The Sandlot

One summer in high school i went to the theater almost everyday for a week to watch this movie.

wont ever matter how old i am; this movie will always hold a special place.

One if not the best baseball movie of all time. It has everything action, comedy, thrilling characters, and just good development for everyone. Denis Leary is personally one of my favorites. But the amount of quotes you can take from this movie like "You're Killing me Smalls" and "You mean that’s the same guy?" an american classic and definitely up there as one of the best baseball movies ever.

Man, I haven't watched this for a little over 24 years now. For one reason, it was mine and my childhood best friend's favorite movie, and he was pretty much a living embodiment of Benny. He died in early 2001, and I was always a little worried that the nostalgia goggles might've been gone as an adult. But I tell you what, *this* is one of the biggest love letters to both the sport of baseball *and* the memories of childhood summers.

I didn't expect to get a little teary-eyed when adult Scotty was talking about the other Sandlotters moving away or growing up and losing contact with them, because now that I'm 40, that was a *little* too close to how it felt losing contact with some of my closest friends after graduating high school, and all of us either moving cross-country or out of the country for college.

This really is one of the best movies about the love of the game of baseball since The Natural. I also love how well it ***nailed*** the aspect of kids over-exaggerating local legends, like "The Beast" being this ridiculously huge man-eater of a dog when he was really just a very bored English Mastiff with a blind owner who couldn't really engage him the way a dog of that breed needs; poor Hercules was probably having the time of his life when the kids were trying to get that ball back, just happy to have anyone playing with him. Then Benny jumps over the fence with the ball instead of throwing it back like he was expecting, so Hercules escaped to keep playing. Mr. Mertle, likewise dealt with the same urban legend status from a bunch of neighborhood kids who'd never seen him, only for them to discover he's a nice old man who'd gone blind while playing with the '27 Yankees.

Man, this movie nailed what our tiny little worlds can look like to young kids.

This one is a classic! I will happily watch this one many more time. The quotes, the vibes, the memories. Nostalgia will forever kick very hard with this one for me!

Rating: 4.5/5 - 90% - Highly Recommend

"The Sandlot" recaptures the magic of being a boy in the 'Burbs with nothing to do all summer but play baseball. These boys had big dreams and bigger imaginations, the latter of which is put to the test by a nightmare of a beast, a giant dog who devours baseballs and puts abrupt endings to one too many ball games.

This is so refreshing because the only real problems the boys have is figuring out how to get their Babe Ruth autographed ball back from the ball chewing monster behind their outfield fence. There are no earth-shattering personal or family problems to be seen. This is light-heated fare. The nightmarish vision of the beast turns out to mostly be a fabrication by the boys' and their tale-telling exaggerations. However, the director supplies us with images of a monster instead of just a large dog, which recreates the boys' fears for the viewers' eyes. This one ends happily for the sandlot crew, perfectly capping the adventures on their own field of dreams.

It was about time for a rewatch of this nostalgic childhood classic. I remember watching this a ton as a kid. Anytime it was on, I was watching it. This movie is a ton of fun from start to finish. I’ve always loved baseball ever since I could walk. It’s funny because I’m not even big on movies that use narration throughout. But this one actually fits pretty well and it never really bothered me. I actually love the first half of this movie even more than the second half. The first half is so much fun and reminded me a bit of my childhood. Between the hanging out with friends, playing baseball and going to the pool, I loved all of that. The second half, once the ball goes over the fence became a bit repetitive. It’s still funny and entertaining but I’ve seen it so many times now. As a whole though I’ll always love this movie. It’s a very easy rewatch and it’ll always be a timeless classic.

* 4th Of July: Watch #2

Summertime nostalgia for the carefree days of yore, when friendship, mischief and baseball was the extent of a young boy's concern. And actually, those first two points are ancillary. Baseball is where it all begins and ends.

I didn't grow up in 1960s California like these kids, but their experiences are eerily familiar. As, I'll wager, is the case with most men beyond a certain age. We're products of a day when parents would send their children out, unsupervised, to find their own way in the world until a certain designated supper time. That open sense of freedom, and the alternating feelings of fear and discovery that accompany it, is key to understanding why _The Sandlot_ is so well-loved. Either you lived it and you see it, right there on the screen, or you didn't, and it misses you.

It's got shortcomings - lots of shortcomings, actually - but that warm overriding sentimentality smooths over a lot of the rough spots. The effects work on that big, scary junkyard dog might be laughable, but hey, such threats really do seem exaggerated and scary when you're twelve years old. Did the city actually light enough Independence Day fireworks to illuminate the neighborhood baseball diamond for a once-a-year night game? Probably not, but I'll bet it seems that way through the fog of a few decades' unreliable memory.

Simple and predictable, with an overdose of "for the love of the game" axioms, but also good-natured and playful; it's nice to visit this world, to recall your own similar childhood adventures, even if you can't completely overlook its schmaltzier limitations.

This was one of my favorite baseball themed films as a kid. It still holds up fairly well. Many of the scenes still play out just as I remember them, my toddler was enjoying the scenes of trying to retrieve the baseball from the beast.