Adam Dunn is more disappointed than bitter when he calls this White Sox season “another wasted season.”
“I could care less what happens if you don’t make the playoffs, and we’re in the same boat as we were last year,” he said Monday. “And the year before and the year before and the year before. So that’s how I feel.”
Dunn, who has a year remaining on his contract, has had “a streaky season,” manager Robin Ventura said. But he doesn’t blame him for how he feels–nor does he blame him for the Sox poor showing this season.
“Where he’s coming from as a player, at the end of the year when you go home, that’s what you feel like,’ Ventura said. “So I totally understand what he’s trying to say.
“That’s just being a pro,” Ventura added of Dunn’s self-criticism. “I think everybody can say that and everybody should be able to say that.”
Dunn entered Monday’s game hitting only .219 but with a team-leading 31 home runs and 82 RBI. He was last season’s comeback player of the year for his 41 home runs and 96 RBI a year after hitting only 11 homers and 42 RBI.
In 13 major league seasons, Dunn has not played in the post-season–a goal that continues to motivate him.
“I wouldn’t be playing if I didn’t [want to],” he said. “That’s what my goal is, and I think that’s what everyone’s should be. It doesn’t matter what you do, if you don’t put yourself in a position to win a ring, then you’ve got to look forward and go get them next year.”
Dunn said a season like this becomes “more of a character test.”
“It’s been a long, tough season. It would be really easy to go out there and hit a ground ball and not run it out and things like that. But now is the time where you might put 112 percent into it as opposed to 110. Anybody can do that stuff when you’re winning. But when you’re having years liek this, I think that shows a lot about your character.”
