Fiasco on the Fourth.

As if the Nashua Silver Knights performance was bad enough in front of an announced crowd of 2,460 the first part of Thursday’s holiday, those same fans wore a perplexed look when apparently in the top of the ninth the city of Nashua told the team literally to get off its lawn.

The great feelings of the last two July 4 games, a discovery that yes, the city and its fans could have baseball at Holman Stadium to celebrate the Fourth of July, almost went up in smoke. Long story short: Apparently, according to all involved, fire officials needed time to safely set up the show for later Thursday night out behind the Holman left field wall. That also meant trucking in the equipment, etc. Anytime during that unloading and setup process, no one can be within 300 feet of it, left field wall or not. That takes the limit to about 20-30 feet just beyond the Holman infield.

Thus, with the Westfield Starfires about to load the bases with nobody out in the top of the ninth and Nashua down 6-0, and the hour of 2 p.m. getting close, Silver Knights GM Cam Cook after getting the word from the city gathered the umpires, managers, etc. and told them the game had to end. Hey, you can’t fight City Hall, right?

The problem was, no one told Cook in advance, according to the GM, that there was a time limit. “The fire marshall came over and said the game had to stop immediately,” he said. “We played an 11 a.m.nine-inning game last year, no issue. And the whole thing started when we played a seven inning game in 2022, and the game ended way too early. So last year we did a nine inning game, no problem. And this year, apparently, it was a problem. I guess we’ll make adjustments (for next year).”

Last year was a little different, because rain in the afternoon doused the fireworks.

The Knights played two very good games the last two July 4 holidays. This year, with their struggline bullpen, Thursday’s game dragged. But still, Cook was adamant that no one from the team was informed there was a time limit, and went through his emails on his phone to show that. Cook is as meticulous and detailed as it gets, and there was clearly a communication mishap.

And gas was almost thrown on the fire when the big throng of kids waiting to run the bases – a great post-game tradition – were first told they couldn’t. Thankfully, wiser heads prevailed.

But, as one or two onlookers said about the whole thing, “Not a good look.”

Yikes, the only good thing was it put the Knights out of their misery early as they were about as lackluster as it could get in a 6-0 game. It was a good thing it wasn’t a close game otherwise fans would’ve been irate. But in a separate issue, the other bad look was the team’s play on the field, as one Silver Knights player after was bemoaning the late return from a road game the night before and that Westfield had a lot more sleep. Well, the Starfires played a high scoring game in Brockton, Mass. the night before, went back to Westfield and then drove back east to Nashua. You do the math. And they came out yesterday morning swinging.

As for the city, Cook told The Telegraph later Thursday that he talked with city officials and was told there were some changes with the “blast zone and unloading for fireworks this year. Not an issue we ever ran into because there were no fireworks last year on our game day and Year 1 was historically fast. Good talk, and we’ll have a solid plan for next year’s game.”

That’s good to hear, but somebody tell the city that good talk needed to be had well in advance. Hopefully, this won’t cancel the tradition. And hopefully, the team won’t have to play a seven-inning game. Do a nine inning contest, and start at 10 or 10:30. Fans will still show up, you can believe it. And they deserve a game. FCBL games don’t normally take more than three hours or just over, especially if the pitching is good. Even quicker then.

The city annually has all sorts of activities – concert, Holman Legends Induction, etc. planned. A game should be part of that.

The city-team partnership has worked like a charm, by all indications, over the years. It should continue that way as long as there’s no overreaction from either side. Heck, the city picks up the tab for 500 fans to be able to attend the July game, it’s been clearly a private-public partnership.

But really, the Fourth is supposed to be about fun, and yes, safety. The last couple of years, it’s also been a celebration of communication between the city and its Futures Collegiate League baseball team.

Let’s get back to that next year.

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