Published: April 30, 2008 03:31 pm            

THE PERRY COMMENTARY — NEWS AND NOTES FROM THE WORLD OF SPORTS

Strunk goes deep twice and the Falcons pick the next bust

Dylan Strunk smacked his second homerun in a week on Saturday when the McCreary Middle Raiders beat East Bernstadt to move to an impressive 8-3 on the season.

The bomb comes just about a week after he cleared the fences at McCreary Central against Russell County.

Strunk’s two homeruns are the only ones hit by the team this season.

First he starts dunking as an eighth-grader and now he’s smacking homeruns out of high school fields in baseball.

Strunk is a true athlete who can apparently do it all. McCreary Central football Clinton Gay is scanning the phone book for his number as we speak.

• The NFL Draft took place over the weekend and the Atlanta Falcons picked the next big quarterback bust third overall when they selected Boston College’s Matt Ryan.

I remember seeing Ryan lead a late fourth quarter comeback over Virginia Tech last season and was impressed, but the Hokies are not an NFL team. Ryan will be the Falcons version of Alex Smith. You remember, he was supposed to lead the 49ers back to glory.

I heard through the sports grapevine that runs directly from Atlanta to McCreary County that the Falcons did an extensive background check on Ryan and he owns no dogs. Apparently the team was looking for a cat lover this time around!

• My favorite quarterback pick of the draft has to be Andre Woodson to the Giants. If things stand as is in New York, Eli Manning would be backed up by two former Wildcats in Jared Lorenzen and Woodson. Chances that both are on the roster this fall are slim.

• Chris Long was taken second overall by the Rams in the draft. He’s the son of Hall of Famer and former Raider Howie Long. Think about this for a moment: The younger Long’s first NFL contract will be worth more than what his father earned in his entire Hall of Fame career. That says something about the economics of sports these days doesn’t it?

• The NBA season is finally here as far as I am concerned. If you watch the games during regular season, they simply are not that entertaining unless an individual player puts on a bigtime show.

With the playoffs here and the beloved Celtics running on all cylinders, I’m finally finding myself tuning into more games than usual.

Wouldn’t it be great to see a Celtics vs. Lakers finals this season? Wow! Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

• For all the deals made at the NBA’s trading deadline this season, only the Lakers seem to have come out on top by landing Pal Gasol from Memphis.

Jason Kidd and Shaq will be sitting at home watching as the Celtics and Lakers party like its the 1980s all over again.

• Keeping with the topic of professional sports, we can’t forget the Reds.

They’re struggling again and just first their fifth General Manager in six seasons. Despite the losing seasons, there has to be some stability within the franchise. It’s a little frustrating to see another season that mirrors the recent past, but that won’t keep me away from the ballpark. Gas prices, on the other hand may keep me away.

• Finally, despite taking a softball off the shin from the bat of David “The Bull” Durham, I am happy to report I am walking without much difficulty.

        

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