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. "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.