Veteran Minnesota Twins scout Cal Ermer told me in May that Adam Dunn is the best hitter he has seen since he coached Harmon Killebrew.

The article below is about the former Lookout star now playing with the Cincinnati Reds. The article appeared earlier this year in an ESPN.com Minor League column. It has been abbreviated from its original form.

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Life is all about decisions. Everyone knows this and has come to understand it. Many of us have been faced with tough decisions throughout our lives, and Cincinnati Reds' prospect Adam Dunn is no different.

In the waning days of spring training in 1999, Dunn was forced to make a decision between the two sports that he had both played and loved throughout his entire life. He would finally come to grips with the notion that one of his two dreams was about to end. The only question was, which one?

While attending high school in New Caney, Texas, Dunn was both a standout baseball player and one of the top-rated quarterback prospects in the nation. His skills were in such demand that that both Notre Dame and the University of Texas, to name just two institutions, offered Dunn the ability to play both sports at the collegiate level.

A second-round selection of the Cincinnati Reds in the 1998 draft, the 6-foot-5, 230-pound Dunn hit .288 with four home runs and 13 RBI in 34 games for rookie-level Billings in first pro experience. He left the club in August to begin his freshman football season at the University of Texas.

The Reds are sure glad that Texas had two quarterbacks, Major Applewhite and Chris Simms, who would take care of the quarterbacking duties for the Longhorns. Dunn, left out of the signal-calling mix, redshirted his freshman season and hasn't strapped on a set of shoulder pads again.

In 1999, concentrating strictly on one sport for the first time in his life, Dunn slugged 11 homers and knocked in 44 runs while finishing ninth among Reds' minor leaguers with a .307 batting average while playing for low Class A Rockford. Last year, Dunn spent his second consecutive summer in the Midwest League and hit .281 with 16 homers and 79 RBI in 122 games for Dayton. He also led the league with a .428 on-base percentage and was second in the league in both runs (101) and walks (100).

But 2001 has been a different story altogether for the native Texan. After opening the season with Chattanooga of the Class AA Southern League, Dunn was promoted to Class AAA Louisville earlier this month after leading the Southern League in most major offensive categories. Overall, hit .343 with 12 home runs and 31 RBI in 39 games for the Lookouts, earning the league's Player of the Week honor on two separate occasions.

He homered in his first game after being promoted and has hit .278 with four homers and seven RBI in his first nine games with Louisville.

Q: Why did you choose baseball over football?
A: Well, the main reason was that I knew baseball was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and I just didn't know when I wanted to give up football. They (University of Texas) wanted to do just what they are doing now, with the split-quarterback system, and I didn't know if I wanted to do that. I basically just woke up one day saying, "Enough is enough. I'm going to baseball."

Q: In Chattanooga at the beginning of the season, you hit in 21 of 22 games. When you go through a hitting streak, what do hitters think or do you even think?

A: You don't! That's the worst thing that you can do. That's the one thing that I try not to do, ever. If I'm doing well or if I'm struggling, I try not to think. I try and do the same thing every single at-bat.

Q: When did you first really learn not only the physical aspects of hitting, but also how mental it is as well?

A: Well, I think I still don't really know it. There are some people who do. It's a weird game. Hitting is weird. Everyone knows that it is mental, but it's really tough because if you go out there and have a few bad games. It's really tough not to be down on yourself. But, that's just part of it.

Q: One of the things that you can work on is defense, and people have said that you need to improve your outfield skills if you want to make it. Do you feel like you have put in your time for now?
A: Right, that's the main thing that I worked on all through my short career is becoming a better outfielder. I try to work real hard with our outfield rover, Rodney McRae, and I just try to work on my routes and my angles and just try to become a complete player.

Q: Were you surprised at the call-up?

A: Yeah, I was. I really was. I expected to be in Double-A all year, which would have been fine with me. But this is just a bonus.

Q: Do you get to the point where you think that maybe the next phone call will come from the big club?

A: Not really, because that is out of my control. All I can really do is go out there and play everyday. There are a lot of good players on this team, and that is something that I don't even think about.

Q: Is there pressure being a top draft pick? For anybody?

A: Well, I wouldn't say pressure. Everyone expects you to do well. If you don't expect yourself to do well, then why should other people expect you to do well. I don't think that there's any pressure. I don't feel any added pressure.

Q: You earned Player of the Week honors twice in your short time down in the Southern League. Do your teammates ever get on you and bust your chops about that?

A: Not really. That's something that's really not publicized that well. I didn't even know that I had won.

Q: They say that you can get down the line in 4.1 seconds. Where does the speed come from? Is that from football?

A: I don't know. I'm not as fast as I used to be, but who is? I guess I have to go back to high school and our offseason program. We had a pretty good football offseason program. We worked at it a lot and it seemed like one day, it just clicked. I don't know where it comes from!

Q: You used to get a lot of walks in the beginning of your career. You also used to strike out a lot. Now, do you get tired of the walks sometimes?

A: I don't at all, because if you look at all the good hitters, they walk. I think it's real hard to hit .300 if you don't walk. That's just being patient at the plate and getting the pitches to hit.

Q: Power-wise, is this one of the best starts to the season that you have ever had?

A: Definitely. That's something that everyone said would come with experience, and I was wondering if I'd ever hit 20 home runs. I still don't know if I can. That's a lot of home runs. I didn't really change my swing at all and I'm not trying to hit the ball out every time. It's just going this year for some reason.

Q: Are you an arm swinger or do you get your whole body through the ball?

A: See, in the past I was just an arm swinger. But working with Mike Greenwell and Brook Jacoby, they