Wednesday morning, the yellow busses will pull into the Holman Stadium parking lot.

You’ll hear the chatter and shouts of happy kids, freed from the classroom for a day. And you can bet that there will be several adults shouting inside.

That’s because the Nashua Silver Knights are back to start Season 15 of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League.

Yes, it will begin. Holman, with high school baseball and the Silver Knights through mid-June, then the Silver Knights and American Legion baseball through July, and then the Knights the first week-plus of August, will be a busy place.

Will it be busy as we approach mid-August after the Silver Knights regular season ends on the 9th, the time for the FCBL playoffs?

Let’s hope so.

It’s been tough seeing the Holman tenant end its season early, because its late May and all of June have been horrendous the last couple of seasons. Trying to handicap the league is hard, college players filter in in dribs and drabs once the season begins for a lot of teams thanks to the late postseasons.

But there’s a lot new this year. The Knights have a new field boss, former Nashua pitcher Nick Guarino. Guarino was part of perhaps the best Silver Knights team in 2020, and he was also part of one of the worst in 2021, so he’s seen it from both sides. Kyle Jackson, after two non-playoff seasons, wanted a summer with his family. Now, granted, he also took a position with the Futures League as special assistant to the commissioner. It’s a job that, according to Joe Paolucci, will have him visiting all the teams. But he won’t be getting back at 2 a.m.three or four nights a week after a long bus ride. Different deal.

Now, as far as the league concerns, the fact that there are just six teams is a bit concerning, but we get the view from Paolucci and league owners that six strong franchises are better than having six strong and four weak ones. The league expanded too quickly about a dozen years ago and ended up with that type of scenario.

But at some point, it’s time to get moving. The FCBL should be a natural for Lowell, but there’s got to be competition to get into Lelacheur Park. Hopefully, that can be settled. Lots of hoops. We’ve been hearing about Rockland, Mass. for a couple of years now. But the issue is getting the right ownership groups. There are only so many John Creedon, Jrs and Chris Englishes to go around. But this league needs to find them.

Meanwhile, whether it’s good or bad for a team that’s trying to get back to prosperity like Nashua, having only six teams will stiffen the competition. This year there’s no Brockton or a Road Warriors to feast on, and each team’s roster will no doubt be solid. That makes the first three weeks as crucial as the last three.

Now winning or losing may not impact overall attendance, although the Knights were slightly down last year. But bad baseball will; and just the same, so will good baseball. How the games are played are key.

This year the Knights have stepped up their promotional efforts. Former popular Red Sox player Brock Holt will make an appearance on June 6. A huge night, again on a Friday, is June 27 when the ever popular Butch Hobson will return to manage the Knights for at least a couple of innings as a Turn Back The Clock Night honoring the Nashua Pride. Monkey Boy will be here, and the front office has done a lot of work to get ahold of some notables from the former professional independent league franchise that enjoyed 11 seasons at Holman. Good stuff.

The franchise is in great shape. The ownership of the Creedons is solid. It’s hard to believe that the third baseman who led Nashua to a couple of titles eight and nine years ago is now a rising star as a front office executive in the FCBL, but that’s exactly what Cam Cook has become.

It’s amazing sometimes how quickly the off-season goes by, isn’t it? But in just a few days, the 15th Nashua Silver Knights season will begin.

And that, Greater Nashua, is an absolutely great thing.

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