The Globe & Mail’s Jeff Blair on the-story-that-will-not-die.  Anyone care to place a wager on a certain Toronto baseball executive taking on a vague scouting assignment with the Red Sox next spring?

Adam Dunn (above) was asked about whether he spoke to Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi about disparaging comments Ricciardi made about Dunn on Ricciardi’s radio show last week.”I talked to him [Dunn] on Saturday,” Ricciardi said before last night’s game. “He called me back. I don’t know if he accepted my apology. But I did apologize.”

Except Dunn told MLB.com that he didn’t speak to Ricciardi.

“Not true,” Dunn said of Ricciardi’s pregame comment. “One million per cent.”

Ricciardi was livid when Dunn’s comment was relayed to him. He took the call on Saturday night, he said, while he was in Pittsburgh. Sitting next to him were director of security Ron Sandelli and assistant GM Alex Anthopoulos.

“If it’s not him, then it’s some prank,” Ricciardi said. “But I don’t know how the person would get my cellular phone number. I mean, I don’t even give it out to you guys [the press].”

So is this a Dunn deal or what?

“I’m so sick and tired of this, foremost, but the real truth is, no, I have not talked to him,” Dunn said after the game, clearly exasperated. “Again, I’m not going to go out of my way to get an apology from a guy I don’t even know. No, it didn’t happen and I hope this is the last time I have to talk about it. I’m sick and tired of it.”

But about that phone call ¦

“No,” Dunn said, “I mean, no. I didn’t. I mean, if he said he talked to me, it was a lie ¦ it’s stupid. I don’t get it. I got more important things to worry about than some guy I don’t know.”

Coming to a future edition of the Globe & Mail : J.P. explains to Christopher Cross there’s no guided tours of the Rogers Centre during Jays games.

(h/t – The Meaningful Collateral)