Adam Dunn: Team chemistry is 'dead'

Baseball has changed dramatically since Adam Dunn - the somewhat recently retired slugger with 462 career homers - debuted with the Cincinnati Reds in 2001, back when drug testing wasn't yet collectively bargained and video review was still more than a decade away.

In Dunn's eyes, though, the biggest change over the last 16 years has occurred within the league's 30 clubhouses, as the two-time All-Star - out of the game since 2014 - said team chemistry no longer exists.

"That part of the game is dead, in my opinion," Dunn said in a lengthy interview with ESPN's Jerry Crasnick.

"I kind of caught the tail end of what I think of as the old-school way. Just little stuff, like kangaroo court. Or a veteran would walk into the shower and tell a kid, 'Beat it - it's my shower.' In the second half of my career, all that was gone. People didn't respect the older guys anymore."

Dunn, who spent the first eight years of his career in Cincinnati and later had stints with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Washington Nationals, Chicago White Sox, and Oakland Athletics, said players don't socialize in the clubhouse after games anymore, instead rushing out "to play Xbox."

"Twenty minutes after the game now, everyone is gone," Dunn said. "Guys are catching cabs and going to play Xbox. Don't get me wrong. I play Xbox, but I also like to sit and talk shop. You learn about a lot of things. I learned about my house just by listening to other guys that were building houses. I'd say, 'Man, that's a great idea. When I build a house, I'm going to do same thing.' Just little stuff like that."