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Silver Knights raise expectations on, off field

By Staff | Jun 7, 2013

NASHUA – Chris Good had been in contact with Nashua Silver Knights management as far back as November.

His quest: To get the team to send pictures of the 2012 Futures Collegiate Baseball League championship rings.

“We posted it on Facebook and then we tagged everybody,” Good said. “It was very, very beautiful, let’s put it that way. A championship is a championship, bring a third one to Nashua. It’ll be something to see.”

And the seeing begins Friday night at Holman Stadium, with the two-time defending FCBL champion Silver Knights beginning their third year with first pitch at 7:05 and championship ring ceremony at 6:30. If the team’s off-field work this season is any indication, there’s a lot of believing as well.

Ticket sales and corporate sponsorship sales are up according to team management and over 1,500 tickets had been sold by earlier in the week for Friday’s opener.

When Good throws the season’s first pitch from the Holman mound against the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks, it will be a very much welcome event by players, coaches, front office workers, and fans. Nashua will play a 54-game regular season, with three rounds of playoffs – if it finishes in the top six of the nine-team FCBL – beginning Aug. 9. Compared to the winter, it goes by in the blink of an eye.

“It’s an awful long off-season,” Silver Knights president Tim Bawmann said. “We haven’t played since the second week in August and here we are in early June. It’s long for us. You have to knock on doors, try to get people to buy fence signs, program ads, season tickets – it all comes together.

“The team is here, they’ve got brand new uniforms, the equipment, you hear the crack of the bat. The first hit, the first cheer you hear, that’s when I get the goose bumps, because you know the hard work has paid off.”

Last year’s ring ceremony began with the special delivery of the rings via a helicopter that landed in short center field. This year, the rings will be brought in a different way that the team will not reveal.

“It will be hidden before it happens,” Bawmann said, “but it will certainly cause a scene when it does happen. I’ll look forward to that.”

The only fly in the ointment is the weather, as rain is predicted. If the game is rained out, the ring ceremony/Opening Night festivities will be on Saturday, June 15, a 6:30 pre-game ceremony and 7 p.m. game. The team opted for that rather than do something at its second home date, an Education Day (for school field trips) 11 a.m. game at Holman next Wednesday.

“We’re ready to get going,” Bawmann said. “I’m not sure what Mother Nature has in store for us. … We’ll see what happens.”

The team has its third field manager in three years, J.P. Pyne, who is also the Daniel Webster College head coach and was the Knights pitching coach last summer. B.J. Neverett was promoted to VP of Player Personnel but will also help out on the field as a coach, along with pitching coach Tom Bowles and newly hired hitting coach Mike Rocco, the Lesley University head coach. There are several new players on the team with only nine returnees, since current college seniors aren’t eligible.

Game times still remain 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, along with 5 p.m. Sundays. There are two day games – next Wednesday at 11 and 11 a.m. on Tuesday, July 9 designed for summer camp outings.

The promotional schedule, in the eyes of team VP/Markting and Media Jon Goode is the best it’s been. In including five Friday Night post-game fireworks shows (another also on Wednesday, July 3), and a season-long tribute to Holman turning 75 years old last September. The Nashua Dodgers, Nashua Angels, Nashua Pirates, Nashua Hawks and Nashua Pride will all have special nights in their name. The first is next Saturday with the Dodgers.

As part of that, every time a Silver Knights player hits a home run this season, the team will throw small rubber chickens into the seats, as the Dodgers used to give away actual live baby chicks when they were in Nashua in the mid-1940s. Thursdays, meanwhile, remain Dollar Beer/Fountain Drink Nights.

There are other new things as well, starting with some Kids Area additions. Also, the left field picnic area, basically unused the first two seasons of the franchise, will be used for birthday parties and, Bawmann hopes, eventually return to being used for group outings.

The team averaged 1,200 per game in paid attendance last year, with about 800 actually in the seats. Bawmann is hoping to up both numbers this year, especially the latter one. The team is in the third year of a five-year, year-to-year lease with the city of Nashua.

“When we were out trying to name the team (two years ago), somebody said ‘Call yourself the Short Timers’,” Bawmann said. “We don’t hear that stuff any more. … I think the sentiment has drastically changed.”

Instead, Bawmann said he hears that “Hey, I hear it’s a good time, you guys are doing the right thing, you’re involved in the community.’ So we’re hearing a lot of positive things. But we’ve still got a ways to go. Our goal is that Opening Night is always sold out, and other games are sold out. We still have a lot of work to do, it’s all grassroots stuff.”

Case in point: Bawmann, who lives in Nashua, actually left a note on all his neighbors’ doors inviting them to come to a game. “We need to do more of that,” he said.

The journey continues on Friday and lasts until the final regular season game on Aug. 8 and hopefully, beyond – with perhaps a championship three-peat.

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