The 2021 season really didn’t start all that well for Nashua Silver Knights manager Kyle Jackson.

That’s because when he was throwing batting practice on Tuesday, line drive went through a hole in the screen and got him in the ribs.

Ouch.

But a few minutes later, if he was sore, he didn’t let on; in fact, he showed the goose bumps on his arm of just thinking of that night at Holman Stadium late last August when the Silver Knights hung on for a win in the deciding Game 3.

That was an ending for the ages, and the manager of the Silver Knights had all fall, winter and early spring to think about it, just looking out from his home right near Holman.

But now it was time to get to work.

“It came quick,” he said of the start of the season for a franchise for which he’s spent nine years of his post playing (former Sox farmhand).

But you see, Jackson had things in perspective all last summer. The fact that the team and the Futures League was playing was the big thing.

“As I told you all last summer, I didn’t care if we won or lost,” he said. “As Junior (owner John Creedon, Jr.) said, it was the Impossible Season. And I told these kids, ‘You guys are the few, whether it’s 30 games or 40 games, to be able to play – and have fans.”

And he said to see the players excitement with the fans giving them a standing ovation after the game was over was worth it all.

But you know the moment that really gives him the goosebumps? It was when, just after the team defeated Brockton at fan-less Campanelli Stadium on the weekend (Sunday) before, he gathered them away from the clubhouse in an open area under the stand. There, he announced to them that they had clinched the second and final spot in the FCBL playoffs.

A roar was let out.

“The joy that you saw, for how hard they played, for me it was a special moment as a coach to see the kids’ joy,” he said. “Because that’s what the coaches I had, when we won it, or clinched (said.) The hard work, the BP, the infield, the days, the bus trips. It’s worth it because you’re one of the two that’s in it for the championship.”

He’s as down to earth, but as calculating with his ability to read the room as it gets. The down to earth is the joy he’ll feel when his two-year-old son Corbin can be around the locker room and the field.

The baseball thinking comes in his work with GM Cam Cook. Jackson and Cook had 20 players for this roster set before the championship and things were set by October-November. After six years as pitching coach, most of them under retired manger/player personnel VP B.J. Neverett, Jackson has a title. This is his deal.

“Where do I go?,” he said. “Surpass B.J.”

That would be two more rings to go. Tonigh he gets his first as a manager. What’s that going to be like?

“I’ll let you know,” he said, “after it happens.”

We already know. Goosebumps.

Just don’t throw BP beforehand.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.