Last Tuesday, Cal second baseman Jeff Kobernus was sitting in front of his computer streaming the MLB.TV broadcast of the MLB Amateur Draft.

He'd been told by scouts in the weeks leading up to the draft that he would probably be taken anywhere from the 50th to the 75th pick overall, but as draft day dawned, his phone stayed silent.

Then, right before the start of the second round, it started to ring.

"I got a text from an A's scout saying congratulations," Kobernus said.

But the thing was, Kobernus wasn't picked by the Oakland Athletics.

With the first pick of the second round, the Washington Nationals chose the Bears' junior infielder.

And they did it without ever telling Kobernus it was coming.

The image of draft day takes on a certain shape in the minds of sports fans. The star athlete sitting at a table surrounded by friends and family, picking up the phone with a huge smile as the team that will be picking them calls. Then, a gray-haired commissioner takes the podium to announce that with the "next pick in the draft…"

That's how people expect the draft to work. Except in baseball, it doesn't.

As Kobernus' experience shows, the MLB Amateur Draft might be the most impersonal way that anyone in any field finds out that they've nailed a job.

Sometimes there are quick phone calls or text messages, but often there's nothing except for an announcement by baseball commissioner Bud Selig on the television broadcast or a name popping up on the live draft tracker online.

Some do get calls. Cal's senior infielder Michael Brady received a phone call before being picked in the 24th round by the Florida Marlins. But it wasn't as much a congratulatory message as it was a practical one.

"I got a phone call from the area scout who asked me if I still wanted to go," Brady said. "They were thinking about getting me. And right after I got picked, he called me and let me know."

But because Kobernus and Brady weren't first round picks, it was unlikely that the red carpet would be rolled out for them anyway. So are phone calls from the GM an honor reserved for first round picks?

Turns out, that's not the case either.

Unlike the NFL Draft day treatment-limousines, a live audience, camera crews and reaction shots-Cal's first rounder, junior center fielder Brett Jackson, waited at home in Orinda, Calif., to hear his name called.

And like Kobernus, his phone too lay dormant.

Finally, after giving up on hearing his named called in the first round at all, Jackson was announced as the 31st pick of the first round to the Chicago Cubs.

"I did not get a phone call," Jackson said. "My advisor hadn't called me. The Cubs hadn't called me."

That odd dissonance between team and player lasts beyond draft day.

A day after being taken 50th overall, Kobernus still hadn't heard from the team that had invested its third pick in the Draft on him.

"I haven't really talked to (the Nationals) yet, so I don't know what the deal is with everything," Kobernus said. After he pause he added: "From now on."

With so much uncertainty, it's no wonder that right fielder Blake Smith-who was taken by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the second round-sounded a bit drained.

"I'm just happy it's over," he said.

In the days following the Draft, none of the seven Bears taken knew where their respective teams would be sending them.

Not even the first round pick.

"No idea," Jackson said with a laugh when asked where he was headed. "I haven't spent more than five minutes on the phone with (the Cubs), and obviously they were excited and congratulatory.

"Other than that, I don't really know anything."

Tags: CAL BASEBALL, BRETT JACKSON, BLAKE SMITH, JEFF KOBERNUS