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NORTH BEND — Meg hates April.

Her complaint is that her husband ignores her for six months after the start of baseball season, but there are a few key things she has going for her that keep it from being worse.

For one thing, the lack of sports channels and recording technology circa 1958 significantly limits his viewing time.

Also, she’s a bridge player, so if her club is any good, she should have a decent chance of making it until September without missing him.

And while six months is a long time to go ignored, it’s better than seven. As a resident of Chevy Chase, Md., her husband isn’t exactly a baseball fan; he’s a Washington Senators fan — and she never has to worry about that team playing in October.

Hopeless fans may have thought only divine intervention could bring the perennially losing team an American League championship, but it’s intervention of another kind that occurs in “Damn Yankees,” a musical opening tonight at Little Theatre on the Bay in North Bend.

At the conclusion of another hard-fought early-season Senators loss, Joe Boyd (George Nixon) delivers his expert analysis from his easy chair: All the team needs is one long-ball hitter. And it’s such a desperate need that he would sell his soul for them to have one.

Mr. Applegate (Byrell Justice) has a better offer: Joe could be the team’s savior, and the greatest player ever, by trading his real estate career and Archie Bunker physique for that of a 22-year-old phenom. The salesman with the abilities to appear invisible and light cigarettes with only his finger says he can make it happen.

Joe realizes who he’s dealing with but is nonetheless willing to deal. But instead of an outright sale, the two agree to what is essentially a six-month lease on Joe’s soul with an option to buy — Joe will have exactly one opportunity to go back, at midnight on Sept. 24.

It hasn’t been more than a few minutes since Meg (Luanne May) went to bed, but he opts to say goodbye to her picture, which amounts to more conversation than they’ve had all night. (They must spend an awful lot of quality time together in the off-season to end up missing each other so much later.) Then he grabs his cleats, and before he can finish packing, his transformation to Joe Hardy (Alexander Rich) occurs.

Applegate lands Joe a tryout with Senators manager Bennie Van Buren (Tim Novotny), who offers him a spot on a farm team. But in order to make it as an all-star before his gut turns back into a pumpkin, Joe insists on getting to the majors now and asks for another look at his can’t-miss hitting. Van Buren agrees, much to the delight of Joe’s new teammates (Trevor Berrian, Anthony Slaight, Roy Kay, Clint Guevara, Adam Langenstein and Jeremy Yost).

Soon Joe takes the team from seventh place (out of eight) in the league to second, but the success also means media attention. He’s fine with having his face on a billboard, but when local sportswriter Gloria Thorpe (Alyssa Birrer) wants to know all about him, Joe finds he’s not a good enough liar to invent a background. He refuses an interview, saying all reporters are liars and crooks. At the behest of team owner Mr. Welch (Wes Shultz), Joe tells her he’s from Hannibal, Mo., but becomes evasive when pressed further.

Joe also displays a curious fondness for older women in spending his down time in Chevy Chase, having rented a room from Meg. Though he hadn’t paid much attention to her before, Joe admits he didn’t know what he had until it was gone.

Applegate tries to solve this problem by fixing Joe up with Lola (Theresa Erskine), a tall, 172-year-old professional homewrecker who claims to have slept with George Washington (despite having been 13 at the time of his death). But her advances give Joe a look of sheer terror rarely seen on the face of a professional athlete.

According to his teammates, fans, Meg, her friends (Jeanette Sprague and Joyce Kemp) and Lola, the reason Joe remains stalwart in the face of temptation is his noble character. It seems along with his athletic prowess, the devil inadvertently endowed Joe with a superior conscience. Somehow everyone he knows is willing to attest to his incorruptibility; but the irony that he was already corrupted when he made the deal is lost in Joe’s own belief in his virtue.

As the season winds down, Joe brings the Senators to within one game of clinching the league championship and a World Series berth (there were no playoffs at the time). But when Gloria uncovers a scandal that could ruin his career, Joe feels he must clear his name — or rather his assumed name — before his time with it expires.

As the big Yankees-Senators game looms, everything Joe cares about could fall apart — which would be just the sort of luck both teams had come to expect.

The show is directed by Jim Thornton and Josephine Morrison with choreography by Sally Ford. Musical director Steve Simpkins leads an orchestra comprising Dustin Dillon, Peggy Christiansen, Judy Snyder, Wilbur Jensen, Ian Stromquist, Brian Feger, Kai Sandoval, Dave Bucher, Bill Harsh, Dan McGraw, Trevor Edd and Janice Kendall. The cast also includes Alan Spjut, Bob Berry, Ken Erskine, Yvonne Frey, Bill Movius, Kay Pace, Michelle Guevara and Ona Clay.

The show runs through March 2, with performances at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and at 2 p.m. Sundays except for Feb. 24. Tickets are $12 at the door; discounts are available for seniors, students and children on advance purchase tickets only.