NASHUA – Monkey Boy was just doing his monkey best to entertain the crowd.

He didn’t deserve the blindside and inexplicable tackle he got from a Martha’s Vineyard Sharks player at the Nashua Silver Knights game Saturday night at Holman Stadium.

Chris “Monkey Boy” Ames was performing at the Saturday game, which the Silver Knights won to clinch a spot in the first Future Collegiate Baseball League playoffs.

After a few minutes of Ames’ hopping, gyrating, pseudo-stripping performance that took him in front of the stands behind home plate, a young man wearing a purple T-shirt, shorts and a white baseball hat on backward flew into the frame from the right, grabbed Monkey Boy around the neck and threw him to the ground before fleeing back toward the Sharks dugout along the third-base line.

Monkey Boy appeared shaken, holding his head and stumbling slightly as he got to his feet, then looked and gestured toward the Sharks dugout before deciding to make the best of it, jogging off the field and waving to the booing crowd.

The offending Shark, whoever he was, reportedly was kicked off the team, according to a Silver Knights spokesman. Police at the game spoke with Ames about the WWF maneuver but nothing else came of it, according to police.

“It was kind of uncalled for,” Silver Knights spokesman Justin Hannan said. “He got hit pretty good, but he wasn’t hurt. I think he was just embarrassed.”

Calls to the Sharks for comment were unsuccessful. Ames also didn’t return phone calls.

Meanwhile, the YouTube video of the encounter is getting quite a bit of attention, according to its owner, Nashua resident Christine Humber. TrueTV and the MLB Network have contacted her for permission to use it, and it has appeared on a number of sports blogs this week.

Humber said the crowd and Silver Knights players were clearly upset by the attack.

Hannan said Monkey Boy was hired because a number of focus groups that the Knights held said his performances during Nashua Pride games were a fan favorite.

Humber said she has fond memories of bringing her family to those games, and Monkey Boy was a part of that.

“It took our family back to another time,” Humber said. “We have a real fondness for baseball in this city and Holman. Monkey Boy is just part of that, that picture and that time.”

Humber said she has a hard time explaining what happened to people because it sounds funny until you see the video.

“It upset me, too. I was angry. I was shocked,” she said. “That’s not funny at all, because he never saw it coming. It was completely uncalled for. It was completely unprovoked, in my opinion.”

Hannan said Ames was checked out by medical staff as a precaution but was deemed healthy.

Joseph G. Cote can be reached at 594-6415 or jcote@nashuatelegraph.com. Also, check Cote out on Twitter (@Telegraph_JCote).