Thursday, June 5, 2008.

It's the day that hard-core Boise Hawks followers chronicle--the first day of Major League Baseball's first-year player draft. A chunk of the Chicago Cubs' picks will form the core of the 2008 Hawks. The Cubs pick 19th in the first round, past the midway point. When you get that far down, it's tough to speculate on who that No. 1 guy might be, although MLB.com projects Florida high school star Casey Kelly. But when you do get to that point in the picking order, there's a chance he could start his pro career in Boise. The Cubbies have an additional compensatory pick in the first round for Jason Kendall's signing with the Brewers during the offseason.

Update on Markus Koch, the former Boise State Division I-AA All-American who all but disappeared 15 years ago but was "found" in late April by the Statesman's Chadd Cripe. Since that contact, Koch has decided he needs to reconnect with Boise. He's going to do that soon when he comes to town for the Gary Craner Invitational Scramble on June 16, honoring BSU's retiring head athletic trainer of 36 years. Koch is now a yacht broker in Port Townsend, WA, and has lived in intentional obscurity since retiring from the NFL at the height of his career with the Washington Redskins in 1992. Koch told fellow Canadian and former Bronco All-American Michel Bourgeau, now the director of BSU's Varsity B Club, that he wasn't intentionally hiding from anybody. He just never gave it much thought.

Now, compare Koch to the Bronco defensive line of today. There's really nobody like him. It magnifies what a unique talent he was in the Big Sky world of the early to mid-80's. A 6-5 defensive end that offenses ran away from. Probably the closest in skills now would be Mike T. Williams, still not as big as Koch, but a pass-deflecting, quarterback-pressuring presence that could dominate this year as a senior the way Koch did in 1985.

The Oregon quarterback derby, even more crowded than Boise State's, is minus one candidate now. Cody Kempt has decided to transfer to Montana State after not making progress in spring football and going just 6-for-26 for 52 yards in spot duty last season. Kempt did start the Civil War against Oregon State, though, due to injuries at the position (not the least of which was Dennis Dixon's). You may remember Kempt's father Mychal Kempt, a linebacker for the Bobcats in the late 80's.

Will Hoenike of Idaho Sports Zone.com found this the other day in the Quad-City Times--an amazing story on former Idaho State defensive back David Beverly. He started his college career at Cal before transferring to ISU for his sophomore and junior years. Then as a senior in 2005, Beverly was declared academically ineligible. That began a downward spiral that found Beverly homeless this winter in his hometown of Long Beach. But the Quad City Wheelers of af2 found him, and signed him after his dad Dwight, a former New Orleans Saints player, helped him get back in shape. Maybe Boise would ultimately be a good place for Beverly--with the number of former Bengals on the Burn roster, he'd have a built-in support group.

One way for Boise State wrestling to keep humming in the face of program eliminations at other schools is to stay in the news. And Kirk Smith has done that for the Broncos by winning the FILA Junior & University World Team Trials in freestyle, earning him a spot on the USA Wrestling Junior National team. Smith, the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year and conference champion at 184 pounds, and BSU's first freshman ever to earn All-America honors, will wrestle for the U.S. in two weeks at the Pan American Junior Championships in Cuenca, Ecuador. He'll also compete at the World Junior Championships in Istanbul, Turkey, the end of next month.

Here's hoping the Celtics-Lakers series can live up to the hype as the NBA Finals open tonight in Boston. Watch closely, maybe you can see former Boise State star Coby Karl wearing a sportcoat behind the Lakers bench (he's still on L.A.'s 15-man roster and is practicing with the club). The only other BSU player to have any kind of connection to the NBA Finals was Chris Childs with the New York Knicks in 1999. Childs played in all five games as the Knicks lost to the Spurs, averaging 21 minutes but scoring only 3.3 points per game.

Eagle's Rick Bauer has made the long climb back to the majors. The former Centennial Patriot was called up by Cleveland yesterday and was plugged into the ninth inning of the Indians' game at Texas with a 15-6 lead. It ended up 15-9, as Bauer allowed three runs on three hits with a walk and a strikeout. The 31-year-old righthander can be excused if he had a case of the yips, though, as it was his first big league appearance in almost two years. Bauer spent the first five seasons of his career with Baltimore but had a messy fallout with Orioles management in 2004 and 2005. He made 58 appearances with the Rangers two years ago and was 3-1 with a 3.55 ERA but didn't stick with the club last season.

As Mike Safford Jr. prepares for his summer as Voice of the Boise Hawks, he has a little piece of hardware to bring to the Memorial Stadium press box with him. Safford, also the sports information director at the College of Idaho, has been named Cascade Conference SID of the year. He also won the award in 2003. Congrats to Mike.

This Day In Sports...June 5, 1977:

The Portland Trailblazers, led by the most famous Deadhead in the sports world, Bill Walton, beat the Philadelphia 76ers to win the NBA championship. The 109-107 win in Game 6 gave Portland what is still its only NBA title. The Blazers have been back to the Finals twice (1990 and 1992) but haven't been able to repeat the feat.

(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment Sunday nights at 10:30PM on KTVB's Sunday Sports Extra and anchors five sports segments each weekday on 1350 KTIK/The Ticket. He also handles color commentary on KTVB's telecasts of Boise State football.)

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