Watch closely, and you'll see the impact of baseball on Sam Baldwin's life-changing decision.
Maggie Baldwin (portrayed by Carrie Lowell, who looks like she could be Ryan's sister) is seen only briefly, but powerfully in two tender scenes. Sam either sees her spirit, or she's a figment of his imagination, when he falls asleep on the couch alone on New Year's Eve. In a few short words, we see her humor and kindness, then, we see her helplessness and sadness. She can't do anything to truly help Sam, and then she's gone.
But it's a scene early in the movie that sets the stage for Sam's life-altering realization. A co-worker approaches him at his desk, gently handing his widowed colleague a card, nudging him to see "his shrink." Sam's response is deeply defensive. He unloads his pocket, full of cards others have handed him, hoping to support him in grief. Sam immediately regrets his anger, and apologizes.
When Sam suggests getting Jonah away from there, his co-worker agrees. "Take Jonah fishing," he encourages.
Sam replies, "No. Somewhere where I don't see Maggie everywhere I go."
The flashback that follows confirms that, not only are the Baldwins Chicago Cubs fans, but Maggie's spirit is far too present, too connected to Wrigley Field. Sam can't even go to a Cubs game without his wife there. A whole stadium is now off-limits.. And so, he decides to move his sleepless routine far away, where it "rains nine months out of the year." Where the retractable roof at Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners, has been closed "eight of the stadium's18,5 seasons being closed 19-23 percent of the time," wrote Scott Sistek for the KOMO News. Where Maggie doesn't follow him to baseball games, he seems to theorize.
Heartbroken Sam could've thought about any place he'd made memories with Maggie and Jonah. He could've recalled their wedding day, or a night spent playing cards by candlelight at home where, one could argue, he likely has the most memories of her. But in his mind, exhausted with those memories, Sam remembers a Cubs game. The slow motion image, very briefly, tells a story. Baseball was family time. Maggie was a baseball lover. She loved flowy dresses. That last one isn't important, but she looks lovely.
Sam Baldwin is a brilliant character because he's written with a broad brush, and portrayed with many emotional layers; in the simplest terms; you're getting to know him even in the last frame of the 1993 blockbuster. And we never fully see that emotional reserve overflow, until the moment he finds his son on top of the Empire State Building, and wonders if he's done everything wrong.
Annie played by Meg Ryan is searching too, but quite differently from Sam. As an anxiety-riddled woman who loves her fiance, she's troubled by the a nagging sense that he's not the right person for her. Her feeling of connection with Sam starts via a radio show, with "Doctor Marsha," listening in as she drives home from a Christmas feast, announcing her engagement to Walter (oh, Bill Pullman, you loveable, alergic mess). Jonah called in to let radio listenders know his Dad needs a "new wife." And Dr. Marsha is happy to help. Listeners are hooked by the sad story of father and son, alone and still grieving.
Before the fateful phone call she witnesses along with thousands of other women, and during her announcement surrounded by family, Walter sits beside her and makes a "historical reference" to baseball.
"Today I consider myself the luckiest man-man-man on the face of the earth-earth-earth," Walter, a guy with a sweet but perhaps corny sense of humor, says at the table, post-announcement. The family is confused, and Annie, presumably a baseball fan, explains that it's the Lou Gehrig line.
We see the makings of a romantic match between Annie and Sam. But there's something more. We know their destinies are meant to link in various key ways, and we know that what they're searching for is each other, they just don't know it yet.
Annie's best friend Becky, played lovingly and impatiently, by Rosie O'Donnell, does send the letter that Annie wrote, and thought went in the trash. She, like the audience, is struck by the possibility that Annie and Sam are MFE, as in Made For Each Other-- a perfectly absurd acronym that the perfectly cast Gabby Hoffman (Jonah's friend Jessica) writes confidenty pretending to be Sam in response. But Sam is disturbed, not enticed, by the tons of letters he receives from women who listened to him on the radio talking about his deceased wife. Before he walks out the door to go on a date with seemingly suitable, fellow architect, Victoria, Barbara Garrick, whose quirks and charm are immediately evident later that night, Jonah begins to read Annie's letter.
"Brooks Robinson is the best third baseman..." Jonah is impressed, and his dad, distracted and unmoved, only briefly lights up when he reads the opinion on Robinson.
Victoria actually has a baseball up her sleeve too, suggesting she can get the Baldwins to a baseball game, in response to some heavy taunting from Jonah, who is frustrated by his Dad's refusal to pay attention to Annie's letter, and is not accepting of him dating Victoriam regardless of her offer to get box seats (the kid just doesn't know about such rare VIP treatment at a ballpark)
All of these elements might feel random, and David S. Ward actually contributed the line about Brooks Robinson, but Ephron has written about baseball before. When she was still a journalist and columnist, she wrote an essay about first woman umpire, Bernice Gera, in 1973.In 1979, she wrote "Love-- at Arm's Length." about her love for Pittsburgh Pirates reliever sidearm pitcher Ken Tekulve. Ephron clarifies in that essay, that she's "not a baseball fan." But she has her moments, of curiousity, of wonder. She was a writer and observer of all things-- personal style, aging, politics, love in all it's forms, sisterhood, certainly music, and much MUCH more-- and, as the review on the back cover of her essay collection 'Scribble, Scribble" goes, by fellow journalist John Leonard, "[she] can write about anything better than anybody else can write about anything.
The movie's themes have a nostalgic feel, and not just because it's a new twist on an old movie ("An Affair To Remember"). The soundtrack too is pure nostalgia. Even modern artists like Celine Dion cover standards, rather than contribute something modern, and easily radio playable.
The selected songs conjure memory and a sense of something lovely that seems out of style. Ken Burns revered documentary "Baseball," features Natalie Cole and her legendary father Nat King Cole, who also features on the "Sleepless" soundtrack with the gorgeous, "Stardust." Carly Simon, who earlier contributed the theme song to Ephron's deeply personal movie "Heartburn" (adapted from her own book), is heard on "Wee Small Hours Of The Morning." on "Sleepless.: On Burns project she sings the baseball anthem "Take Me Out To The Ballgame." The Americana of Ephrons project is surely by design.
Maybe i'm crazy, but "Sleepless In Seattle" seems like a baseball lover's kind of movie.
The nostalgia, the darkly romantic themes, mixed with tug-at-your-heart romanticism, the wedding dress Annie tries on that belonged to her mother, the father and son bonding, all combine to make the story so similar to our love of baseball. And then, there's that moment. Slow-motion. Excitedly walking toward Wrigley Maggie puts her cap on. Maggie, who "made everything beautiful," who's now gone. And, in the end, the woman who believes Brooks Robinson was the best third baseman ever, finds her way to the man who loves Maggie, his son and presumably, will love Cubs games as family time.
With all the heartache we're experiencing in the world, all of the confusion and sense of loss in our lives, and around the things we love, and that certainly includes baseball, dare I say, baseball fans, watch "Sleepless In Seattle" again or finally, if you've managed to miss it to this point. What we love about baseball, and life, is what Sleepless in Seattle pays a most heartfelt, humorous, twinkly-eyed tribute to.
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