White Sox’ Dunn has all eyes on him

“Shoeless” Joe Jackson, Pete Rose, Mark McGwire and Ryan Braun likely have differing opinions, but baseball is a forgiving sport.

If you stink it up during a big at-bat and hear the boos, go up the next time, get a big hit and bask in the applause.

If you are jeered off the mound for a poor start or failing to close it out in the ninth inning, get the job done the next time and you’re a hero again.

Allegedly throwing games, betting on games or gaining a competitive advantage through performance enhancing drugs is a completely different story, but baseball fans generally have short memories when it comes to poor performance on the field.

And that brings us to Adam Dunn.

All eyes will be back on the hulking designated hitter Friday when the White Sox open the regular season at Texas.

Last season — his first in a Sox uniform — Dunn looked like he was well on his way to another 40 homer, 100 RBI season.

After playing in the National League for 10 years, Dunn signed a four-year, $48 million free-agent contract with the Sox before the 2011 season.

In his first four games, Dunn was batting .286 with 1 home run and 5 RBI. He had an emergency appendectomy in Kansas City and missed the next six games.

Dunn was never the same after the surgical procedure, and he finished the year with a .159 batting average, 11 homers, 42 RBI and franchise record 177 strikeouts.

General manager Kenny Williams, who unsuccessfully tried landing Dunn in a July 2010 trade from the Washington Nationals, blamed himself for rushing Dunn back from the appendectomy.

“If I had to do one thing over, one singular thing over from last year, I would have sat him out a week longer, at least, after he had the surgery and got him some at-bats in the minor leagues to get his stroke back,” Williams said at SoxFest. “I take the responsibility for that.”

To his credit, Dunn has stayed away from any and all excuses.

He didn’t blame the appendectomy, playing in the American League for the first time, designated hitting for the first time or hearing all of the boos from Sox fans at U.S. Cellular Field.

At SoxFest and throughout spring training, Dunn admitted he made some mechanical changes and hit more in the off-season. But he never offered any specifics.

Instead, he talked about the upcoming season and finally putting the 2011 nightmare to bed.

Well, the new season is here, and Dunn finally has his new beginning.

He also has some momentum from spring training.

The games did not count, obviously, but Dunn looked at a lot of pitches early and then started unloading.

The 32-year-old DH led the White Sox in exhibition home runs (6) and RBI (15) while posting a .408 on-base percentage.

Blame Dunn for last year’s dismal 79-83 record — many have.

But if the Sox figure out a way to get it turned around this year, look for Dunn to be receiving much of the credit.

sgregor@dailyherald.com