Franchises: The Sandlot (1993)

In my review of Dennis the Menace, I listed The Sandlot as a movie from my childhood. It kind of was, but that's only because there were a handful of scenes and images that stuck with me, rather than it being a movie I watched again and again. What I always remembered the most were the shots of the enormous, monster-like dog behind the fence, specifically the shot of his huge head popping up from behind the fence and grabbing a baseball in midair. As for the specific scene that stuck with me, it was when the kids make the mistake of mixing chewing tobacco with riding the Trabant at the amusement park, leading to them puking all over everything and everybody. I saw that specific scene more times than I did the whole movie. But when I got older, I began watching more and more of it, and found myself especially liking the climactic chase between Benny and the Beast. Finally, when I was in either middle school or one of my first years of high school, I saw The Sandlot front to back, when it played on Disney Channel one Saturday night (much to my dismay, they cut the puking scene). Naturally, I was now able to appreciate the whole movie for what it was, and after I got it on Blu-Ray in 2016, it became one of those nostalgic, comfort food movies that I like to watch now and again. If you know anything about me, you know that I don't care at all about baseball, or sports, in general, but that doesn't matter here, as the baseball is only a backdrop for what's actually a well-made and -written, funny, and enduring movie about childhood and the innocent time it was for most of us. I liken to a more light-hearted version of Stand By Me: a coming-of-age movie, but without any dead bodies or knife-wielding, psychopathic bullies (I'm going to be making a lot of comparisons between the two, so bear with me).

In 1962, fifth-grader Scott "Scotty" Smalls moves to a small town in the San Fernando Valley two weeks before school lets out for the summer. Having had no time to make any friends, and still not comfortable with his new stepfather, Bill, Scotty, despite being very smart, is a lonely and awkward kid. One day, he heads over to the neighborhood sandlot, which a group of eight boys have made into their own private baseball field, where they never keep score or choose sides, and just continuously play day in and day out. Desperate to make friends and learn how to play, Scotty goes and stands in the outfield. However, he makes a bad first impression when he falls flat on his back while attempting to catch a stray ball, and is then barely able to throw it to them. Despite this, Scotty's mother encourages him to try to make friends and get outside more often, and he also tries to improve his catching by playing with Bill... which results in a black eye when he gets clocked by a stray throw. Regardless, and in spite of his poor performance the other day, Benny Rodriguez, the leader of the sandlot kids, invites Scotty to come play with them again. Yet again, he fails to endear himself to the others, as he has no idea who the "Great Bambino" is, doesn't know where left-center is, again falls when trying to catch a ball, and actually runs and gives it back to the pitcher rather than throw it. However, with Benny's encouragement to just have fun, Scotty manages to improve and is welcomed as part of the group. Thus begins a very memorable summer for him, one that involves camping out in a treehouse at the lot, sharing stories about the monstrous dog known as "the Beast" that lives behind the fence, going to the public pool and seeing one of the boys act on his crush for the sexy lifeguard, playing a game on the night of the Fourth of July by the light of the fireworks, and easily trouncing a rival Little League team. Then, one day, Scotty makes a huge mistake when he plays with Bill's autographed baseball and hits it over into the Beast's yard. Moreover, when he learns it was signed by Babe Ruth himself, he realizes he's dead meat if they don't get it back.

The Sandlot was the directorial debut for David Mickey Evans, who'd been a screenwriter on films such as Open House, Terminal Entry, and Radio Flyer, the latter of which he was originally going to direct, only to be replaced by Richard Donner. Evans, who's also the film's narrator, is said to have based it on something that really happened to his brother when they were growing up: he attempted to join some kids who were playing baseball and, when they wouldn't let him, tried to impress them by climbing over a brick wall to fetch their ball, only to discover a big, mean dog on the other side. Evans also based the character of Wendy Peffercorn, the lovely lifeguard at the pool, on a girl he knew from when he was a kid as well. It proved to be the most notable and successful film Evans has ever made, as he went on to direct First Kid, with Sinbad, and 2003's Barely Legal, aka After School Special, neither of which scored with critics or audiences. He's done a fair amount of direct-to-video and television work, having directed the third and fourth Beethoven movies, and the notorious Ace Ventura Jr.: Pet Detective. Most notably, he wrote and directed The Sandlot 2 in 2005, although that fell into the sequel trap of being little more than a rehash of a much better movie (I actually thought the third one was a bit better, but we'll talk about those some other time).

At the beginning of the movie, we see that Scotty Smalls (Tom Guiry) has just arrived in this small town in the San Fernando Valley with his mother and new stepfather. Being from another a state, and getting there just two weeks before school let out for summer vacation, he's had no time to make friends. While he's definitely very intelligent, with the lowest grade he ever got in school having been an A- (which he says should've been a B), he's rather shy and awkward, and stinks when it comes to baseball. Not only is his throwing pathetic, but he can't even catch a ball without getting nervous and falling back, making his first attempt to become a member of the sandlot gang an embarrassing disaster. His home life isn't much better, as he does little more than sit in his room and play around with Erector sets, and he and his stepdad, Bill, aren't all that close. Bill does agree to teach Scotty how to play ball, but while doing so, he gets whacked in the face, earning a nasty black eye. Despite how bad he did the first time, and his catcher's mitt being busted, Scotty is surprised when Benny Rodriguez invites him to come to play ball with them again. And like before, he makes a bad impression with the other boys when he has no idea who the "Great Bambino" is, and the other names like the "Sultan of Swat," "Titan of Terror," "Colossus of Clout," and, "King of Crash," don't help him out either, but he doesn't tell them that. He says, "Oh, yeah, the Great Bambino. Of course. I thought you said the Great Bambi," to which Ham remarks, "That wimpy deer?!" Scotty only makes things worse for himself when they go back to the sandlot to play, as he doesn't know where left-center is, falls again when trying to catch the ball, and actually runs to hand the ball back to the pitcher. Things start to change when Benny tells him to loosen up and have fun, and gives him some pointers on how to throw and catch. With that, the others start to accept him, and he begins to have genuine fun. So much so that, when he gets back home, he excitedly runs into the house and can't wait to tell his mom how his day went.

Despite being ignorant about a lot of things, including s'mores and chewing tobacco, and nearly giving the others a heart attack when he comes close to climbing over the fence, unaware of the Beast, Scotty quickly fits in with the other boys and also starts to really improve as a baseball player. Then, one day, while Bill is away on a business trip, Scotty makes a huge mistake when he replaces their ball, which Benny accidentally smashes apart, with Bill's autographed one. He

manages to hit his first ever homer, but it goes over the fence and into the Beast's yard. Already knowing he's in deep trouble, he realizes just how deep it is when the others tell him the person who signed the ball, whom he thought was a woman with the name of "Baby Ruth," is actually Babe Ruth, aka the person they were talking about when he first met them, and the greatest baseball player ever. Scotty almost passes out from the realization, but fortunately for him, Benny and the others come up with plans to retrieve the ball. He himself even

uses all of his Erector sets to create a catapult-like device to retrieve the ball, but like all their other plans, the Beast thwarts and destroys it. Scotty feels pretty much doomed at that point, but the next day, Benny, after having an inspiring dream involving Babe Ruth himself, manages to get the ball, albeit not without a lot of trouble from the Beast. Afterward, they learn that the Beast's owner happens to be a blind man who once played against Babe Ruth, and he offers to trade the ball the Beast chewed up with one signed by the entire 1927 New York Yankees. Although Scotty still gets in trouble for swiping the "Babe Ruth" ball, he and Bill become closer, to the point where they play catch really well, and Scotty begins calling him "Dad."

The one member of the sandlot kids who doesn't look down on Scotty when he first meets him is Benny Rodriguez (Mike Vitar), the oldest of the group and their leader. Cool, calm, and collected, Benny, rather than laugh at Scotty's mishaps, instead just shakes his head at his ineptitude and ignorance, but still opts to invite him to play with them again. While it's mostly because they need a ninth player to have a complete team, and Benny says he needs the practice, when the others are making fun of Scotty, he stands up for him and tells everyone to fill the bases. When he sees just how badly Scotty needs some direction, he not only gives him some pointers but also encourages to stop thinking so much and just have fun playing the game. And thanks to him, Scotty manages to catch a ball for the first time in his life, then throw it back. Afterward, Benny also advises him how to dress for playing, and gives him a ball-cap to match everyone else. But, as cool as he is, if Benny has one character flaw, it's that he's maybe a little too committed to baseball. As the adult Scotty himself says in his narration, "For us, baseball was a game. But for Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez, baseball was life." This is abundantly clear when they're playing on the night of the Fourth of July and, while all the other kids stop to look at the fireworks, Benny just keeps on running the bases. As Scotty also tells us, "Benny would've played ball all day, all night, rain, shine, tidal wave, whatever. Baseball was the only thing he cared about." Ergo, he can be a little insensitive to the other boys' needs. On a day when it's far too hot to be running around, Benny gets irritated with everyone's bellyaching and declares, "Anybody who wants to be... a can't-hack-it pantywaist... who wears their mama's bra, raise your hand." Much to his chagrin, all of the other boys raise their hands, and they spend the day at the pool instead. However, according to Scotty, that was the one non-baseball activity he dealt with best. But, despite his obsession, Benny proves what a good friend he is when, after numerous failed attempts to get the ball back from the Beast, he's inspired to actually jump the fence and face the monster dog face-to-face. He gets the ball back, but gets chased by the Beast all over town, and in the end, when the fence falls on the dog, he and Scotty help him, making him into a friend. They also make friends with Mr. Mertle, who trades autographed baseballs with Scotty and invites them to come over weekly and talk baseball with him.

The film features present day wraparounds that, at the end, we learn feature Scotty as an adult (Arliss Howard), who's now a sports commentator, and happens to be giving a play-by-play for a game featuring the Los Angeles Dodgers. Benny (Pablo Vitar), who earned the nickname of "The Jet" after managing to outrun the Beast, happens to be a player for the team, and when he manages to steal home to win the game, Scotty becomes absolutely ecstatic. Benny is carried off the field by his team

but, before they head into the dugout, he runs back out and we see that, while much of the sandlot gang went their separate ways, he and Scotty are still friends, as they give each other a thumbs up. In his broadcast booth, we also see that Scotty has kept a number of mementos from that summer in 1962: the chewed up Babe Ruth baseball, the one with the forged signature they made to buy them some time while trying to get the real one, and the 1927 New York Yankees, or "Murderer's Row," ball he gave Bill, as well as an old photo of the team at the sandlot.

Outside of Scotty and Benny, the most memorable member of the sandlot gang is Hamilton Porter, or "Ham" (Patrick Renna). Renna was a kid I often associate with the early to mid-90's, as he was also in The Big Green, another kids-oriented sports film I remember being fairly popular around that time, and Beanstalk, which I saw twice when I was a kid. Ham has the biggest personality of anyone else in the group, as he's a showoff, as well as quite short-tempered and a trash-talker, especially towards their rival Little League team. After Ham is called fat, he and Phillips, the Little League leader, exchange a lot of juvenile insults, until Ham hits him with, "You play ball like a girl!" This prompts Phillips to challenge them to a game the next day, and when Ham is the catcher, he messes with the batters with more trash-talk: "You know, if my dog was as ugly as you. I'd shave his butt and tell him to walk backwards," and, "Hey, Is that your sister out there in left field, naked? She's naked... Think she'd go out with me?" He also absolutely loves flaunting it whenever he gets a home-run, even when the other kids are angrily smacking him when he deliberately knocks a ball over the fence. And when they're at the pool, he shows off for the ladies, before splashing them with a cannonball. But what I think most people remember Ham for is the famous line, "You're killin' me, Smalls!" (I remember how, in my freshmen year of high school, there was a guy in my class whom everybody happened to call "Smalls," for whatever reason. I don't remember if it happened to be because of this movie but, either way, he was quite irritated when I once said, "You're killin' me, Smalls," as I was one of the few people who hadn't called him that up to that point.)

Michael Palledorous, or "Squints" (Chauncey Leopardi), is also memorable, mostly for his big, Coke-bottle glasses and snarky attitude. He's among the most skeptical about Scotty's chances of being a great member of their team, describing him as an, " L, 7, Weenie!" But when Scotty manages to actually catch a ball, Squints is so shocked that he has to wipe off his glasses and then admits, "He's okay." He's also the one who relays the story of the Beast to everyone when they're spending the night at the treehouse, and is the one who's the most insistent on how dangerous the dog is and that going over there is suicide. When Scotty suggests they ask Mr. Mertle to retrieve the ball for them, Squints shoots that down too, saying he's just as mean as the Beast. This leads to the others being about ready to kill him when they meet Mr. Mertle at the end and he says he would've gotten it for them if they'd asked. But Squints' most memorable moment is when he fakes drowning at the pool to receive mouth-to-mouth from Wendy Peffercorn, the hot lifeguard whom he's had a crush on for a long time. After getting a fair amount of it, he steals a kiss from her, leading her to call him a little pervert and kick him and the rest of the boys out of the pool. Despite this being a sneaky and unsavory thing to do, not only do the other boys admire him for it but it ends up cementing his and Wendy's bond. According to Scotty in his narration, not only did Squints eventually marry Wendy, but they went on to have nine kids. (Not sure if that's the greatest message to send to prepubescent boys but, hey, it was the 90's.)

Unfortunately, I don't have as much to say about the other members of the team, as there's not a lot to them in general, aside from their nicknames. Alan McClennan, aka "Yeah-Yeah" (Marty York), is called that by the others because he tends to say, "yeah, yeah" a lot, and is also a loudmouth in general. He especially mocks Scotty when Benny first invites him to be on the team, despite how, according to Benny, he runs like a duck, and he really teases Squints about his infatuation with

Wendy, much to his annoyance. I most remember Bertram Grover Weeks (Grant Gelt) as the one who pulls out the chewing tobacco at the country fair, a decision he and the others quickly come to regret (the face he makes when he starts to really get sick on the Trabant is especially funny). Kenny DeNunez (Brandon Quentin Adams), despite initially being just as hard on Scotty as the others, soon proves to be one of the more easygoing members of the team. He's kind of like their

version of Franklin from the Peanuts, only without breaking into any cringe-inducing rapping before a game (no, I am never getting over that; also, I didn't realize it at first, but Adams starred in Wes Craven's The People Under the Stairs just a couple of years prior to this). And Timmy (Victor DiMattia) and Tommy Timmons (Shane Obedzinski)? Tommy, being the little brother, tends to repeat whatever Timmy says, earning him the nickname of "Repeat." However, he does have one memorable moment all his own, as he makes a

funny, "Oh, crap," face when Ham tells Phillips that he throws ball like a girl. And, after getting covered in dust and dirt when the vacuums they're using explode on him while they're trying to get the ball back, Timmy comes up with the idea of an overhead approach, although that doesn't work any better.

The always wonderful Karen Allen has a small but memorable role as Scotty's mother, who tries to encourage her son to get out and make some friends over the summer, rather than spend it in his room, fooling around with Erector kits. She's so desperate for him to do anything else that she even tells him, "Run around, scrape your knees, get dirty. Climb trees, hop fences, get into trouble, for crying out loud. Not too much, but some." She also later encourages him to ask his new stepdad, Bill

(Denis Leary), into teaching him how to catch, and talks Bill into stopping what he's going just for a few minutes to do it. Speaking of Bill, he's depicted not as a bad stepdad but, rather, as an aloof and awkward one, still trying to get used to viewing Scotty as his stepson. When he does finally try to teach him how to play ball, he's rather put off and shocked by how bad he is at both catching and throwing. But, regardless, he stays patient and tries to show him, only to accidentally whack him in the face with the ball and give him a black eye. Rather than admonish him or write him off as a lost cause, Bill grabs a raw steak and puts it to his eye, apologizes, and says, "Gotta watch out for that curve." When he later goes away on business, he entrusts Scotty to be the man of the house and look after things. And, as Scotty tells us, while Bill was quite tickled with the "Murder's Row" autographed baseball he got from Mr. Mertle, he still wasn't too happy about Scotty taking his Babe Ruth ball and getting it chewed up. But, after Scotty's week-long grounding was up, the two of them worked out their differences and became much more like a father and son.

After playing a baseball enthusiast in Field of Dreams, James Earl Jones has a similar role here as Mr. Mertle, the owner of the Beast, or Hercules, as he's actually named. Though Squints describes him as, "The meanest old man that ever lived," when the boys finally meet Mr. Mertle after the Beast chases Benny across town, he turns out to be a slightly cranky but, overall, kind and cool old blind man. Learning what happened, and saying he would've gotten the ball from his dog had they asked, he invites Scotty and Benny inside his house. There, when they tell him the ball was signed by Babe Ruth, Mr. Mertle admits he was once a baseball player himself and a friendly rival to Ruth, until he went blind after getting hit in the head with a ball. Not at all bitter about it, he instead happily reminisces about his baseball prime, saying, "I used to crowd the plate so the strike zone almost disappeared. Pitchers hate that. That's the way I played, 100% all the time. Baseball was life. And I was good at it. Real good." He also kindly offers to trade the Babe Ruth-autographed ball for one signed by the entire 1927 New York Yankees, and asks them to visit every week to talk baseball.

Another actor from Field of Dreams, Art LaFleur, appears here briefly as well, playing Babe Ruth himself in a dream that Benny has. Emerging from Benny's closet, "the Babe" tells him that he's here to help, advising him to simply climb over the fence and get the baseball. Benny tells him about the Beast and the Babe, in turn, gives him an inspirational speech: "Let me tell you something, kid. Everybody gets one chance to do something great. Most people never take the chance, either because they're too scared, or they don't recognize it when it spits on their shoes. This is your big chance, and you shouldn't let it go by. I mean, remember when you busted the guts out of the ball the other day? Someone's tellin' you somethin', kid. And if I was you, I'd listen." After he leaves, his voice tells him, "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." To be honest, though, this is a part of the movie I find to be a tad on the sappy side. I get that Benny's doing a great thing by helping Scotty out of this mess, and the way he "pickles" the Beast by getting the best of and outrunning him is an impressive feat, but did he really need a big, inspirational talk from the spirit of Babe Ruth?

Summertime is, without a doubt, my favorite time of year, along with Halloween and Christmastime, and for me, The Sandlot is a movie that captures why I love it so much, especially when I was a kid. For one, you can tell just by looking at it that it was shot during the season, as it's clearly bright and hot, with the kids often drenched in sweat when they're running around, playing baseball. For another, it makes you so nostalgic for when you were a kid, out of school for the summer, and spending your days hanging out with your friends.

You may or may not have played baseball all the time (my friends and I certainly didn't), but you can likely relate to the scenes where they're camping out in the treehouse, eating s'mores and telling horror stories, going to the public pool when it's too hot for baseball, or having fun at the county fair (though hopefully without getting violently sick on one of the rides). And even if you never did any of those specific things, the movie will still likely bring back nice memories of that type. For instance, one of my favorite scenes is when they

play baseball by the light of the fireworks on the night of the Fourth of July, as it reminds me of the fun I often had around that time of year when I was a kid. One of my cousins would often spend the night with me around the Fourth and we would just have a lot of fun, which often involved fireworks, though nothing as dramatic as what lights up the sky here. Speaking of which, seeing the kids look up at them in awe makes me think of how awesome it was to see that, and how it can still get

you even now. Another thing I like is the shot of everyone in the neighborhood cooking out and shooting off sparklers at dusk, as it makes me think of how my own little town would come together back then. And the addition of Ray Charles singing America the Beautiful on the soundtrack is just the icing on the cake, as it really makes you feel proud to celebrate your country.

Much like Stand By Me, The Sandlot also captures a timeless portrait of childhood in general. It may not be as dark or tragic as that film, and the characters aren't as troubled, but it has that same feeling about it, as you're watching a very close-knit group of friends spend their preadolescent days with each other almost 24/7. Again, while I never played or was interested in baseball, I can kind of relate to how they're always playing ball continuously without keeping score or even taking sides, as my cousins and I often played the games

we would just make up that way. Plus, there's something nicely innocent about having no responsibilities and being able to just keep on playing for as long as you want, and having your own personal space in which to do it. Another thing the movie gets right about childhood is the idea of throwing insults back and forth that, at the time, you thought hit hard, but when you look back at them as an adult, you realize were nothing major. I'm mainly talking about the standoff

between the sandlot kids and the Little League team, where Ham and Phillips get into this nice back and forth: "Watch it, jerk!" "Shut up, idiot!" "Moron!" "Butt sniffer!" "Pus licker!" "Fart smeller!" "You eat dog crap for breakfast, geek!" "You mix your Wheaties with your mama's toe jam!" (Like the adult Gordy said in his narration of Stand By Me, coming up with ways to insult another's mother was a common part of childish insults.) "You bob for apples in the toilet! And you like it!" And I like how the one that gets him is when Ham says he plays ball like a girl. It's like the "triple-dog dare" in A Christmas Story in how ridiculously serious it's taken.

While we're on the subject, I like how the movie avoids what's something of a cliche in these kinds of kids' flicks, which is that the sandlot kids are overconfident, then get crushed in a competition, and spend the rest of the movie trying to reorganize for a rematch, which they, predictably, win. No, after these snobbish Little Leaguers insult them and challenge them to a game, they come in and very easily crush them. It also doesn't go into the expected spiel about how, because the sandlot kids play baseball just for fun, while these other kids

see it as nothing more than a competition, they have the heart to win or something to that effect. No, it just comes down to these other kids being as cocky as they are douchey and not thinking any of them, aside from Benny, have a chance, as Phillips describes them as, "Rejects and a fat kid," and also declares, "We play on a real diamond." By this point, we already know how good the sandlot gang is at the game, and so, it's really satisfying to see the Little Leaguers' egos get dealt such a huge

blow; plus, we also get to see just how good Scotty has gotten. Now, later on, when they're trying to get the baseball back from the Beast, the movie does get into the typical milieu of the kids putting together homemade contraptions to do so, like the makeshift suction device they come up with using some vacuum cleaners, a rope and pulley system, and Scotty even creates a miniature, remote-controlled catapult and ramp for it to travel down using his Erector sets. But, I don't have any issue with that, as implausible as it is that some kids would come up with those contraptions.

I can personally relate to the character of Scotty when it comes to being an awkward kid who had a tough time making friends, especially since I have Asperger's. Throughout elementary school and middle school, I found myself often left out, ignored, or, worst of all, mocked, especially on the playground during recess. Yeah, my cousins went to the same school as I did, but we were never in the same homeroom, and I did manage to make a few friends along the way, but for various reasons, they never lasted longer than a few years. It got

better when I entered high school and became part of a close knit group of kids, most of whom I did like, and I did make some genuine friends, but I wouldn't say it was anything as deep as what the kids here and in Stand By Me have. As I've said before when I've talked about this in other posts, I'm not looking for sympathy or pity here; I'm just saying I could relate to Scotty and wish I became part of a close group like he does. And speaking of middle school and preadolescence, while it only dwells on it in one scene, this movie does get into

that feeling of being a boy who's on the cusp of puberty and realizing you like girls. In fact, they go farther with it than in Stand By Me where, aside from some offhanded remarks about masturbation and such, they mostly just mentioned Annette Funicello's growing breasts, while Ace talked about the best type of girl to try to get with. Here, we not only see Squints ogling Wendy Peffercorn, but when she's sitting on her lifeguard stand, they watch as she, very suggestively, spreads suntan

lotion on her legs and arms. And while Timmy and Tommy say she doesn't realize how much she's torturing them, Benny comments, "Yeah, she does. She knows exactly what she's doin'," (also happens to be a Cool Hand Luke reference). Finally, Squints decides to act on his longtime crush and fakes drowning in order to receive mouth-to-mouth from her. Not to be a prude but, again, this scene is played off as light-hearted and romantic, with This Magic Moment playing on the soundtrack, and Wendy, despite initially being angry, later finding it quite endearing, when it's actually very sleazy and kind of unsettling.

And, also like Stand By Me, the end of the movie acknowledges the sad fact that, as close as you may be, childhood friends, inevitably, drift apart for various reasons. In this case, according to Scotty, it was because they, one by one, moved away, and he adds, "When one guy would move away, we never replaced him on the team with anyone else. We just kept the game going, like he was still there." As he talks about what happened to each of them, you see them disappear as they're playing at the sandlot. Though he did keep in touch with them, and the last scene shows that he remained close to Benny into adulthood, we learn that they all went in various directions: Yeah-Yeah went to military school, Bertram just sort of disappeared because he, "Got really into the '60s," (likely meaning he got into drugs), Ham became a pro-wrestler called "the Great Hambino," Timmy and Tommy became an architect and contractor, respectively, and so forth. I can relate to this more than you would expect: two of the genuine friends I made in elementary school both moved to Europe!

While set in California, the entire movie, save for the ending scene at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, was shot in Utah, specifically the cities of Midvale, Salt Lake, and Ogden. Specifically, Scotty, Benny, and Ham's homes were in Salt Lake City, as was the sandlot itself, which, along with the treehouse overlooking the fence, and Mr. Mertle's house and yard, is my favorite location in the film. I really like big, abandoned spaces like that, and I also like how, at first glance, you'd expect the interior of Mr. Mertle's house to be 

fairly rundown, given its ominous exterior, the barren and cluttered yard where the Beast's doghouse is found, and the fence it all lies behind, but when Scotty and Benny go in, it's actually quite nice, with lots of memorabilia from Mertle's baseball days. Overall, despite its specific setting, this place looks like it could be anywhere in America, as it is quintessential Smalltown, U.S.A.: tree-lined streets, manicured lawns, and nice little homes, with an old-fashioned drugstore in town (if you're a fan of the Halloween movies like me, you

should recognize that drugstore, as it featured in Halloween 4 and 5). We don't spend a lot of time inside the homes, but the one we do see the most of is Scotty's, specifically his room, where he plays with his Erector sets; Bill's room, which is full of a bunch of sports memorabilia of his own, like trophies, catcher's mitts, his autographed baseball, and such; the kitchen and dining room; and the backyard, where Bill accidentally clocks Scotty in the eye with a ball. We get one scene in Benny's

house, when he has his inspirational dream involving Babe Ruth, and like you'd expect, it has a lot of baseball stuff in it as well. You also have the Little League field, the carnival and its infamous Trabant scene, the public pool (of course, when the day came for them to shoot that scene, it was cold rather than blazing hot; you can see the kids shivering while they're in the water), and the school auditorium and Founder's Day picnic, which feature in the climactic chase with the Beast. And

while the film is a period piece, set in 1962, I often forget that it is, as the story is so timeless and the setting never calls attention to itself, save for the soundtrack, some old-fashioned cars, what you hear on the radio in the background of some scenes, and the obsession the kids have with Babe Ruth.

Directing-wise, David Evans keeps things pretty simple for the most part, but there are moments where he gets a little dramatic, showing how serious certain moments are in the eyes of the kids. For instance, when Scotty first goes to the sandlot and sees the stray ball coming at him, there's this POV shot of it arching up in the air and coming right at the camera, and a high-angle shot of its POV as it comes down at him, with a dramatic whistling sound to boot. There are also some dramatic close-ups of the bases when they're

running them, and in the scene where Benny hits a ball and smashes the covering off it, the lead-up to it is done in very dramatic slow-motion. When they gather around the covering on the ground, there's an overhead zoom-in towards it, followed by an interesting shot from the ball's POV, looking up at them. Speaking of slow-motion, when Squints is ogling Wendy Peffercorn when she walks down the street, his POV of her switches to subtle slow-motion, and the same goes for much of the Beast

chasing Benny. Going back to Squints, when he fakes drowning, there's actually a shot of him on the bottom of the pool after he sinks and she dives in to save him, and as the others anxiously watch as she gives him mouth-to-mouth, there's a montage of close-ups of their faces as they try to encourage him to pull through. The standoff between the gang and the Little League team is shot almost like a showdown in a western, with the two groups standing on either side of the frame in

one shot, close-ups of their feet as they walk and ride up to each other, big, wide shots of them looking at each other, and a high-angle on the field as they stare each other down. And the editing of the verbal battle between Ham and Phillips is done with quick cutting back and forth between close-ups of their angry faces.

The most stylized part of the movie by far, though, is when Squints tells the boys the "legend" of the Beast when they're camping out in the treehouse. As traditional with ghost stories, he keeps a lit flashlight pointed up at his face from below, while the dramatization of the story is very exaggerated. It's in scratchy and static-filled black-and-white, resembling an old newsreel, and the Beast himself is presented as a monster from a 50's B-movie, from his origin of starting out as a sweet pup and becoming a monster junkyard dog when his owner

feeds him whole sides of beef, and his look, which is likely meant to come off as very fake and cheesy. Moreover, the thieves who break into the junkyard and are attacked by the Beast are very stereotypical, with black-and-white stripes under their coats and black masks over their eyes, and the police chief in the story, whom Squints claims was his grandfather, "Squidman Palledorous," is quite over-the-top in his expressions and gestures. And the way Squints tells the story is very much the way a kid would, especially one who's obviously

making it up as he goes, like when he says that the police got involved because they, "Started getting phone calls from people, reporting all the missing thieves, the ones the Beast had killed. It added up to about 120... 173 guys." He ends his story by describing how his grandfather, "Ordered Mr. Mertle to turn his backyard into a fortress, and chain up the Beast, and put him under the house, where he could never get out to eat children and stuff. And that's where he's been for twenty years.

And that's where he'll be for the rest of his life, because when Mr. Mertle asked the cops how long he had to keep the Beast chained up as a slave, they said until forever. Forever. Forever. Forever." He repeats that and it echoes, with increasingly close shots of the police chief's mouth as he melodramatically says the word in time with Squints' voice.

From the first time Scotty goes to the sandlot, the Beast's menacing presence is felt behind the fence through his monstrous snarling and barking, and by the fence's shaking. In doing so, he often distracts Scotty and makes him play even worse than he already does. After Scotty is finally made part of the team, he gets his first glimpse of the Beast when he sees his silhouette through the fence and it gets knocked hard, with a cloud of dust blowing over its top. Despite this, Scotty nearly gives the others a heart attack when he attempts to climb the

fence after Ham knocks a ball over it. They run and get him down, then tell him that they'll have to get another ball because of the Beast. When he doesn't understand what they mean, Benny sends him over to the fence and tells him to peek through the hole in it. They all implore him to be quiet while doing so, and when he looks, he first sees the ball, then an enormous paw that grabs it. This prompts the treehouse camp-out, where Squints tells the "legend" of the Beast, and Ham also tells Scotty that one kid did climb over the fence and got eaten.

At first, Scotty thinks this is just them trying to scare him, but when Squints tells him to look out the window and into the yard, he sees a glimpse of the Beast's chain, as well as his breath and some bones he's gnawed on. The Beast, however, doesn't become a major factor in the story until a little over halfway in, when Scotty hits Bill's autographed baseball over the fence. Realizing just how much trouble he's in, Scotty gets the others to help him get it back but every time they try something, the

Beast thwarts them. They try to get it with a wooden rod, and the Beast chews the end off; they come up with an Erector contraption with a pot on the end of it, and the Beast yanks it through and chucks it over the fence, a mangled mess; they come up with a vacuum contraption to get it and the Beast chomps on the pipe and bends it around to where the vacuums explode; they use a rope-and-pulley system to lower Yeah-Yeah down so he can get the ball, and he comes face-to-face with the Beast, with the others scrambling to pull him out in the nick of time; and finally, Scotty uses all of his Erector sets to create a mini-catapult, only for the Beast to catch the ball again in mid-air.

Up until the climactic chase with Benny, we only get glimpses of the Beast: first his aforementioned silhouette behind the fence, then glimpses of his big paws, head, and his snarling, drooling mouth. The one I always remembered from what little I saw of the movie as a kid was when you see his head on the other side of the fence when he rises up to grab the ball again. These brief looks, coupled with the monstrous sounds he makes, menacing moments such as his POV watching the kids while they're trying to get the ball, and the

shots of his chain moving while he remains offscreen, make him come off as a huge, ferocious, and almost unnatural creature. And just like in Squints' telling of the urban legend around him, he's realized through some over-the-top and fairly unrealistic-looking puppets, likely to show how monstrous he is to them due to their being kids and what they've heard about him. It's only when Benny hops over the fence and confronts him that we finally get to see the Beast, or Hercules, as a

real dog. While he is a big, imposing Bull Mastiff, and proves to be relentless in his chasing Benny, he's not the unnatural monster they all thought he was. Add to that how we learn that Mr. Mertle is nothing like how Squints described him in the story, and isn't a mean old man at all, and it's clear that everything we heard about the Beast, including his supposedly eating a kid, was all urban legend.

Benny's confrontation and flight from the Beast is one of the movie's many highlights. After being inspired by his dream of Babe Ruth, he puts on a pair of PF Flyers, hops the fence, and faces down the Beast, who emerges from his doghouse and spits the ball out, almost daring him to go for it. Despite being intimidated, Benny, after a false start, gets ready and makes his move. He runs in, grabs the ball, and runs back, with the Beast charging at him. He manages to hop back over the fence but, just as the others are celebrating his

victory, the Beast, who broke his chain, leaps over the fence as well. He chases Benny out of the sandlot and into town, the two of them wreaking havoc along the way. They both knock over a bike courier and bumble into a car right behind him, scaring the old lady driving it (the Beast opts to jump across the windshield and roof); the Beast chases Benny down an alleyway, where he throws garbage cans and other junk in his way to try to slow him down; Benny leaps over a wall and heads into a building across from him, a school where

some kids are being shown The Wolf Man (a touch I've always loved, obviously), and fumbles and slides into the room where it's being projected, while the Beast tears through the projection screen; they head to a Founder's Day celebration at a park, where they run across picnic tables and almost cause two caterers to drop an enormous, multi-layered cake (which ends up happening anyway, due to them knocking over a guy on stilts); and they go on to the public pool. All the while, the

other boys are chasing after them, and it eventually ends up back at the sandlot. The Beast gets close enough to Benny to rip off a bit of his shirttail, and even though he, again, jumps the fence, the Beast smashes his way through it. But just when Benny tries to scramble to safety, the fence falls over, right on top of the Beast, causing a big cloud of dust.

When it clears, the boys see that the Beast is pinned down by the fence. While the others are too scared to do anything, Scotty comes in and tries to lift the fence up, but it's too heavy for him. Benny, despite what he just went through, helps him and, together, they're able to lift it up long enough for the Beast to get out from under it. After they drop it, they try to catch their breath, when Scotty turns around and sees the Beast sitting right in front of him. For several moments, there's some suspense, as everyone waits for the Beast to do something,

and he does... he licks Scotty's face in gratitude. He also walks back over to his doghouse and, when the others follow, they find a huge stash of baseballs in a large pit he's dug (like the Babe Ruth dream, this is a bit too schmaltzy for me). And after they make friends with Mr. Mertle, the Beast, or Hercules, becomes their mascot. During the epilogue, Scotty tells us that Hercules lived to be about 199, albeit in dog years.

In terms of its humor, The Sandlot is a prime example of how you can have a movie centering around pre-teens and not having to resort too much on lowbrow or gross-out humor. It certainly has more than its fair share of childish jokes and gags, like how each of the boys spits when Benny introduces Scotty to them, the raunchy names and insults Ham and Phillips throw at each other, some of Ham's jeering while he's catching at the Little League game, and the notorious moment at the carnival, which I'll go into more detail on a second.

But, all that said, there are no fart jokes or anything of that nature, and while Ham's weight is commented on, it's never made into an obnoxious, recurring joke. A lot of the humor comes from the kids' dialogue and their reactions to the situations they find themselves in, like when Scotty is horrified when he realizes the exact value of the ball he lobbed over the fence, when they're freaking out while trying to get the ball back from the Beast, and when Scotty's ignorance and naivety frustrates the others, particularly Ham. A favorite

example of the latter occurs between Ham and Scotty in the treehouse: "Hey, you wanna s'more?" "Some more of what?" "No, no, do you wanna s'more?" "I haven't had anything yet, so how can I have some more of nothing?" "You're killing me, Smalls!" Ham then proceeds to show Scotty how to make one in gratuitous detail. Speaking of Ham, he's fairly funny in and of himself with how much he tries to show off, only for the others to laugh at him more often than not. There's also some good

old-fashioned slapstick to be had here, be it Scotty's nervousness and lack of skill, which cause him to badly fumble and fall when trying to catch and throw a ball; him getting whacked in the eye with a baseball, leaving him with a very noticeable mark; the cartoonish ways in which the Beast foils and destroys their attempts to retrieve the ball; and the havoc Benny and the Beast cause during their chase. The biggest example of the latter is when they run into the Founder's Day picnic, both nearly

cause the chefs to drop the enormous cake they've made, as do the others while chasing them, and just when they put it safely on a table (and Ham snags a bit of frosting), a guy on stilts who got knocked off-balance falls on the other end of the table. The cake is thus launched into the air and falls onto the chefs (and it inexplicably comes apart beforehand).

As much as I'm not a fan of gross-out humor, I won't lie that the scene at the county fair here always kills me, especially since I remember it vividly from when I was a kid. Happy about trouncing the Little Leaguers, and on their own field, the boys go to the fair to celebrate where, as Scotty tells us in his narration, "We did the stupidest thing any of us had ever done." After they get their tickets, Bertram whips out a pack of "Big Chief" chewing tobacco (the look and name of it reminds me of Red Man, which my maternal

grandfather, who died when I was only six, chewed all the time; I can still remember the smell of that stuff). Once they're all chewing, they decide to ride the Trabant. It's alright at first, but then, when it starts rotating faster, they soon realize what a horrible mistake they made. Ironically, it hits Bertram first, then everyone else, as they spit out their chaw and begin to feel really sick, with Scotty and Bertram making hilarious faces. Finally, it's over, and they blow chunks everywhere, hitting both other people on the ride with them and those

who are unlucky to walk too close to it (I've read that some of that may have been unintentional). The ride is then stopped and they walk off in a daze, having thrown up all over themselves as well. According to Scotty, "We swore off the hard stuff forever, and just stuck to Bazooka." I can kind of relate to this scenario. No, I have never chewed tobacco and never will, as I enjoy having teeth, but I have, sadly, been sick at a carnival before. It was when I was ten years old, and during my one and

only trip to Six Flags over Georgia, in June of 1997. The reason for it was simple: it was a terribly hot day, I got overheated, and by the end of it, I started puking my guts out. Thankfully, I wasn't on a ride when it happened (not that I would ride something like this anyway), but that didn't make it any less awful and embarrassing.

Strangely, even though, at its core, this movie is not fantastical whatsoever, there are suggestions of some higher force at work. Right before Scotty makes the mistake of playing with Bill's autographed ball, something happens that he and Squints see as a kind of omen, which is when Benny hits a ball so hard that the covering gets smashed off (there's another sort of omen of what's about to happen when they're on their way to the sandlot: a dogfood advertisement with the slogan, "Inside America's happiest dogs!") . At first, you

may think it's just one of those freak, bizarre, but coincidental things that happens, but then, that very night, Benny has his dream where he's visited by Babe Ruth (speaking of which, the effect they use on him to make him look as though he stepped out of an old newsreel, before transitioning into real-life color, looks pretty nice and the transition is rather seamless). In that dream, the Babe himself tells Benny that the incident with the baseball was a sign from... somebody, and it inspires to "pickle"

the Beast in order to get the ball back. And during the last scene of the boys playing at the sandlot, Scotty tells us, "It was weird that Benny had said that Babe Ruth was like the Hercules of Baseball, and the Beast's name ended up being Hercules. None of us could ever figure out what that meant, but we were all amazed by it." Again, it could be just coincidence, since Mr. Mertle knew Ruth and possibly named his dog that as something of a subtle tribute to him, or it could possibly be a sign of something else at work.

Music-wise, this is an example of a movie where the soundtrack is more memorable to me than the actual score. But that said, composer David Newman definitely does some good work. My personal favorite part of the score is the track called "Baseball Theme," which plays when the boys trounce the Little League team, as well as over the credits. It's this awesome, swinging jazz piece that captures both the spirit of the period and their personal triumph, as well as just emphasizes the fun of it all. Whenever his presence is felt, and when Squints tells everyone his supposed story, the Beast is emphasized musically in a menacing, monstrous fashion. But when you get to the scene where Benny leaps the fence and has a standoff with him, Newman goes for an old-fashioned, western-style piece, before transitioning into a faster-paced version when he goes for the ball and then hops back over the fence. The ensuing chase between them is scored in a light-hearted fashion, sounding like a marching band, when they run through the Founder's Day picnic, and gets a little more serious afterward, when the Beast chases Benny to the public pool and back to the sandlot, but it's always made to be fun and exciting rather than tense or suspenseful. And when the boys are watching Wendy Peffercorn putting on the suntan at the pool, Newman comes in with some old-fashioned sexy music. He also puts in some more whimsical music, which comes off as a little generic for me, but it does its job.

The songs are what really make the movie for me in a musical sense, as you have so many memorable tunes here. You hear Finger Poppin' Time by Hank Ballard when it first transitions to 1962, Smokie Pt. 2 when Scotty first runs off to the sandlot, The Lion Sleeps Tonight when they're camping out in the treehouse, There Goes My Baby by The Drifters when Squints and Yeah-Yeah see Wendy on the street, This Magic Moment when Squints kisses Wendy while faking his drowning, Ray Charles' wonderful rendition of America the Beautiful during the Fourth of July scene, Green Onions by Booker T and the M.G.s during the face-off with the Little Leaguers (I may not be much of a music guy but I knew that wasn't original to the movie, as I'd heard it elsewhere), Tequila during the Trabant scene (I can never hear that song without thinking about that), and Wipe Out during the first part of the climactic chase. Great stuff all around.

The Sandlot is just a sheer delight all-around: a well-made, well-acted, fun, and nostalgia-filled tribute to childhood. The kids all manage to be memorable, in one way or another, especially Scotty, Benny, Ham, and Squints; there are some top notch actors playing the small, adult supporting roles; the movie absolutely breathes the feeling of summertime, and the setting itself is very charming; it's often done in a style that fits with a kid's aesthetics and mindset; it manages to be quite funny without being too crude, save for the one, hilarious instance of gross-out; the music score and vintage soundtrack are great to listen to; and, even if you're not interested in baseball or can relate to any of the specific moments in the story, it's unlikely that the movie won't fill you with nostalgic memories from when you were a kid. Other than a few moments I find to be a tad bit too saccharine or predictable, I have no problems with this whatsoever and it's a great one to check out for the Fourth of July or at any point during the summer.