The Hardy Boys: Good Sports

[MacGyver]

Since it came up in another thread, I thought I'd give this its own thread. We all know Frank and Joe Hardy are superb athletes who take care to keep themselves fit and in shape. They primarily do this through participating in a variety of sports. I thought it would be fun to try to list all the various sports that they have played at one time or another and all the books they show up in. (As well as sports that they have had some form of exposure to or experience with even if they did not participate in the sport themselves. For example, they got to see a number of sports at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Sabotage at Sports City [#115 in The Hardy Boys Digests], but they weren't participating in them.)
For starters, I know that Frank and Joe are both mentioned as being on the Track & Field team and the football team at Bayport High School in various volumes of the Grossett & Dunlap first 58 books. [This may be strictly revised text, but I'm thinking this was probably also true in the original text.] They play basketball in Jump Shot Detectives [#4 in The Hardy Boys Clues Brothers series] and Slam Dunk Sabotage [#140 in The Hardy Boys Digests] and they solve a mystery involving basketball in Fast Break [#107 in The Hardy Boys Casefiles- I can't recall if either Frank or Joe are seen playing bball themselves, though I think they're also on the school team in this book.]

[Hardy Sleuth]

I really like the clever subject title "The Hardy Boys: Good Sports", MacGyver  The revised text editions are the ones I know as opposed to the original ones, although I would be interested in reading them all. Clue of the Broken Blade and Sea You, Sea Me - fencing;  Super Sleuths, One False Step - gymnastics; The Smoke Screen Mystery, Slip, Slide, and Slap Shot, Ice Cold Case - hockey; Height of Danger, Danger in the Extreme - snowboarding and also in Danger in the Extreme - sky-surfing and snocross; Training for Trouble - archery, judo, cross country skiing, biathlon; Board to Death - skateboarding; Motocross Madness - motocross and in The Melted Coins - Lacrosse was mentioned. 

[MacGyver]

I really like the clever subject title "The Hardy Boys: Good Sports", MacGyver   

Thanks.

Yeah- this list could go on for quite a while. Radical Moves covered skateboarding too.

[SDLagent]

In the Original series both Frank and Joe are on the high school football team. Frank is QB but I don't remember what Joe plays. By the late Digests Frank has left the team to focus on his studies.

I think The Tower Treasure mentions that Joe is also a tennis player. In the Casefiles and Digests Frank and Joe both play baseball. They're on the basketball team in one of the later Digests.

In the UB Frank is on the swim team and the track team. Joe is a sprinter on the track team and plays on a college football team in Foul Play despite at least one earlier book mentioned that Fenton didn't like his boys playing football.

So, pretty much, Frank and Joe are good at every sport!

[tomswift2002]

In the Original texts it is mentioned that th boys converted barn, while housing their laboratory on the top floor, also had a gymnasium on the bottom floor with parallel bars, a trampoline and a few other workout machines.  If you haven't read the 1928 version of "The Missing Chums" then you are missing a very funny scene that Leslie McFarlane put into the story in the barn's gym.

Numerous texts, both Classic and Casefiles have the boys swimming.

The boys go horseback riding in a number of books, and work with F1 teams in "Collision Course", Casefiles #33 and "Out Of Control" in the SuperMystery'88 series, plus the Classic Series #112 "Demolition Mission" has the boys in a stock car derby.

"The Shattered Helmet" (Classic #52) has the boys participating in some dirt bike races (kind of like "Motocross Madness").

Plus the boys play hockey in the Classic #105 "The Smoke Screen Mystery"; the younger Hardy's play hockey (along with Joe quite literally falling for a figure skater) in he Clues Brothers book "Slip, Slide and Slapshot".

Both versions of Classic 15 feature horse racing.

The boys also play baseball in Classic 63 "The Mummy Case"; Casefiles 63 has the boys and Chet working out at a new gym in Bayport.

Classic 161 has the boys working out at an Olympic training facility.

[Hardy Sleuth]

A  lot of great books mentioned on this thread, MacGyver, SDLagent, and Tomswift2002! I've read some of them, some I want to read again, and some I'm really looking forward to reading. Oh, have to add skydiving from several books, too.

In the UB Frank is on the swim team and the track team. Joe is a sprinter on the track team and plays on a college football team in Foul Play despite at least one earlier book mentioned that Fenton didn't like his boys playing football.

Foul Play I've read and like. That other book you mentioned, I haven't read it yet, and I'm wondering if the writer maybe is saying Fenton didn't want them to risk getting injured playing football because it is more important to be fighting crime. Is that how it seemed in that book? Any sport runs the risk of injury, just that was the one being talked about right then.

[Bigfootman]

Here's a good blog article on "Foul Play", and how much things it got wrong:
http://hardyboysdigests.blogspot.ca/2008/11/foul-play-undercover-brothers-19_30.html

[MacGyver]

Hmmm-wow. Well, while it is a fictional book and the author is allowed some creative license... it's also good to at least do some research on your topic if it's not one you're readily familiar with. Oh well- hopefully the actual mystery in the story was good enough to make up for the shortcomings in the backdrop.

[Hardy Sleuth]

I didn't take time to read the blog article. I like things to be realistic and I enjoyed the action, humor, and mystery in Foul Play, and the brothers were written well, which is very important to me and makes the book successful in my mind. Balancing all things, the book is a good one.

[tomswift2002]

Oh, yeah, the boy's do some skydiving in Classic 67 "The Outlaw's Silver" and ballooning in Classic 53 "The Clue of the Hissing Serpent" and Casefiles 113 "Sky High".

[Hardy Sleuth]

Cool. 

[SDLagent]

A  lot of great books mentioned on this thread, MacGyver, SDLagent, and Tomswift2002! I've read some of them, some I want to read again, and some I'm really looking forward to reading. Oh, have to add skydiving from several books, too.

Foul Play I've read and like. That other book you mentioned, I haven't read it yet, and I'm wondering if the writer maybe is saying Fenton didn't want them to risk getting injured playing football because it is more important to be fighting crime. Is that how it seemed in that book? Any sport runs the risk of injury, just that was the one being talked about right then.

Yeah, pretty much. I mean, why get hurt playing football when you can get hurt fighting crime?

[tomswift2002]

Here's a good blog article on "Foul Play", and how much things it got wrong:
http://hardyboysdigests.blogspot.ca/2008/11/foul-play-undercover-brothers-19_30.html

Unfortunately the author of that blog seems to be rather negative towards all the books published since 1979, so while he does point out errors, for the most part I found his reviews to be rather unfair to the books from the later-Classic series and Casefiles.

[MacGyver]

Yeah- it's definitely meant to be a snarky, sarcastic look at The Hardy Boys (which can be funny at times, but also gets a bit crude for my tastes too...)

[SDLagent]

I actually enjoyed Foul Play. That blog is pretty funny though.