Produced by: Sean Keating
Mike Boeve at a Moment in Time
By: Jackson Piercy
As storm clouds from the night prior pull back to reveal a bright sunrise, Mike Boeve does on this humid June morning what he might be doing on any other morning: collecting grounders, hitting baseballs, and making throws from third to first.
However, these mornings have been more meaningful to Boeve than most, as he's on the verge of being Omaha's highest-drafted baseball player of all time, going before the fifth round like Bruce Benedict in 1976.
For Boeve, a chance at the draft would be the culmination of a life that has been just about entirely consecrated to be on the baseball field, being the son of longtime Hastings College Baseball Coach Jim Boeve, Mike's passion for the game comes from that upbringing.
"My dad coached for over 24 years," Boeve said. "We grew up going to the field and being around the game, I've got a sister who's two years older who played softball, so obviously that was a huge part of me growing up around the game… Fortunately, in the hometown I was in, I got a lot of playing opportunities around good coaching."
After high school, Boeve wasn't exactly at the top of everybody's recruiting boards, but after Omaha gave him a chance, Boeve embraced the city with open arms. Boeve has worked the floor at UNO's volleyball games, the penalty box for UNO hockey, and even the shot clock for UNO basketball.
"My roommate started [working] his freshman year," Boeve said. "He got paid for going to the games and I was attending them, so I was like, 'Why not work for them and get paid at the same time?'... I got the nod to do the shot clock for basketball which is a difficult job, but it was so fun. I played basketball in high school so it was a lot of fun doing that."
In between school years at UNO, Boeve has made a point of honing his baseball craft in Summer leagues like the Expedition League, the Northwoods League, and the Cape Cod League.
"Going out to the cape was a good experience," Boeve said. "You're playing the highest level of college baseball you can in a wood-bat league. Certainly some culture shock living out there, but I had a great host family and met a lot of cool friends that I met up with back at the combine last week."
In recent months, Boeve has been making preparations for the draft, which don't seem to deviate much from what he was planning on doing anyway, just with more pomp and medical checkups.
"You get to talk to MLB teams, it's like a bounce of 30-minute job interviews," Boeve said. "Get medical tests and MRIs, X-rays, things like that… by the end of the week, I was worn out for sure."
In the meantime, Boeve will work with UNO coaches to hone his crate even further in the lead-up to what could be the most consequential event of his long baseball career; Whether that leads to the beginning of a career in major league baseball, a year at a new college, or another year at UNO.
For a man as even-keeled as Boeve, one thing is certain: as long as the sun comes up in the east and June mornings are humid, you can bet he'll be around that diamond.
