Here are few Monday tids and bits as while trying to stay cool we get set to say good-bye to June all too soon and hello to July, which will no doubt speed on by:

First, what do you think of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League having a mercy rule?

Evidently it’s basically a 10-run rule with two innings to go. So in a nine inning single game, that’s after seven (or middle of the seventh if the home team is up), and in seven-inning doubleheader games it’s five.

We say no. Now, the NCAA has a mercy rule that basically, from what we can tell, some conferences use it, some don’t. And it’s not used in the post season.

But see you have to consider the paying customer. There’s no doubt that while the outcome of Wednesday night’s second game between the Nashua Silver Knights and Vermont Lake Monsters wasn’t really in doubt with Vermont up 10-0, there were fans who came to see the second game only since it was the one on the schedule. Now granted, if they showed up for the 6 p.m. time they got to see bonus baseball in the form of the last couple of innings of the opener, thanks to the umpire-time screw up. But that wouldn’t always be the case, and wouldn’t have happened had the game started at 3 p.m. as scheduled.

We can see the reason for it, especially with the huge schedule of a league high 68 games. And you can be sure Vermont wasn’t disappointed to be able to make the trip home early. Yeah, after the ridiculous umpire delay, it came in handy.

So let’s compromise, FCBL. Keep it at seven for your nine inning games, but don’t use it for the doubleheaders. Five innings isn’t quite enough.

—- Will there ever be summer baseball at Lelacheur Park in Lowell, Mass. again? We say summer ball because there is baseball there as UMass Lowell plays its home games there. But the ridiculous MLB mandated contraction of minor league baseball that cost the Lowell Spinners their actual existance is keeping that ballpark empty more often than not for the summer.

So what’s going to happen? The logical thing would be to have the Red Sox who actually own one of their Class A teams in Salem, N.C., to Lowell. Remember, the Sox have pledged to be a player in returning baseball to Lowell.

But here’s the rub: UMass-Lowell, while it probably wouldn’t mind having someone take care of the stadium for them (the Spinners did and the Sox team probably would too), they may not want to share LeLacheur during the spring. Remember, we’re talking long season A ball and the River Hawks never had to share the facility in the spring as the Spinners were short season. And there are no more short season teams.

It’s a mess. There are a lot of things that have to work out, including with the city of Lowell. The sad thing is there was absolutely nothing the people of Lowell did wrong to lose their franchise. Shame on MLB for letting that happen. Let’s hope things can work out so the Red Sox can right MLB’s wrong.

But it’s also a sign, you don’t want to lose a team. The Silver Knights are Nashua’s premier summer sports entertainment, and let’s hope they continue to be for years to come.

—- It was great to see history again just over a week ago at Nashua North with the running of the New Hampshire Decathlon and Heptathlons – and just how much work goes into putting on those events for the organizers, and how much talent and resilience it takes to win them for the competitiors. And how much precision it takes to produce the results for the timing company, in this case North Star Timing, which did an incredible job.

The event that Fran Tate and Al Savage put on some 65 years ago at Holman Stadium will likely live on forever.

— Is it almost New Hampshire State Am time? Hard to believe it’s been almost a year since that great event was at Nashua Country Club and was won by the classy James Pleat.

Tell you what, for one city/area that, like the rest of the world has endured the pandemic, it was a remarkable year for its sports.

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