Summer is just around the corner, and 'The Sandlot' movie is the one movie to watch this summer. Only if...you remember it.
It came out around 1993 and has been considered a movie made for kids that love baseball. If you don't remember it...here's the story.
An adult Scotty Smalls relives his past on how he moved into a new town. He even has a stepfather he hasn't gotten along with.
He soon meets another guy named Benny 'The Jet' Rodriguez. With Scotty not a fan of baseball, Benny decides to help him out.
That's where we meet the other boys as they all love to do one thing.... play baseball. They are named: Squints, Ham, Heater, Yeah-Yeah, Timmy and Tommy.
It takes them a while to warm up to Scotty. Eventually they do as they have an interesting summer adventure.
There's even a love interest between Squints and a lifeguard. He decides to play a trick and pretend to drown.
Wendy Peppercorn, the female lifeguard, tries to save him...he kisses her. They soon are banned...but it seems that Squints falls for Wendy after that.
The boys play in a vacant yard where...there is a beast behind the fence and any ball that goes past the fence belongs to the beast.
One of the boys tells Scotty a story that involves the owner of the beast and how rude he is and that the beast would eat one of the children. But that's just an urban legend.
Scotty decides to 'borrow' is stepdad's baseball that was signed by Babe Ruth. Not knowing who he was, Scotty uses the ball and Benny hits it over the fence.
When Scotty reveals that Babe Ruth signed the ball...all the boys go crazy and try to find ways to get it back.
Feeling that they have been defeated, Benny soon gets a ghostly vision of Babe Ruth. He tells him that the inning is not over and that it's just foul in their plan.
Knowing what he has to do...the next day he had to find a way to defeat the beast.
Benny's whole life revolves around baseball. He decides to be a brave thing and retrieve the Babe Ruth ball.
All his friends, including Scotty thinks he's being suicidal as he gets the ball, but is chased by the beast which turns out to be an English Mastiff dog. He chases Benny all over the town, but a fence falls on him.
Thankfully, Scotty and a few of the other boys get the fence off the dog, named Hercules. He kisses both Scotty and Benny as they decide to return the dog to the neighbor.
It turns out the neighbor, portrayed by the late James Earl Jones, knew Babe Ruth personally and used to play baseball. He told the boys they could have come to him if they lost their baseball.
He gives Scotty another ball and tells his stepdad what happened. He becomes great friends with the boys he played baseball with, but he stayed close to Benny as he became a baseball star on his own.
After the movie ended...a few years later there was a sequel. But it didn't compare to the original which is by far the best.
What happened to most of the actors after the movie. Some stayed actors as others went on to do other stuff with their lives.
The actor that portrayed Benny left the acting world and became an actual firefighter. The actor that portrayed Ham is now a father and is acting in small roles.
The kid who portrayed Scotty went into small roles and left acting to have a normal life.
The Sandlot today is known for being timeless classic movie that is enjoyed mostly in the summer. When Baseball is considered the sport to play.
There have been other baseball movies that are considered classics as well. Like "Field of Dreams", "Angels in the Outfield", "The Natural". But I guess I grew up watching the Sandlot and loving it. Still do today.
