relic52 wrote:
I read the novel back in the summer of 1970 and was a huge fan of the movie growing up watching it on TV maybe 35 times.  Of course I purchased the video when it came out and later the wide-screen version for DVD.  I'm a big fan of the music too and have the Original Broadway Cast LP.  The choreography in the movie was early Bob Fosse and the "Two Lost Souls" is very special.  The opening atmosphere of the movie like the novel was unforgettable and I especially love the small-town America feel about Joe's home.  My favorite part of the movie is Hardy's first AB as a pinch hitter beginning with the drama of the PA announcement.  The stuff of dreams.

I've been toying for years an idea about taking one of the Senators teams of the late 50s and including a Joe Hardy.  He'd be 'terrific off the boards' to say the least and having Roy Sievers batting behind Joe might reduce some of the intentional walking.  I'd add him according to the time frame of the movie and begin adjusting other Senator players as they respond to his presence (like modifying all clutch ratings to "terror" - improving defensive ratings - improving the stamina ratings of hurlers) to reflect Joe's impact on the team's belief that they could beat the Yankees and quite frankly, see if the DMB Senators could make a pennant run in a "what-if."

You know, as a kid I expected to see Joe Hardy listed in the baseball encyclopedia. 

Just a few random comments about some of things in this thread.

First, I actually had the fun of seeing Damn Yankees on Broadway in the mid-1950s and was in Griffith Stadium on the Saturday afternoon when the crowd scenes for the movie version were shot in 1958. It was, of course, a game against the Yankees. That was only time when the folks from Hollywood could be sure that there would be a respectable crowd at Griffith Stadium. As I recall, there were about 20,000 in the stands, far better than the normal 5000 for almost any other team.

Gwen Verdon played Lola and Ray Walston played Mr. Applegate in both the stage and film versions. In many respects, Walston had the best role and he stole the show both on the stage and on the screen.  A guy named Stephen Douglass played Joe Hardy on Broadway. That role was played by Tab Hunter in the film version. I don't remember anything about Douglass, but Tab Hunter, of course, was the prototypical crew cut, blond, blue eyed all-American boy. I remember contemporary writers saying how much he resembled another crew cut, blond, blue eyed all-American boy--Mickey Mantle of the hated Yankees. Being only about 15 at the time, I must admit that I didn't see much difference between Verdon's performance in either medium and I liked her in both. But, she was really a stage actress so I can certainly understand why some said she was miscast in the film version.

Now, a bit more about Griffith Stadium. From the beginning it was located in an African-American neighborhood--Le Droit Park. In the early part of the 20th century Le Droit Park was the home of Washington's middle class black elite. Although DC was legally segregated until the 1950s, due in large part to the federal government, segregation and race relations were less oppressive in the Washington area than in most other places to the south. As a result, Washington had a sizeable black middle class even before segregation ended and Le Droit Park was where most of the black middle class lived. It was the location of Howard University and, in fact, when DC Stadium (later RFK Stadium) became the home of the Senators starting in 1962, the Howard University Hospital was build on the location of the demolished Griffith Stadium.

One of the wonderful quirks about Griffith Stadium was the notch in the center field wall that was built around a large tree. When Senator's owner Clark Griffith build the stadium around 1910 he attempted to purchase and then tear down all of the houses behind the right and center field walls. He was successful in most cases. However, the person who owned the house (and tree) behind the center field wall refused to sell forcing Griffith to build around both the house and the tree. As with so many of the old ball parks, that quirk ended up adding to its charm.

The Senators' teams of the 1950s did contain some solid players--Mickey Vernon, Eddie Yost, Pete Runnels, Jim Busby, Bob Porterfield, Jackie Jensen, and later Roy Sievers, Camilo Pascual, Pedro Ramos, and a very young Harmon Killebrew, Bob Allison, and Early Battey among others. In fact, in both 1952 and 1953 the Senators finished in 5th and played .500 ball, quite good for that normally bedraggled franchise. Unfortunately, the solid talent was pretty few and far between. There were also plenty of guys around like Herb Plews, who may have been the worst middle infielder I have ever seen, and the Senators were usually a 7th or 8th place team.

Finally, the trade of one of the Senators' few strong players, Jackie Jensen, was the reason I have been a Red Sox fan since 1954. Jensen was my favorite player and, as a 10-year old kid, I took it personally when Jensen was traded from the Senators to the Red Sox after the 1953 season. If the Senators were going to be creepy enough to trade my favorite player, they didn't deserve my loyalties and my loyalties went with Jensen to Boston. Of course, although I didn't realize it at the time, the trade was very much to Jensen's benefit: he got to leave the massive left field of Griffith Stadium for the Green Monster and he got to bat behind Ted Williams. As a result, his home run totals more than doubled and he regularly began to drive in 100+ runs per season. He lead the AL in RBI's most seasons from 1955-1959. He was the AL MVP in 1958. Of course, batting behind the slow moving, often-on-base, Williams had its disadvantages. In 1954, Jensen set an AL record for grounding into double plays (32) that stood until another power hitting Red Sox outfielder, Jim Rice, broke it about 30 years later.

I'll close with one bit of Jackie Jensen trivia. In addition to being a great baseball player, he was an All-American running back with Cal. in 1948 and played in the 1949 Rose Bowl against Northwestern. As a result, he was the only person to ever play in a World Series, a baseball All Star game, the Rose Bowl, and the East-West Shrine football game.