The Sandlot

The Sandlot (released in some countries as The Sandlot Kids) is a 1993 American coming-of-age sports comedy film co-written, directed, and narrated by David Mickey Evans. It tells the story of a group of young baseball players during the summer of 1962. It stars Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Karen Allen, Denis Leary, and James Earl Jones. The movie is set in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, CA and the filming locations were in Midvale, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, Utah. It grossed $34 million worldwide and has since become a cult film. Plot In the summer of 1962, fifth-grader Scott Smalls moves to the San Fernando Valley, right outside of Los Angeles. His mother encourages him to make friends, and he tries to join a group of boys who play baseball daily at the neighborhood sandlot — brothers Timmy and Tommy Timmons, Michael "Squints" Palledorous, Alan "Yeah-Yeah" McClennan, Bertram Grover Weeks, pitcher Kenny DeNunez, catcher Hamilton "Ham" Porter, and their leader and best player Benny Rodriguez. Everyone but Benny laughs at Smalls' lack of ability, and an attempt to play catch with his stepfather Bill leaves Smalls with a black eye. Nevertheless, Benny invites him onto the team and helps him earn the boys' respect. When Ham hits a home run into an adjacent backyard, the team stops Smalls from retrieving the ball and tells him of "the Beast", a legendarily fearsome English Mastiff living behind the fence. Many baseballs over the years have been claimed by the Beast, which is kept chained up by its owner, Mr. Mertle. At the pool, Squints fakes drowning to receive mouth-to-mouth resuscitation from lifeguard Wendy Peffercorn; he kisses her, and she kicks the boys out. The team plays a Fourth of July night game by the light of fireworks, and Smalls observes that, to Benny, "baseball was life." They later win against a rival Little League team and celebrate at a fair, where a combination of chewing tobacco obtained by Bertram and riding the Trabant causes them to vomit everywhere. One day, Benny hits the cover off the team's only ball. With Bill away on business in Chicago, Smalls borrows his prized baseball autographed by Babe Ruth. Unaware of its value, he hits his first home run, sending it into the Beast's yard. Learning of the autograph, the team attempts to recover the ball with various makeshift devices, but each is destroyed by the Beast. That night, Benny dreams of the spirit of Babe Ruth, who advises him to rescue the ball himself.