Last year's first of two Education Days early in the season drew nearly 3,000 students to Holman Stadium to open the 2025 Nashua Silver Knights season. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – And so it begins, for the 16th time.

Yes, the longest tenured franchise to play at Holman Stadium, Nashua Silver Knights 16th season starts Wednesday morning here at 10:30, a near three-months of baseball, baseball and, they hope, more baseball.

Nashua starts what is now seemingly tradition, a mid-week Education Day opening vs. the Vermont Lake Monsters. The players are expected to report to Holman Stadium beginning today for meetings with a possible workout, weather permitting. They’ll also be on the field on Tuesday for a workout, likely the first half of the day.

The Silver Knights are coming off a success in the stands for 2025, as they had a franchise best average announced attendance of 1,625 fans – surpassing their 2023 mark by, well, one fan (1,624).

And now 2026 promises to be a special season, as for the first time since 2018, Holman will be the site of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League All-Star Game on Tuesday, July 21. It will be Nashua’s third time hosting the FCBL event, as it also hosted the first one in 2012.

Also special is the fact Nashua now will have a rival literally just down the road, as Lowell, Mass. joins the league in a revival of the once extremely popular Lowell Spinners at LeLacheur Park. Nashua will be the opponent for the Spinners historic return to the field next Friday night, May 29, and Lowell will be the opponent for what the Knights consider their OpeningNight on Saturday, May 30.

However, on the field, Nashua’s main objective is to end a stunning three-year playoff drought.Las season a double-digit losing streak turned a 20-18, near playoff certainty into a 2-17 finish and another non-playoff year.

Has it impacted the business side?

“Maybe a tiny bit,” Silver Knights general manager Cam Cook said, as many of the die-hard season ticket holder become as frustrated as the team. “But where it does matter is if you get the playoffs, you get more home games. If you make the playoffs (and advance), you get two more home openers, at least.

“But the game to game thing, no. Last year’s Nashua Pride game that we lost (featuring the return of Butch Hobson and the ever-popular Monkey Boy), I don’t think anybody remembers that we lost that game.

“But when it’s a Tuesday, and it’s (just) the Holman faithful, and they’re like ‘This sucks’ (if the Knights are losing) I don’t blame them. I love that they are like that.”

The All-Star Game at Holman will bring a sense of excitement as well, whether the season is going well on the field or not. Former Red Sox Jonny Gomes, one of the more personable members of the 2013 World Series championship team, will take part in the pre-game Home Run Derby, and be around after to sign autogragphs and mingle with fans to spice things up even further.

“The All-Star Game I’m super excited about,” Cook said. “It’s going to be awesome. We had that here in 2018, but it was the one year I wasn’t involved year so I’ve never seen an All-Star Game here. The Jonny Gomes component in the Home Run Derby will be very, very cool. There’s some other cool components of that sponsorship wise, we’ll have kids on the field shagging (fly balls), which will be local, like Nashua PAL or Boys & Girls Club/AAU teams.”

Cook feels it will be motivating for the Knights players because they’ll want to play in the game here, and for the fans to come.

Also making appearances, beginning next Saturday night as well as the All-Star Game will be the World Famous Monkey Boy. It was thought last year at the Nashua Pride Night that Chris Ames was retiring, but he opted to give it a go for at least another year.

Also this year, the Silver Knights will be playing two exhibition games against the Keene Swamp Bats of the rival New England Collegiate Baseball League. The one at Holman is set for July 13.

In terms of ticket sales and sponsorships, Cook said “We’re right where we need to be. It was a slow start – sponsorship is great – but it was a slow start ticket sales wise because of the miserable winter and how it seemed to drag forever made us get a little bit of a late start on ticket sales. Who can think about baseball when there’s still snow on the ground in April, but we came out of that with a nice buzz and the start of the baseball season and some games are starting to fill up, which is nice to see.”

One game, June 18, which is vs. the Spinners and will be televised on NESN, is Youth Sports Night has a four-figure advance sale already. “It would be awesome if we can sell this place out on live NESN,” Cook said.

Cook echoed Spinners COO Tim Bawmann’s comments here last week that the Spinners haven’t taken away any of Nashua’s business. In fact, the thinking is they can both benefit from each other, with fans of both traveling to the other’s venue.\

“Every time they come here we’re going to get 50 to 100 more people, eery time we go there they’re going to get 50 to 100 more people,” Cook said.

Wednesday is the first of two Education Day Games, as the team drew so well on them beginning a few years ago it added a second last year. The first one at last look was close to being sold out but not quite – meaning non-student fans could possibly still get a ticket – but the second one, a week later on June 4, is sold out. Fans should check with the team to be sure on Wednesday. Season ticket holders for these games are usually given spots in the luxury suites, and senior citizen groups go there as well.

Other than the Education Day 10:30 a.m. Games and the special July 4, 10:30 a.m. Seven-inning game, game times are still 6:03 p.m. on weeknights and Saturdays, and 3 p.m. on Sundays.Gates open an hour before game time.

What else is new? You may notice the completely renovated structure above the Kids Zone that used to be another press box years ago and had deteriorated. The city basically re-did the entire two-floor structure and once a fire capacity has been established, the Knights will begin selling it as basically another suite that can be rented and will be catered like a luxury suite.. The team is calling it “The Watch Tower.”

“It is a really cool spot to watch the game,” Cook said.

The city also put in new modern lights in the stadium, and the advantage is that they can be turned on immediately rather than needing long warmup time.

Some of the usual promotional events will take place, can be found on the team’s website, but one unique promotion this year will be the Knights’ efforts to promote mental health awareness. For every home run the Silver Knights hit, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care will donate $100 to Greater Nashua Mental Health. That will also pertain to the All-Star Game’s Home Run Derby for all participants.

It all starts with Breakfast at Holman on Wednesday.