You have to give Nashua Silver Knights manager Kyle Jackson a gold star.

The even-tempered championship skipper has had to go often from one unpleasant conversation to another these nights at Holman Stadium.

He has to tell his players what they did wrong in the latest loss, then walk over and tell the media. Rinse and repeat, and that’s not fun with his team 6-14.

Mother Nature gave him a break Tuesday. Knights general manager Cam Cook had to make the early call well before the first round of showers came through around 2 p.m. Tuesday. That’s because the Vermont Lake Monsters needed to know whether to board a bus and spend the dollars on a hotel room last night for their scheduled Tuesday-Wednesday two game set with the Knights. Or save money, time, and relax in Burlington before heading south for a doubleheader.

Cook saw the radar, made the correct call. Now if the league record holder for hits could only don a jersey and go back out there and swing a bat.

The Knights need a night when they pound out 15 hits and score 10 runs. Their pitching is good enough, but they are last in the league in hitting at .195. They take strikes and swing at balls. They don’t go the other way, or do it often enough. And poor Jackson has to answer the questions why.

So on Tuesday we thought we’d ask Cook, as you can see in another story on today’s site. His message: Calm down everyone.

“The message right now is ‘Boys, relax,'” Cook said. “It’s summer ball, it’s fun, you’re all hear for a reason. If you look at our roster, it’s good if not better than most teams. Guys, you don’t need to press.”

That’s the thing, the players are here to keep playing, hone their skills for their respective schools. But the Silver Knights has been a fun experience for most because they play to win, and the fans love it.

There you go. You see, the Futures League is a for profit league. These teams want to make money, and the ways to do it is through fan attendance and advertising. Winning creates a buzz, but so does entertaining baseball.

And that means hits. Offense, The big horn sounding at Holman Stadium.

So while it’s summer ball, a relaxing time for college players, it’s still has more purpose than you and maybe they think. It’s not fun for them or the fans to see strikeout after strikeout – their 211 is the second most in the FCBL, and their 89 walks the fewest. That combo tells you all you really need to know.

Now, would the team make any changes? Not too likely, they do want to keep the college coaches happy.

“There’s guys on the radar we always keep an eye on, if somebody has an injury, there’s always things that come up,” Cook said. “And the temp guys who left, we told them, ‘Don’t lose that number.'”

It was a fun night at Holman on Friday. Plenty of kids, they got to run the bases, see fireworks on and off the field (Jackson got tossed, Kyle Hannon nearly went at it with half the Norwich team), and the Knights won in the bottom of the 10th on a literal walk-off – Nate Goranson’s bases loaded walk bringing in the winning run.

Fun, all around.

But nothing will get the fans more excited than seeing their favorite local team knock the ball around Holman Stadium.

And their manager can finally enjoy those post game chats, too.

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

Newsletter