Jon M. McDonnell

Detroit Tigers’ın efsane oyuncusu Billy Chapel, beyzbolda başarılı ama aşk hayatında başarısızdır. Sevgilisi Jane’le sık sık ayrılıp barışırlar. Hayal kırıklıklarıyla dolu bir sezonun sonunda Jane, Billy’den ayrılacağını söyler. Duygusal karmaşanın yaşandığı kritik bir günde maça çıkan Billy, hayatının en iyi performansını sergiler. Attığı her sayı, onun hayatındaki en önemli karara yaklaşmasını sağlar. Sevgi, yaşam ve tutkunun iç içe geçtiği bu filmde heyecan, son sayı atılana dek sürer.

Around 1940, New Yorker staff writer Joe Mitchell meets Joe Gould, a Greenwich Village character who cadges meals, drinks, and contributions to the Joe Gould Fund and who is writing a voluminous Oral History of the World, a record of 20,000 conversations he's overheard. Mitchell is fascinated with this Harvard grad and writes a 1942 piece about him, "Professor Seagull," bringing Gould some celebrity and an invitation to join the Greenwich Village Ravens, a poetry club he's often crashed. Gould's touchy, querulous personality and his frequent dropping in on Mitchell for hours of chat lead to a breakup, but the two Joes stay in touch until Gould's death and Mitchell's unveiling of the secret.

Workaholic Mike Flaherty is the Deputy Mayor of New York City, serving as Mayor Randall Winston's key strategist and much-needed handler. Mike runs the city with the help of his oddball staff: an anxious and insecure press secretary; a sexist, boorish chief of staff; an impeccably groomed gay activist running minority affairs; a sharp and efficient, man-crazy accountant; and an idealistic young speechwriter. Like Mike, they are all professionally capable but personally challenged.