Wednesday, August 20, 2008.

Boise State opened up the Steuckle Sky Club to the media yesterday, showing off the facility that--you'd have to say--has exceeded everyone's wildest expectations. As impressive as anything are the restaurant, banquet and club room areas, and the accompanying views of the city and the foothills and mountains. But tucked under the luxury is a bonus for fans sitting in the old-fashioned seats on that side of Bronco Stadium. A long, roomy concourse with 15 concession stands as opposed to the original two. Here's the key, though. For the only time in our lives, a bunch of us men paraded through the new women's restrooms yesterday. They're huge, with lots of, uh, facilities. Lines should not be a problem for the women anymore. Tell your wife.

By the way, if you're serious about looking about club seats in the Steuckle Sky Club,there's a special open house Friday from 10AM to 5PM for BAA members and season ticket holders. BSU has 124 club seats available because of a design modification that allowed more to be added. A public open house has been scheduled for Wednesday, September 10.

It's an amazing recruiting season for Boise State. We won't know what it means for a couple years, but the commitment count for 2009 is up to 12, according to both Scout.com and Rivals.com. The Broncos picked up another verbal Monday night from safety Will Shamburger of St. John Bosco High in Bellflower, CA. You never know about these early commits--Shamburger told Scout.com, "I'm pretty solid in this commitment. I'm still interested a little in Arizona State, and I may take some official visits if I have the chance, but I'm pretty solid." Still, 12 verbals in mid-August? The rest of the WAC count goes like this: Hawaii seven, Louisiana Tech four, San Jose State and Nevada two, Fresno State one, everybody else zero.

Unsung in Boise State's final public scrimmage last Saturday was the secondary, despite Bush Hamdan and Kellen Moore raising their combined completion percentage to 62.9 from 37.8 in the first scrum. After missing much of spring football, Brandyn Thompson is having a solid fall camp as Orlando Scandrick's replacement at cornerback, punctuated by an interception last Saturday.

Garcia Day and George Iloka also had picks in scrimmage No. 2. Day looked particularly good at corner as he jockeys for time in the dime package this fall. And Iloka, after a rather anonymous first scrimmage, rebounded nicely at safety, getting more time thanks to Jeron Johnson's absence. Keith McGowen had a good day, too, picking up where he left off in April. "McGowen has gotten better, without question," said coach Chris Petersen after spring ball, when the sophomore corner had a chance to shine while Thompson and Kyle Wilson were out. Now McGowen is battling for attention against the entire ensemble.

While Boise State gears up for its final fall camp scrimmage Friday night, closed to the public at Eagle High's Thunder Stadium, Idaho has already had its finale. The Vandals scrimmaged again yesterday, with Deonte Jackson back in the lineup. The thousand-yard rusher, who had missed Idaho's first two scrimmages with a sore back, gained just eight yards on six carries. But Jackson scored two touchdowns, one of them on a 26-yard swing pass from Nathan Enderle. The Vandals now immerse themselves in game prep mode for the opener a week from Saturday at Arizona.

The home stretch kick is becoming Nick Symmonds' trademark, and he used one again today to win his first preliminary heat in the men's 800 meters at the Summer Olympics. The Bishop Kelly product came from behind and crossed the line in 1:46.01, three-hundredths of a second ahead of Alfred Kirwa Yego of Kenya. That puts him in tomorrow night's semifinals in the Bird's Nest--those races will be run at 5:50AM our time tomorrow morning. Symmonds was a sizeable 1.11 seconds off the fastest time in the eight preliminary heats, but he was running a controlled race, doing what he needed to in order to advance.

Well, at least there's momentum going into the Spokane series. The Boise Hawks got out of Vancouver yesterday with a wild 16-9 victory and collected 24 hits, the most in a Northwest League game in almost 10 years. Three Hawks had four-hit games: Kurt Calvert, Billy Macias and Marwin Gonzalez. The sidebar for Boise right now is Josh Vitters' hitting streak, which has reached 25 games, the longest in short-season baseball in 2008. Vitters, a first round draft pick of the Cubs in 2007, can tie the 26-year-old NWL record of 26 games with a basehit tonight in Spokane. The Hawks hope Vitters' hitting can help them win--they go into this three-game series seven games behind the Indians with 15 to play.

Former Boise Hawk Ricky Nolasco turned in the best performance of his big league career last night in Florida's 6-0 win over the Giants. Nolasco spun a three-hitter and struck out 11 in the first shutout by a Marlin since fellow former Hawk Dontrelle Willis threw one in September, 2006. It was Nolasco's first complete game in 51 major league starts as surprising Florida stayed four games behind the Mets in the National League East. The 25-year-old righthander, now 12-7 for the Fish, was 7-2 with a 2.48 ERA for the Hawks' 2002 Northwest League championship team.

Here's wishing Fresno State defensive coordinator Dan Brown a speedy recovery. Brown, who played on Boise State's Division I-AA national championship team in 1980, underwent a second head surgery Monday in San Francisco to treat brain cancer. It was a planned procedure and less intensive than the one he had a year ago, according to Bulldog coach Pat Hill. Brown also had surgery in 2007, when doctors found and removed 80 to 90 percent of a brain tumor. He was still able to coach for Fresno State last fall nonetheless, and Hill expects him back with the team by Friday. Brown has been on Hill's staff for 11 years.

This Day In Sports...August 20, 1948, 60 years ago today:

The largest night crowd in the history of major league baseball at the time, over 78,000, jams Municipal Stadium in Cleveland to watch Negro Leagues icon Satchel Paige shut out the White Sox on a three-hitter, 1-0. Paige had made his big league debut six weeks earlier as a 42-year-old rookie, as the color barrier had finally been broken in the American League. He later came out of retirement in 1965 to pitch one game for Kansas City at the age of 58.

(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.)

---