The Sandlot is perhaps the most iconic film of the youth-centered baseball comedies of the early 1990s in that it never gets old in watching.

“Remember kid, there’s heroes and there’s legends. Heroes get remembered but legends never die, follow your heart kid, and you’ll never go wrong.” – Babe Ruth (Art LaFleur)

The early 1990s were a fascinating time for youth-centered baseball movies. They all have their own fans, of course. While Little Big League later developed a cult following, one can also make a similar argument about The Sandlot. It is so watchable on repeat. At its core, it is a coming-of-age movie. Aside from squints falling hard for Wendy Peffercorn (Marley Shelton), there’s no romantic angle either. It’s about fifth-grader Scott Smalls (Tom Guiry) learning to play baseball so that he can bond with his stepfather, Bill (Denis Leary). There’s just one small problem–the amount of baseballs hit into Mr. Mertle’s backyard leads to Smalls running home and grabbing his stepfather’s prized possession: a ball signed by Babe Ruth. Only Smalls didn’t realize the significance of The Great Bambino.

Smalls and his family are new to their San Fernando Valley neighborhood. His mom (Karen Allen) wants him to start making new friends. That’s how he first starts playing baseball at the neighborhood sandlot. Other guys include:

• Timmy Timmons (Victor DiMattia)
• Tommy Timmons (Shane Obedzinski)
• Michael “Squints” Palledorous (Chauncey Leopardi)
• Alan “Yeah-Yeah” McClennan (Marty York)
• Bertram Grover Weeks (Grant Gelt)
• Kenny DeNunez (Brandon Quintin Adams)
• Hamilton “Ham” Porter (Patrick Renna)
• Benjamin Franklin “Benny” Rodriguez (Mike Vitar)

Anyway, they start coming up with ideas to get the baseball back. No matter what they do, all of their efforts fail. While Smalls has a nightmare, Benny has a dream that paves the way for the next attempt. He risks his own life during a Western-inspired showdown with The Beast aka Hercules. Next thing you know, he grabs the ball but The Beast gets lose and chases Benny across town. Upon returning back to the sandlot, parts of the fence fall onto Hercules. Smalls and Benny join forces to lift the fence off the injured dog. In a classic punchline fashion, Hercules licks Smalls’ face while Mr. Mertle said he would have retrieved the baseball.

The film is in the news again with the recent passing of James Earl Jones. His character, Mr. Mertle, is completely fictional. The character–a retired Negro Leagues player who once played with the likes of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig–did not turn into this until after the casting of James Earl Jones. His casting also meant having to rewrite the script as the character wasn’t originally written with any particular ethnicity. Still though, the scenes are powerful, especially when Smalls and Benny are talking baseball with him. Given that children were involved, it’s probably hard to believe that they only needed a single day to film his scenes. It certainly speaks to just how much of a master he was with his craft. Speaking of Jones, when I first saw the film, I only really knew him from Field of Dreams at the time.

Maybe it was because I was 8-9 years old during the summers of 1993-94 but the baseball movies bring nostalgia whenever I rewatch them. It could be the classic lines or just watching the storylines play out all over again. Some films are better than others but this just goes without saying. There’s just something about The Sandlot that leads fans to keep coming back to the film.

For one reason or another, there is a sequel to the film. There didn’t need to be. It’s so unnecessary. I’ve tried watching The Sandlot 2 but could never finish the film. The sad part? It wasn’t even a money grab at the box office because it was direct-video like so many other forced sequels. As such, I didn’t even watch the second sequel. Both of which came well over a decade after the original classic. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed and the previously announced prequel died during the double strikes last year. Why force a franchise on audiences where there doesn’t need to be one? Neither of the sequels ever lived up to the original.

Everything comes together in The Sandlot with perfection to deliver one of the best baseball movies in cinematic history. It’s no Field of Dreams but it’s among the top five baseball films.

DIRECTOR: David Mickey Evans
SCREENWRITERS: David Mickey Evans & Robert Gunter
CAST: Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Patrick Renna, Chauncey Leopardi, Marty York, Brandon Adams, Grant Gelt, Shane Obedzinski, Victor DiMattia, Denis Leary, with Karen Allen and James Earl Jones, Art LaFleur

20th Century Fox released The Sandlot in theaters on April 7, 1993. Grade: 5/5

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