Dateline: Cincinnati
You're watching a game on TV and a routine play is botched.
"Gee I could have made that play," you say as you set down the beer.
The game looks easy on TV.
Blake Dunn has made some phenomenal plays since he arrived from Triple A Louisville on May 4. You look at him and wonder why. He looks like any college kid on a college campus, still, long after he graduated from Western Michigan University.
He does not look like the quintessential, athlete, he is not tall and lean like his teammate, Will Benson but don't let the packaging full you. He is an exceptional athlete. We have proof.
Dunn graduated from Saugatuck (MI) High School, where he accumulated 16 varsity letters in baseball,football, basketball and track-and-field.
He was injured his senior season and did not play baseball or run track which partially explains why he wasn't drafted out of high school by the Major Leagues.
At 5'9" tall, Dunn set school basketball records for single-game scoring record (51) and most career points (1,541). He was a 3-time state champion in the 100-meter hurdles and 300-meter hurdles and holds 6 track records at Saugatuck. Dunn finished his high school football career ranked second in Michigan history with 824 points scored.
All these credentials and he lasted into the 15th round of the 2021.
Earlier this month, he robbed a home run and threw a runner out at home in the same inning, so when the ball came toward him off the bat of Geraldo Perdomo. It looked like the third out of the ninth inning.
The ball had some weird slice to it. It came off the end of the bat and Dunn started back fooled by the full swing that just got enough of the ball. The leftfielder rated one of the fastest runners in the Reds' organization made up the ground. It was thigh high and anyone who has played baseball knows that it was in between putting the glove up or down to make the catch at the height.
It fell off his glove for a critical error. Earlied in the game he appeared to take a bad route on a ball hit by Ketel Marte that ended up being a double.
Dunn had a bad night in a night when the Reds could have broken the game open when they got no runs in an inning, they took three walks to load the bases with one out, it was not the only factor in the loss. It was just the last straw in a critical moment.
He was by his locker to explain the play to his credit. Human nature is to avoid contact after you know what you did hurt the team.
"It doesn't surprise me," Terry Francona said. "I just put my arm around him. He plays hard and does a good job. He's a good kid. He's a stand up kid and he's accountable. He's very hard on himself. That's why I went down there. I was watching him and I didn't want to let him fester."
Dunn was not in the lineup on Saturday (061326).
"That's part of why I went there. I knew he wasn't playing today and I wanted to make sure he didn't think he was in the penalty box. That's not how I feel," Francona said.
"I remember not getting a bunt down," said Francona, who was the son of a Major League player and a top prospect out of high school and college at the University of Arizona. "Dick Williams told me if I couldn't get it down, I could go to Denver (a minor league city at the time.) I was like, 'Thanks man.' It scared the shit out of me. It didn't help a bit."
That is what allows him to pay close attention to the human element because the game looks easy on TV but it is hard.
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