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The Sandlot is a 1993 comedy sports film directed, written and narrated by David M. Evans about a group of young baseball players during the summer of 1962.
Plot[]
In a small American town in the early 1960s, Scotty Smalls is the new boy in the neighborhood, seeking desperately to fit in. One day, he visits a sandlot where some of the local kids play baseball everyday. Seeing as how they are only one player short of nine team members, Smalls get enough courage to take up a space in the outfield. Smalls however, can't play baseball; a descending fly ball bounces off his glove when he tries to catch it, causing the other boys except Benny "the Jet" Rodriguez, the team's leader, to burst out laughing, even more so when he fails to throw the ball back. Smalls then leaves the sandlot humiliated.
With some encouragment from his mom, Smalls asks his stepdad Bill to help him pracice throwing and catching, Bill, after a while agrees to teach Smalls at his mom's insistence. He fails to catch and throw until he gets a black eye from catching a throw with the glove next to his face.
Accepting an invitation to play by Benny, Smalls meets the rest of the team: Hamilton "Ham" Porter the overweight hot-tempered catcher, "Michael "Squints" Palladorus" the nerdy shortstop, "Alan "Yeah-Yeah" McClennan" the snarky 3rd baseman, Kenny "The Heater" DeNunez the easygoing African-American pitcher, Bertram Grover Weeks the rebellious 2nd baseman, Timmy Timmons the long-suffering 1st baseman and his younger brother Tommy the right-center outfielder. Although the rest of the team doubt Smalls's potential as the ninth member of the team, with some coaching from Benny, he is quickly able to successfully catch and throw the ball, and earns the respect from the others.
During one game, Ham hits a ball over the fence behind the sandlot, angering the other players. Smalls attempts to retrieve it, but is stopped by the team, who are afraid of " The Beast" that lurks behind the fence. Later that night in the team's treehouse, Squints relates the neighborhood legend of the Beast: about 20 years ago, junkyard owner Mr. Mertle bought a guard dog to keep thieves from stealing from the junkyard. After he fed it very amounts of raw meat, it grew large and savage, and supposedly killed any thieves that broke in. The police got phone calls reporting the hundreds of missing thieves, and Squints's grandfather (who was police chief at the time) ordered Mr. Mertle chain up the beast and put it under his house. When he asked how long the dog was to remain "chained up like a slave". Mr. Mertle was told "forever". It has been rumored that one kid went over the fence and the Beast ate him. Although Scotty believes the team is trying to scare him, he looks out the window of the tree house into the Beast's yards and gets a shocked reaction, only stating that he saw hundreds of baseballs and no human remains.
When it becomes too hot outside to play, the team decides to go swim at the public pool, and Benny reluctantly agrees. While they are swimming and gawking at girls, Squints fakes drowning in order to kiss his love interest, the lifeguard Wendy Peffercorn, while she is giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. According to Smalls' narration, although she was angered by it, and the boys were banned from the pool after that, she would look down from her tower whenever they walked by, and smile at Squints.
On the Fourth of July, the team plays at night, to the light of the fireworks. However Benny proves to be the most dedicated player during that time, as the rest of the team is more interested in watching the fireworks than playing. Later on, the sandlot team is confronted by another team in the neighborhood. After Ham and Phillips, the head of the other team spew insults at one another, Phillips challenges the Sandlot kids to game on their field. The Sandlot kids come out victorious. The team goes out to celebrate at a carnival, where Bertram brings chewing tobacco, and the kids chew it and they ride on a spinning Trabant ride, and they all fall ill.
One day Benny hit the boys' last ball so hard, he literally hit the hide off of it. While the rest of the team is impressed, Benny is dismayed that the game is over for the day. Smalls saves the day by borrowing an autographed ball from his stepfather's trophy room; only to hit it into the Beast's backyard, Smalls learns the ball was special" it was signed by Babe Ruth, whom he knew very little about, shocking the team. They explain that Babe Ruth aka "The Great Bambino" (whom Smalls had overheard the team talking about earlier but had failed to make the connection) was one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Smalls's stepfather is away on business for a week, so to buy some time to get the ball back, the team buys a replacement ball, and Benny forges Babe Ruth's signature on it to place in the trophy room, so his mother won't notice it's missing. The boys' attempts to recover the ball (with a wooden stick, a pot on a metal bar, a vacuum cleaner, lowering Yeah-Yeah down with a harness, and motorized Erector Set catapult) all are sabotaged by the Beast, and ultimately end in failure.
After being visited in dream by Babe Ruth, who gives him inspiring advice, Benny climbs the fence to retrieve the ball and confronts the Beast: an English Mastiff (whose monstrous appearance was only imagined by the boys) named "Hercules". He snatches the ball and is pursued in lengthy chase across town by Hercules, which ends back at the sandlot after the back fence falls on the dog. After Smalls and Benny rescue him, Hercules kisses Smalls on the face happily, and the boys are shown the collection of all the lost balls that went over the fence. Knocking on the door, the boys finally meet Mr. Mertle, who is nothing like in the story told by Squints, but a former baseball player who played with Babe Ruth, but went blind after getting hit in the head with a ball. Mr. Myrtle trades the ball, for another one, autographed by the entire 1927 Yankees, and makes a deal with Smalls for him to stop by weekly to talk about baseball. Smalls then gives the ball to Bill to make up for taking the Babe Ruth ball out of the trophy room. Bill loves the Murderer's Row ball, but still grounds Smalls for a week for stealing and ruining his other ball. Afterwards, they warm up to each other, and Smalls is able to start calling Bill "dad".
The sandlot boys enjoy the rest of the summer and the next few years. Over the next three decades, Hercules lived (in dog years) for almost 2 centuries and passed away after. The boys grow up and go into different careers. Yeah-Yeah was enrolled in military school, enlisted in the army, and later created bungee jumping (surprise!); Bertram disappeared after getting into the 60's; Timmy and Tommy became building designers and became wealthy after inventing mini-malls; Squints married and started a family with Wendy Peffercorn, and the two bought the local drug store in their hometown; Ham became a professional wrestler, "There Great Hambino"; DeNunez, played Triple-A ball, but after failing to make the Major League, became a business owner, as well as coaching a little league team his sons play on, called "The Heaters". Benny and Smalls still remain close, as Benny becomes a famous MLB player for the Los Angeles Dodgers while Smalls becomes a sports announcer following Benny's games. Near the end of one of his games, Benny amazingly steals home, and gives a thumbs-up to Smalls, who is watching from a commentator's booth. Smalls replies likewise before glancing back at the three baseballs from the summer: the Murderer's Row ball, the chewed-up Babe Ruth ball, and the forged Babe Ruth ball, and a picture of the sandlot team hanging on his wall.
Cast[]
The Sandlot Kids
- Tom Guiry as Scotty Smalls
- Mike Vitar as Benjamin Franklin ¨Benny the Jet¨ Rodriguez
- Patrick Renna as Hamilton ¨Ham¨ Porter
- Chauncey Leopardi as Michael ¨Squints¨ Palledorus
- Marty York as Alan ¨Yeah-Yeah¨ McClennan
- Brandon Quintin Adams as Kenny "The Heater" DeNunez
- Grant Gelt as Bertram Grover Weeks
- ictor DiMattia as Timmy Timmons
- Shane Obedzinski as Tommy ¨Repeat¨ Timmons
Other Characters
- Wil Horneff as Phillips
- Mary Shelton as Wendy Peffercorn
- Adults James Earl Jones as Mr. Mertle
- Arliss Howard as Adult Scott Smalls
- Denis Leary as Bill, Scotty´s Stepfather
- Karen Allen as Scotty's Mom
- Art LaFleur as Babe Ruth
Sequels[]
The film was followed by two sequels, The Sandlot 2 (2005) and The Sandlot: Heading Home (2007)
Trivia
· There are several references to Gilligan's Island in the movie. However the movie takes place in 1962. And Gilligan's Island wasn't released until 1964 2 years after the movie takes place.
Gallery[]
