The Sandlot movie storyline. In the San Fernando Valley during the summer of 1962, Scotty Smalls is the new boy in the neighborhood, seeking desperately to fit in. He would be welcomed on the local sandlot baseball team that practices every day, which only has eight players. Smalls however, can’t play baseball; on his first visit to the sandlot he finds himself in the outfield with a fly ball descending toward him which bounces off his glove, causing the other boys except Benny “the Jet” Rodriguez, the team’s leader, to burst out laughing. Smalls, humiliated, leaves.
Smalls asks his stepfather to teach him to play, and while his stepdad agrees, Scott cannot successfully catch or throw the ball. Benny soon teaches him what he needs to know, and with Benny’s support, he gets a place on the team.
Meanwhile, behind a wall at the end of the sandlot is a backyard inhabited by “the Beast”, an English Mastiff so large and savage, that it has become a neighborhood legend. One day, the boys’ last ball lands in the backyard of the Beast. Smalls attempts to retrieve it, but the others, knowing about the Beast, stop him.
That evening, they tell him all about the Beast, and that his owner, Mr. Mertle, got him when he was just a puppy when thieves were plaguing his junkyard, Mertle’s Acres. After a couple of weeks, the puppy became the Beast; he grew enormous and aggressive, killing and devouring the thieves, bones and all. Eventually, Squints’ grandfather, who was the police chief at the time, had Mr. Mertle chain up the Beast in the backyard and keep him under his house forever. Smalls also learns that many baseballs ended up in the backyard, and then they just disappear.
The next day, at a local swimming pool, Squints pretends to drown so that he can kiss the lifeguard, Wendy Peffercorn, whom he has a crush on. She does not take it too kindly to this, and they are banned from the pool. Nonetheless, she realizes that Squint has feelings for her.
One day, Benny busts the guts out of their baseball and Smalls borrows his stepfather’s ball. After that ball also ends up with the Beast, Smalls learns the ball was special; it was signed by Babe Ruth. Smalls’ stepfather has just gone to Chicago for a week-long business trip, putting Smalls and the others on a race against time to recover the ball before he returns.
They make many attempts to retrieve the ball, but the Beast thwarts each of their attempts. One night, Benny has a dream in which Babe Ruth gives him advice, and Benny explains to him about the Beast, saying that he ate one kid who hopped the fence and went into Mr. Mertle’s backyard.
The Sandlot is a 1993 American coming-of-age baseball film co-written and directed by David M. Evans, which 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 filming locations were in Glendale, Midvale, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, Utah. It grossed $33 million worldwide and has become a cult film.
The Sandlot (1993)
Directed by: David Mickey Evans
Starring: Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Art LaFleur, Patrick Renna, Chauncey Leopardi, Brandon Quintin Adams, Shane Obedzinski, Karen Allen, Marley Shelton
Screenplay by: David Mickey Evans, Robert Gunter
Production Design by: Chester Kaczenski
Cinematography by: Anthony B. Richmond
Film Editing by: Michael A. Stevenson
Costume Design by: Grania Preston
Set Decoration by: Judi Sandin
Art Direction by: Marc Dabe
Music by: David Newman
MPAA Rating: PG for some language and kids chewing tobacco.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: April 7, 1993
Hits: 73
