The Story, Damn Yankees 1805

      This morning's song in my head is “You gotta have heart;” it is from the movie “Damn Yankees.” The story is about an old man in the fifties who always wanted to be a baseball player but never got beyond high school ball. Now he sits in his chair from April through September watching the Washington Senators lose game after game, especially to the Yankees. One evening he swears out loud he would sell his soul for the Senators to beat the Yankees and win the pennant. He turns the TV off and walks out on the front porch of his home. There standing on the porch is the devil, not looking like the picture above; the picture above is how I imagined the devil. In the movie the devil is a small, unimposing, well-dressed man. They talk and the devil convinces him that he could make the man's dream happen in exchange for the man's soul after the regular season. It all sounds good and the old man even wrangles a possible “out clause” in the deal, in case the Senators do not win the pennant. The Senators were at the time in 7th place half way through the season. The devil agrees and turns the old man into a young man and arranges for him to get on the team. The young man is now a real slugger and brings the team into contention by the last days of the season. The season ends on September 25th, but the devil being sly, had the contract with the man set to end on September 24th. The season will end in a series with the Yankees and it happens that the Senators are tied for the pennant with the Yankees. The young man must decide to stay beyond the 24th and win the pennant or quit and go back to being an old man, knowing the Senators would lose the last game on the 25th and not win the pennant. I am purposely not telling you how the story ends,that would make me become a spoiler. I will admit I fast-forwarded through the song and dance routines except for the "You Gotta Have Heart" routine.
      I was raised believing there is a devil, but always thought the devil would appear as some bizarre, grisly, ugly creature and being that way, it would be easy to defy him. I know this was just a movie, but it gave me a new idea about what the devil would be and how convincing a devil could be.
      Now I have to wonder just how many people may have sold their soul for something they wanted more than life itself? I could certainly name dozens of subjects who would likely fit into that category, but then I would wonder if I was lured into that by an even more stealthy devil than the one depicted in the movie.