And on his first day back with the Washington Nationals following a three-week respite, the 29-year-old slugger sat at a clubhouse table with seven teammates and played a spirited game of Texas Hold 'em.

All of it, Dunn insisted, comes naturally to him. Whether he's surrounded by a clubhouse of the game's greatest players or a young Nationals team trying to escape last place, he will always be in the middle of it all, outsmiling everyone else in the room.

"That's kind of how my personality is," he said. "I'm not going to change just because of where I'm at or who I'm with. That's kind of how I am."

The WBC wasn't kind to Team USA. Several high-profile players suffered injuries in the event. Others didn't perform well under pressure, in part leading to the Americans' ouster at the hands of eventual champion Japan.

But perhaps no other player emerged from the WBC in a more positive light than Dunn, who after years toiling on sub-.500 clubs finally got to play under the national spotlight.

Dunn, who last month signed a two-year, $20 million contract with Washington, led the American squad with three homers, nine runs and nine walks in eight games. He hit .304, slugged .739 and reached base at .515 clip. He became one of Team USA's most visible faces inside the clubhouse and on the field, a leader even on a roster of superstars.

"The guys really looked up to him," said Nationals reliever Joel Hanrahan, who joined Dunn on the team. "He kind of kept it nice and loose in there. ... He took on that role pretty well, and people liked playing with him"

During his eight seasons with the Cincinnati Reds, Dunn acquired a reputation as a bit of an anti-competitor. Some around Baseball viewed him as a player who didn't care enough about winning.

In the WBC, though, Dunn didn't fit that description. One of the tournament's indelible images was Dunn sitting in the dugout in the ninth inning of the Americans' opening-round win over Canada, holding two fingers up to his neck to check his pulse as tension mounted.

"That's exciting to me," he said. "We lose that game - the first game - we're in trouble. That was exciting."

Dunn said his biggest thrill in the WBC came as the Americans rallied to beat Puerto Rico in the bottom of the ninth at Miami's Dolphin Stadium and advance to the semifinal. One of more than a dozen players who raced to the middle of the infield and wound up in a dogpile as the game ended, Dunn had never experienced a moment like that on a Baseball field.

"It was just really fun to be a part of that," he said. "I don't know how to put it into words really. It was pretty awesome."

Dunn's WBC tenure made him yearn more for a similar experience in the major leagues. He's never played in the postseason before, but he salivates at the idea now.

As Nationals players and support staff came by Tuesday morning to welcome Dunn back, questions abounded. What was it like? How was it playing with all those stars? Did it make you want to experience that kind of excitement again even more?

Dunn's answer perhaps put to rest at last any criticism that he doesn't care about winning.

"That's something that I want everybody to experience," he said. "Because that's a different level of Baseball.

"You look at someone like Derek [Jeter], who it seems like is in the playoffs every year, and it's probably nothing to him. For a guy who has never been to the playoffs, that was awesome. I want everyone to be able to experience that. That's as good as it gets right there."