Tuesday, June 2, 2009.

I know there's some sentiment in the community to drag one's foot on the ground and slow this scooter down. Yet another uniform change for Boise State? The latest wardrobe re-do happened just two years ago. But I guess a program that seems to put a new-and-improved product on the blue turf every year is entitled to reinvent fashion, too. It's not radically different, but the Broncos' new home jerseys will have new-look numbers--italicized in gray in a font based the Boise State logo. And the jury will be out on one thing: the readability of those gray italicized numerals from the stands when the bell rings September 3.

The design is a bit busier than in the past, with new striping on the shoulders that resembles open-mouthed hockey sticks and a "Boise State" down the side of the leg (instead of the front of the jersey). Now there's "Broncos" beneath the number on the back of the home unis, and on the front of the road jerseys. It seems that nationally, the brand is "Boise State" and not "Broncos," and the team loses a bit of that instant identification now. Of course, it's easy to sit here and say they should have done this or that. Nike knows what it's doing. Part of the driving force behind the rapid change is Nike's opportunity for Bronco merchandise sales, which have skyrocketed nationally in the past five years. When it's all said and done, what fans are probably going to care about the most are players' names on the backs of the jerseys.

The Sporting News Today online edition continues its position rankings in the NFL. Yesterday it was return specialists, and former Boise State standout Chris Carr was ranked eighth by the magazine. Baltimore signed Carr as a free agent during the offseason for that very reason. "For now, he's expected to handle punt returns in his first year with the Ravens, but he could become the main kickoff returner, too," said the RealScouts evaluation of Carr. "He is elusive and gets north-south quickly, but he doesn't have the top-end speed to be a breakaway threat. Still, he ranked in the top five in kickoff returns last season and averaged more than 10 yards per punt return." Incidentally, former Fresno State standout Clifton Smith, who had a huge rookie year with Tampa Bay, was No. 6 on the list.

The College of Idaho men's basketball team gets a big boost for the next three seasons with the signing of Matt Ballenger. The Skyview High grad is transferring from Colorado and changing athletic careers, forgoing his days as a CU quarterback. Nothing against football. "It was more of how much I missed basketball," Ballenger said yesterday on Idaho SportsTalk. "I got caught up in the whole recruiting process with the Big 12--I didn't explore all my options." A refresher on Ballenger as a basketball player: he was twice named Idaho's Gatorade Player of the Year and helped Skyview to the 2005 and 2007 state 4A titles. Interestingly enough, Northwest Nazarene announced yesterday that one of Ballenger's teammates on those championship squads, guard Andy Maxwell, is transferring to NNU from Columbia Basin College next season.

There's a little more attrition beyond Ballenger with the Buffaloes. Coach Dan Hawkins has announced that wide receiver Josh Smith and tight end Ryan Wallace are leaving the CU program. Smith, a budding rapper, is said to be looking for a music major not offered at Colorado, and Wallace wants to play closer to his home in Kentucky. Smith's loss will be felt--he set school records last year with 50 kickoff returns for 1,568 yards.

What do former Borah High pitcher Stephen Fife and future Hall of Fame candidate John Smoltz have in common? They started back-to-back games for the Greenville Drive of South Atlantic League. Fife, the University of Utah product, was on the hill Saturday for the first time this season and went four innings, allowing just one hit and one unearned run. Smoltz, on a rehab assignment for the Red Sox, started Sunday's game, going five innings and yielding only one unearned run on four hits. Fife, the University of Utah product in his second pro season, is bouncing back from offseason shoulder surgery. He was also a member of the 1999 South Central Boise team that made it to the Little League World Series.

Safe to say Garret Anderson had been waiting a long time for this. The player with the longest major league career of any former Boise Hawk had the big bat Sunday in Atlanta's 9-3 win at Arizona. Anderson went 3-for-5 and broke the game open in the fourth inning with a three-run homer. It was his first home run as a member of the Braves after 15 seasons with the Angels. After a slow start this season, Anderson went on the disabled list less than three weeks into the campaign with a quadriceps problem. But he's rallied since coming off the DL almost four weeks ago, raising his average to a serviceable .266.

I don't remember the last time a Boisean was featured in "Faces In The Crowd" in Sports Illustrated. I'm going to say this is the first time this century, as Boise's Page Kannor is spotlighted in a sport we hear little about in these parts. She's a standout in rowing. Here's the skinny: "Kannor, a senior at Bucknell University, led the Bison to their fourth straight Patriot League championship and became the first rower to be a member of the conference's Boat of the Year four seasons in a row. She was also named to the All-Patriot League team and won the Christy Mathewson Award as Bucknell's outstanding senior athlete." I went to the Bucknell website and found that Page is a Boise High alum and played on the Braves' tennis team. She has graduated from Bucknell with a degree in animal behavior and is moving to Hawaii to begin work in that field.

This Day In Sports...June 2, 1925:

Yankee first baseman Wally Pipp has a headache. Lou Gehrig, a 21-year-old phenom, gets the nod to replace Pipp in the starting lineup and helps the Yanks beat the Washington Senators, 8-5. Gehrig, of course, would not miss another game until 1939--playing in 2,130 consecutive contests, an iron man streak that would stand until it was eclipsed by Cal Ripken Jr. in 1995.

(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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