Why Adam Dunn Shakes Josh Willingham's Hand

(Photo by Haraz N. Ghanbari - AP)

One item about a Nats celebration not enough for you? Let's go for another. Hey, this team has won four straight; they need every celebration in the book.

And so the question, inspired by this video from Nats Nation, goes like this: why do Adam Dunn and Josh Willingham insist on the old-school handshake whenever either hits a home run?

"I don't know, that just kind of came about I guess," Dunn said. "I really don't know."

"It's just something we started doing," Willingham said. "I don't know why we started doing, it just sort of happened and just stuck."

And so, like cockroaches and ESPNU, the handshake apparently has no real Raison d'être? Turns out they don't shake hands after wins, or after RBI doubles or diving catches. Only after home runs, hit by either Dunn or Willingham. And if you really need an explanation, it's about what you would have imagined.

"Just kind of shake my hand like a man," Dunn said, explaining his thinking.

"[Dunn] said, 'Most people high five or whatever; shake my hand,' " Willingham recalled. "I said 'alright.' So we started shaking hands. The handshake's old school. It's probably not used very much any more, but we did it probably being stupid one day, halfway serious, halfway joking, and it just stuck."

"Everybody else's got that high-five-jive stuff, that ain't me. Ryan's got the little high-five," Dunn continued, waving his hand limply in the air. "Everyone does that. This is shake my hand like a man, like you've been there before."

Either way, it works, too.