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 improve his skills and 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. "Heroes get remembered," says the Babe, "but legends never die. Follow your heart, kid, and you'll never go wrong."
Equipped with a new pair of PF Flyers, Benny retrieves the ball by "pickling" the Beast and leaping back over the fence, but the dog breaks its chain and chases him through town. Benny races back to Mr. Mertle's yard, but the Beast crashes through the fence, which falls down on top of it. Smalls and Benny free the dog, who gratefully licks Smalls' face and leads them to its stash of baseballs. They meet Mr. Mertle, who turns out to have been a baseball player and friend of Babe Ruth, having lost his sight after being struck by a pitch. He kindly trades them the chewed-up ball for one autographed by all the Murderer’s Row, and asks them to visit every week to talk baseball.
Bill grounds Smalls for a week for taking the signed ball, but their relationship improves and Smalls begins to call him “Dad”. The boys continue to play on the sandlot, with the Beast – whose real name is Hercules – as their mascot, but eventually go their separate ways: Yeah-Yeah goes on to join the army and develop bungee jumping; Bertram disappears into the counterculture movement; Timmy and Tommy invent mini-malls; Squints marries Wendy; Ham becomes a professional wrestler; DeNunez plays triple-A baseball and now coaches his sons' Little League team, known as The Heaters; and Benny earns the nickname "the Jet" after word spreads around about his encounter with the Beast.
As an adult, Smalls becomes a sports commentator and remains friends with Benny, now a player for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Performing the play-by-play for a Dodgers game, Smalls cheers Benny on as he steals home to win the game, and they give each other the same thumbs-up sign they have shared since childhood.
Cast
Tom Guiry as Scott "Scotty" Smalls, new kid in town, who later becomes a left-center outfielder for the Sandlot team.
Stewart Hart as opposing pitcher of uniformed team
Reception
Critical response
The Sandlot received generally positive reviews upon release. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 65% based on 62 reviews, with an average rating of 6.10/10. The site's critical consensus read: "It may be shamelessly derivative and overly nostalgic, but The Sandlot is nevertheless a genuinely sweet and funny coming-of-age adventure".[6]Metacritic assigned the film had a weighted average score of 55 based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[7] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[8]
Critic Roger Ebert gave the film three stars, comparing the film to a summertime version of A Christmas Story, based on the tone and narration of both films: "There was a moment in the film when Rodriguez hit a line drive directly at the pitcher's mound, and I ducked and held up my mitt, and then I realized I didn't have a mitt, and it was then I also realized how completely this movie had seduced me with its memories of what really matters when you are 12".[9] Bob Cannon of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+, praising its simplicity and strong fundamentals.[10]
Leonard Klady of Variety gave the film a mostly negative review. He praised the cinematography and score, but felt the baseball team did not come together, and that the film, while sincere, was a "remarkably shallow wade, rife with incident and slim on substance".[11]
Box office
The film grossed $4,000,000 in its opening week-end and a further $32,000,000 through ticket sales. Figures for world-wide VHS and DVD sales are estimated to be at $76,000,000. Since its release on both VHS and DVD, the film has become a cult favorite.[3]
Defamation suit
In 1998, Michael Polydoros sued 20th Century Fox and the producers of the film for defamation. Polydoros, a childhood classmate of David Mickey Evans, the writer and director of The Sandlot, claimed that the character Michael "Squints" Palledorous was derogatory and caused him shame and humiliation. The trial court found in favor of the film-makers, and that finding was affirmed by the California Court of Appeal.[12] After initially agreeing to review the case in 1998,[13] the Supreme Court of California reversed its decision, dismissing the review and reinstating the Court of Appeal's opinion in favor of 20th Century Fox.[14][15]
Home media
In 1993, The Sandlot first came to home video in a slipcase, along with the LaserDisc in widescreen, but later came in a clam shell case in 1994. On January 29, 2002, the DVD was released under Fox's Family Feature banner, in widescreen (Side B) and full screen (Side A); the 2013 repackaged DVD is widescreen only. The film was released on Blu-ray for the first time in March 2013 to celebrate its 20th anniversary.[16] The film then had a re-release on Blu-ray and Digital HD on March 27, 2018, as part of the film's 25th anniversary.[17]
Sequels and prequel
The Sandlot 2 (2005) – a direct-to-video sequel in which a new Sandlot gang is featured. The only returning cast member is James Earl Jones as Mr. Mertle. Evans also returned to direct the sequel and voiced Smalls' younger brother, Johnnie.
The Sandlot: Heading Home (2007) – another direct-to-video sequel starring Luke Perry as Tommy "Santa" Santorelli who gets knocked back to 1976 from 2004 and relives his childhood. Chauncey Leopardi reprises his role as Squints.
In 2019, a TV series with the original cast was in the works for Disney+,[19][20] as a result of Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox.[21] In November 2023, the series was cancelled due to the lengthy SAG-AFTRA strike.[22]
Soundtrack
The film's original score was composed by David Newman, and was not released until 2006, when a limited edition was released as part of the Varèse Sarabande CD Club. This release paired it with selections from Newman's score for The War of the Roses.[23] Subsequently, in 2018 a remastered and expanded limited edition re-issue of the original motion picture score was published by La-La Land Records in observance of the film's 25th anniversary.[24]
