used to be able to hit a little bit. I was a (.304) hitter in the minors. I don’t know what happened.”
Dunn, one of the most easygoing players in the game, laughs. It really doesn’t matter what his stats say at the end of the year.
If he could lead the league in runs and RBI while helping the White Sox reach the playoffs, that would be his dream season.
“Right now, I’m having one of the best times I’ve ever had,” says Dunn, who has played more regular-season games (1,714) than any other active player not to reach the postseason. “It’s an awesome feeling. We’re winning. We got 25 guys who get along. We have a coaching staff that feels like that I almost handpicked them.
“You know what’s a great feeling ? Just to feel normal again.”