NASHUA – The Stars are coming out today/tonight at Historic Holman Stadium, and one All-Star will likely shine the most.

While the players go in and out of the lineup of the Futures Collegiate League All-Star game, typical in such an affair, there will be one constant: the stadium itself.

HHS gates will open at 3:30 p.m. as the Nashua Silver Knights will host the entire league today for an event that includes the FCBL Home Run Derby (4:30) and then the game between the Bikers and Hikers at about 6:03 p.m.. But in all the planning of nearly half a year, and bringing in special guests like former Red Sox standouts Bill Lee and Butch Hobson (the latter former Nashua Pride manager and the city’s Favorite Son), plus Home Run Derby contestant Jonny Gomes, the emphasis was clear: Baseball history and the stadium in which it took place would be celebrated.

“This was the start of all integration within baseball,” Lee said at an All-Star Eve function held out in the left field picnic area. “It’s Nashua (with the 1946 Nashua Dodgers, Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella) and Montreal (Jackie Robinson). It all started right here. This is a special field in baseball. Forever.”

“There’s just something special about this stadium,” Hobson said. “When you walk in, it’s old school. … Every opportunity I have to come up here, I do.”

As Knights owner John Creedon, Jr. (he and his sister Julie own the club) said, “People sometimes ask why a couple of folks from Worcester, Massachusetts fell in love with a baseball stadium in Nashua, New Hampshire, the answer was pretty simple. The first time I walked through these gates, I knew this place was different.

“You can’t manufacture history, you can’t create tradition overnight. You can’t fake the feeling that a place like (Holman) gives you.”

Also on hand was the author of “The Chosen City”, Bill Ranauro, as his book detailed the events that had the Dodgers bringing Newcombe and Campanella to Nashua – and Holman. Its theme was featured prominently in a talk by Creedon.

TONIGHT’S LOGISTICS

Again the HR Derby, weather permitting, will get underway at 4:30 p.m. with the game to take place at 6:03 p.m. or about a half hour after the Derby ends. Players in the Derby include Nashua’s Connor Smith, Worcester’s Julian Mercado, Westfield’s Morrie Fried, Norwich’s Shaun Flannery, New Britain’s George Slauson and Lowell’s Cam Biller. There will be 10 outs per batter, but if one hits a ball 400 feet he gets an 11th out. There will be one round, then the top two will have another round with Gomes.

Meanwhile, Nashua’s Will Perkowski (2-0, 3.28) will get the nod as the starting pitcher for the “Bikers, managed by Nashua’s Nick Guarino and Vermont’s Matt Fincher. Other Nashua players on the team include outfielders Smith and Phoenix Williams, plus pitchers Nigel Cross and Brandon Metivier.

The “Hikers” are managed by Matt Gedman (New Britain) and former Silver Knights reliever Zach Gitschier (Norwich).

A near sellout crowd is expected – if there’s a walkup, it will go fast, Knights GM Cam Cook said – and there will be two points of entry for the stadium: the main gate but also an entrance in right field. The Knights secured the football field beyond right field for additional parking. “It’s great, you can fit 100 more cars here than you could before,” Cook said.

Fans looking for all the logistical information and schedule of events – there is a beer garden in left field during the HR Derby – visit the team’s web site, and click on tab or use nashuasilverknights.com/asg.

“It is super, super detailed,” Cook said. “Everything will be nonstop.”

In the stadium that never stops being an All-Star.