Nashua manager Kyle Jackson in the next year or two might not have to argue as many calls if the FCBL looks into using some type of instant replay system, a topic the league may discuss at next week's annual meetings. (Telegraph file phot by TOM KING)

This is the first of two parts previewing the 13th Nashua Silver Knights and Futures Collegiate Baseball League upcoming season.

Today: A look at the FCBL’s off-season and future plans

That peaceful easy feeling.

That was basically the case for the long offseason of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, and that’s just the way FCBL Commissioner Joe Paolucci likes it.

“I like quiet off-seasons,” Paolucci said. “My first three were anything but, with the pandemic and teams coming and going. But we had a productive off-season.”

And now the off-season has come to a quick close for the FCBL and its local entry, the Nashua Silver Knights. The league has an open tryout a week from Friday on May 19 and the 13th season will open up on the following Wednesday, May 24. Nashua has its first three games on the road – the Silver Knights will be at Pittsfield that night, Brockton on Thursday and Worcester on Friday, May 26 before its Holman Stadium opener on Saturday, May 27 at 6 p.m.

“There were some things mostly on the field that needed to be changed in the off-season, and we’re looking forward to see how that all works out,” Paolucci said.

The main change will be the return of the third umpire. The league had gone to that a few years ago, then abandoned it because to save money, the third ump was usually an inexprienced apprentice ump and the controversies were many. Then, going back to just two experienced umps, things in the last year worsened.

“Ive been advocating it for years, and the game is for the players, right?” Paolucci said. “That (three umpires) is what they’re used to, it will cut down on ejections, etc.

“Certainly the cost is always an issue. We weren’t getting NCAA umpires, but those guys (the apprentices) weren’t ready for the speed of the game, and it backfired. It was a disaster.

This one’s on the owners.They’re the ones who had to come up with the money, and they’re all getting a good wage, they’re all going to be NCAA umpires. I think you’ll see much better work from them for the year.”

Paolucci says that the biggest vulnerability with just two umpires was third base.

“You’re never going to see getting a good look on it,” Paolucci said. “And now that some of these schools in Division I have instant replay, the kids are demanding that the call be right.”

One thing also last year there was some confusion as to which NCAA rules they would use and what they wouldn’t. For example, the NCAA had a pitch clock rule with the umpires timing it on their own, and one ump last year called a pitch clock violation. But there will be no pitch clock in the FCBL, despite it being the biggest rage in baseball these days.

“We haven’t discussed it in the off-season,” Paolucci said. “But now that we’re starting to see how it works and how great it’s been, I can see us having discussions about it in the future.”

NASHUA THOUGHTS

Paolucci remains bullish on the Silver Knights and their success under the Creedon family ownership and the leadership of general manager Cam Cook. Last year the team had its first 3,000-plus crowd in nearly a decade with an Education Day sellout in early June – this year’s May 30 Education Day is already a sellout – and attendance was solid, over 1,500 on average. The league lists it as 1,444 but the Education Day crowd was not figured in due to it being listed as an exhibition game because of the different rules provided by students for the game.

“John’s been trying to inject the Worcester model (the Creedons also own the Bravehearts) into Nashua, and it works, right?” Paolucci said. “And I think you’re starting to see that. … It’s just such a welcoming atmosphere. Cam is second to none as a general manager and how he’s able to recruit players, and Kyle is just as good as a manager on the field. The two of them are a great combo.”

Paolucci calls the title run and incredible story because, as he noted, Nashua spent time in just about every place in the standings except first, “and they won it all. So it was an exciting season. And I remember at one point their record was really, really bad. … It was a lot of fun to watch.”

And Nashua remains vital to the league, especially with Holman Stadium.

“Just the history of it alone is important,” Paolucci said. “And no disrespect to any other owners, but having the Creedons own that team and having Cam as the general manger is integral to what they do. There’s always something going on in Nashua. I can’t imagine the league without them, let’s put it that way.”

EXPANSION – OR LACK OF IT

The league will return to a single division, eight team league,with the sameteams: Nashua, fairly nearby Mass. teams Worcester and Brockton, New Britain (Conn.), Norwich (Conn.), Vermont, Westfield (Mass.) and Pittsfield (Mass.). Expansion in this off-season was never seriously considered, Paolucci said, adding to the quite of the off-season. In fact, it’s been the “quietest off season” where expansion inquiries are concerned.

“If someone called me after you and I got off the phone and were interested, it would still be a challenge to get them ready for (even) next year,” Paolucci said. “It would all depend on what their current situation was, if they needed to make ballpark improvements. There’s nothing on the horizon right now.”

Some interest has come from a couple of potential ownership groups in Massachusetts, and as for New Hampshire a bit about Gill Stadium in Manchester, but that was in the past. Nothing recent or concrete for New Hampshre.

Paolucci gave the example of one spot in New England where he and Silver Knights owner John Creedon went to the community only to find just a high school field with bleachers. That’s not what the league is looking for.

“We do want to be picky,” Paolucci said, noting that the league wants facilities that can seat 1,500 to 2,000, “and there’s just not a ton of those places around.”

An even number of teams is always good for scheduling purposes so everyone is playing on a given day/night. But Paolucci said that right now with nothing on the horizon, the odds of getting two new franchises at once are slim. If one was available, the league would not say no to going with nine teams.

“It wouldn’t deter us,” Paolucci said. “We wouldn’t shy away from it because of that.”

STATUS QUO FOR PLAYOFFS

Paolucci says with trying to fit in 64 regular season games per team, the playoff model of four of the eight teams qualifying will remain. In the previous decade, the league often had six teams qualify, with the top two teams getting a bye and the next four playing in single play-in games.

There was talk in the off-season of adding a fifth team to have a No. 4 vs. No. 5 play-in game, but it didn’t fly.

“In order to get those 64 games in for everybody, 32 home openings for everybody, that goes through the first week in August for a regular season,” Paolucci said. “We really only have time for a little over a week for playoffs.

“In an eight-team league you only need four teams anyway. We had some conversations, I know the managers put together a proposal for me to add a team to the playoffs. We presented it to the owners and we decided to stay with what we had. The old if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”

Some of the owners brough up the point that because of the inability to give playoff games promotion well ahead of time, that teams often lose money on those games. “You can’t promote the game, right, because you may not know if you’re playing until two days before,” Paolucci said. “Having it stay at four makes sense for everybody.”

FCBL Commissioner Joe Paolucci says the league enjoyed a quiet off-season, which was just what it needed as it enters its 13th season. (Courtesy photo)

LAST YEAR’S FINALS

Paolucci said the league hopes last year’s exciting final two games of the best-of-three Nashua-Vermont Finals will create even more fan interest for this season.

“The Finals were everything this league is about, it was just exciting baseball,” he said, noticing that some of the postseason rosters are put together before the early August deadline to fill departures of players off what Paolucci called the ‘A’ rosters. And still didn’t fail to disappoint at a loud ballpark on the campus of the Universit of Vermont in mid-August.

“What the Vermont fans brought to that championship game was incredible,” he said. “I remember laughing when they announced the attendance, thinking there were 2,000 more people than that.”

Vermont has developed, under former Nashua Pride owner Chris English, into the FCBL’s flagship franchise. And Paolucci said that when the former New York Penn League franchise shifted to the collegiate wooden bat league model after the minor league contractions of 2020, there was some talk in Burlington that it might not fly. And now it will be the site of the 2023 FCBL All-Star Game.

“Talking to people there, they say they might even like (having a college wooden bat team) better,” he said. “We’re really fortunate to have them.”

Pittsfield, meanwhile, will return to having portable bleachers on the field while the grandstand at historic Wahconah Park remains condemned and the city decides whether to renovate or tear down the park and rebuild.

The Goldklang Group that owns the team, Paolucci said, “is committed to staying there, they’re going to battle through it this year and probably next. The reports we’re getting from them is the city wants to make the necessary improvements, make it up to code, and make it a modern ballpark. Everybody’ willing to wait it out because it’s such a great facility and has such great history there. It’s going to be awhile, but I’m confident they’ll get it up and running.”

Paolucci says the league is happy with progress in Westfield, Mass. and Brockton. “Westfield continues to grow,” he said. “Without having a faciliyt like the other teams do, they get the most out of that ballpark, it’s a great place to watch a game, and some of the things they do to promote their brand is incredible.”

And Brockton, in its second year of new ownership, is still undergoing renovations of Campanelli Stadium, but it’s said to be in much better shape than a couple of years ago with new lighting, etc. Paolucci, who is also the head baseball coach at Weymouth (Mass.) High School, was there two weeks ago when his team was playing and the field itself is green and in great shape – much like Holman Stadium is here now.

“They’ve invested in the field,” he said. “I don’t think it’s all going to be done this year.”

The other noteworthy thing is the Rox have signed former Rivier catcher Marika Lyszczyk, the first female player in the Futures League. “It’s great having the first female player in the league,” Paolucci said. Lyszczyk played for the Raiders a couple of years ago before transferring. Her ability to stick with the Raiders was always snagged with pandemic issues since she was from Canada (Vancouver area).

QUALITY OF PLAY

Paolucci felt last year’s quality of play was “excellent.” He said there is no limit on the number of the “rising stars” or incoming freshmen – players who just graduated from high school – but that teams “have done a really good job of picking the right ones. Cam’s not calling getting the third best player on Nashua South. We’re getting players committed to good college programs.”

Paolucci said he would like to see “more Division I schools represented” but feels the Division II and III players “are just as talented. Sometimes it’s the difference between 5-11, 175 pounds or 6-3, 200 pounds.”

The roster has a 40-man limit. That may be high, but with a 64 game season, Paolucci noted, “there’s a lot of injuries, a lot of kids getting shut down (by their college coaches). That’s why it’s important to make sure there’s a lot of flexibility in our rosters.”

The roster limit was pushed up to 40 in the 2020 pandemic season and it remained. As Paolucci said, there are basically three rosters for a team during the season: the early season roster, that has teams without college players who are in the postseason with their schools and high schoolers who have yet to graduat; then the main roster “that’s going to get you through the bulk of the season” with their top players, and then, finally, and then “you have to build your playoff roster. Try to retain as many of your A-team players that you can, and try to mix and match (with late additions, often from other leagues).”

And, of course, the reason for the high number of games is more business for the teams because it’s a for-profit league.

NESN GAMES

For the fourth straight year, the FCBL will have a few of its games aired live on NESN. The difference this year is the games will be in prime time on Thursday nights.

The Red Sox schedule has no games on four consecutive Thursdays – July 13, July 20, July 27 and Aug. 3. Exact start times aren’t known yet but Paolucci said somewhere around 7 p.m.

“It worked out great,” he said. “It took awhile to get the deal done, we just finished it (two weeks ago).”

The games had previously been on Saturdays, usually at noon before the Red Sox would play later in the day. But it was hurting the gate at the ballparks and, in the case of Holman, the center field camera shot for at-bats would show basically no fans behind home plate because of the sun/heat of the day. Fans would migrate up to the upper bowl for shade.

Meanwhile, will the FCBL ever get to the point when NESN shows a playoff game? “They’d do it, they really like our league,” Paolucci said. “It’s just a matter of working around the Red Sox, the WooSox. One of the options whether it’s our All-Star Game or playoff game is tape delay them. But there is a cost to get the games produced. … I don’t know if a tape delay game makes a ton of sense.”

WORCESTER VS. WORCESTER

It’s Year Two with Knights owner John Creedon’s other franchise, the Worcester Bravehearts, having to deal with having the Red Sox Triple A team competing at times for fans and the advertising dollar.

Paolucci said he’s constantly amazed at the creative promotional abilities of Bravehearts GM Dave Pederson and his staff. Last year Worcester was third in attendance at 1,602 per game. To compare, in 2019 the Bravehearts drew 2,574 per game.

“They know they have to be better every year because of who is down the street,” Paolucci said. “I tell people time and again, ‘Don’t sleep on the Worcester Bravehearts’. They have a great fan base that has stayed committed to them. Yeah, some of those Worcester Braveheart fans are going to go watch the Worcester Red Sox play for sure, but they’re going to come back and watch the Worcester Bravehearts.

“As long as we’re able to make the price right for them and have a great product on the field, there’s no reason why they’re not going to keep coming out there.”

HOME RUN DERBY/STANDINGS

Paolucci said there’s a change in the Home Run Derby – not altering how it’s done, but the losing team will now be awarded a point instead of coming up empty after teams are tied after 10 innngs and the Derby is deployed, with the winner still getting two points. So it’s two points for any win, one for a Derby loss, zero for a regulation loss.

“We decided to incentivize that (losing team) a little bit, that was feedback from the managers,” Paolucci said. “I think it makes sense.

Paolucci likes the lack of a ghost runner in the 10th – he pushed back against a suggestion it be used. “We’re known for the Home Run Derby,” he said. “So why do something that limits it’s use? We were down in the number of HR Derbies last year, so we don’t want to create a rule that brings it down any more.”

BUMMED ABOUT AREND

Paolucci said he was “bummed” to see Katie Arend leave her position as Silver Knights assistant GM as she also did work for the league, helping to develop the Adam Keenan Fund – Keenan was a player for the initial Seacoast franchise that passed away suddenly of a heart ailment just before the start of the inaugural season – growing the annual golf tournament, etc. Arend left in November to do similar work for St.John’s Prep in Danvers, Mass.

“Anybody who’s as good in her job as she was, it’s inevitable they’re going to move on to bigger and better things,” he said.

And, despite the loss, that’s what Paolucci envisions the Futures League will be doing this year and beyond.

Next Week: A look at the updated Silver Knights roster