The 1993 Phillies’ listening tastes leaned toward hard-rock Whitesnake so it’s doubtful many were familiar with a classic Broadway musical whose plot, perhaps better than more-logical rationales, explains the wildly implausible summer when they delighted a city that recognized itself in them.
In “Damn Yankees,” Joe Boyd, a long-suffering Washington Senators fan, makes a deal with the devil, surrendering his soul to guarantee a pennant for the perennial American League doormats.
A quarter-century later, the improbable National League title won by the ’93 Phillies, a collection of mulleted misfits who finished last in 1992 and would revert to sub-.