No? Great! 'Cause there's yet more to say about them. According to Dunn's hand not a worry in the Cincinnati Post today, the Reds medical staff was shocked to read reports that Mr. Dunn's hand was still causing him pain. They frantically called around to check in on their slugger. He's not in pain, he told them. That medical advice about wearing a splint that he so casually dismissed? It was just his buddy who happens to be an orthopedist. Dunn couldn't be reached for further comment.

It's a lot of crap, so I'm going to cut through the baloney for you and give you my interpretation. Get ready for some truth.

Friday at the Dayton Agonis Club meeting, some guy was being kind of a jerk and ragging on Dunn for being a lazy ox. Jerry Narron knows Dunn's not as much of a slacker as he looks like in those baggy pajama pants he wears, and so uses the broken hand bit to prove a point about what a trooper he is.

Meanwhile, Hal McCoy sniffs a bit of a scandal and gets Dunn on the horn. “Heard you're so tough you can play with a broken hand,” he says, awe in his voice.

“Yeah, it hurts a might,” Dunn says in a cowboy drawl. “Doc told me to take care of it, but splints is for women-folk.”

The story breaks and all of Cincinnati fandom shrieks, “those hands are worth $8 million!” The Reds, in a bit of a panic, say real quick that Dunn's fine, always has been fine, and come off looking just a skosh desperate to cover up a big story.

But it's not a big story. The hand was probably broken and is mostly healed now, and there's not much more you could do about it anyway. It probably aches a little and will cause him fits during thunderstorms when he's 65, but in the short term that tiny little ache will be drowned out by the third day of spring training.

Meanwhile, Narron's keeping his mouth shut and Dunn's turned off his phone because they didn't think they said anything wrong to begin with and they don't want to make it worse.

Sound about right? OK, then let's forget about it already. There's much more important stuff going on anyway. Austin Kearns got married.

Late last night I referenced a story in the Dayton Daily News that described a couple alleged hand injuries suffered by Dunn last season that he kept quiet.

Today, however, Marc Lancaster reports:

You've seen the published report today that says Adam Dunn broke his right hand twice last year and it is still bothering him.

According to the Reds, there are currently no problems with the hand and any suggestion otherwise is “100 percent not true.” They say Dunn is fine and has been fine.

I'm mystified. If the team statement means that they believe that the incidents described in the story didn't really break Dunn's hand, that's one thing. Narron employed a small bit of exaggeration to defend one of his guys and it got blown out of proportion in the media. No big deal.

On the other hand, if the team meant that Dunn was never hit in the hand and that Hal McCoy made all this up, that's another situation entirely. McCoy included some specific and verifiable details; unless he is delusional, there is some basis in reality for this story. And to deny it, especially when a bum hand would work in the Reds' favor in an arbitration case, could imply that the team has a deal in the works for Dunn.

All conjecture, of course. Nevertheless, I'll be very anxious to read the clarification of what the Reds mean when they say that Dunn “is fine and has been fine.”

A couple stories came through about Adam Dunn today. This one, via Marc Lancaster's blog, describes how Dunn was honored tonight at the Hilton Americas-Houston for the 21st annual Houston Baseball Dinner. He was recognized as the area's Major League Player of the Year.

In this story in the Dayton Daily News, we learn that Dunn actually played much of last season with a broken right hand.

“Yeah, I had it checked this week and the doctor said I should put a splint on it, but the heck with that,” said Dunn.

Hear hear, I say! To heck with that! Who needs healthy, pain-free hands? And it makes total sense to refuse treatment now during the offseason, too. After all, next year he could be in the running for the Area's Baddest Ass Award. Sure, he might take home the trophy just by virtue of being a home-run machine, but also enduring a healthy dose of agony while he does it sure couldn't hurt.

Well, except for the agony part.

I know it's stunningly late for me to only just now be acknowledging my binky's big accomplishments, but I figure it's never too late to give it up for The Latin Love Machine, Javier Valentín.

Congratulations to Javy on being named MVP in the Puerto Rican championship series and all of the accomplishments that led up to it. Just for fun, let's take a quick look back at this post about The Power of Love. And heck, let's check out the Bouncing Javy Head too.

Via ESPN.

Reginald Riddle, one of two men charged with the kidnapping and murder of Reds' prospect Dernell Stenson in 2003, plead guilty to first-degree murder charges today. By pleading guilty and agreeing to testify in the trial of co-defendant David Griffith, Riddle avoided a possible death sentence.

Riddle and allegedly Griffith kidnapped Stenson, stole his SUV, and shot him to death when he tried to get away. Riddle faces 25 years to life in prison. Griffith still faces capital murder charges.

On a personal note, I was not fully indoctrinated into the Reds culture when this tragedy took place, but it stands out in the memory of my mind and heart. And I'm not the only one; when I mentioned Stenson before, RHM got some of her most impassioned comments ever.

It's not that I think convictions will make it all better or anything. But it will be nice to have this part of the process in the past.