History Film / TheSandlot

* AwesomeButImpractical: Hitting a home run to left field is this for the kids because, as awesome as hitting a home run is, it means they lose their ball and can't play anymore. One has to wonder why they never bring spare baseballs.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Hitting a home run to left field is this for the kids because, as awesome as hitting a home run is, it means they lose their ball and can't play anymore.

A 1993 classic ComingOfAgeStory, it follows the summer adventures and misadventures of a group of boys and their ragtag baseball team playing on "The Sandlot," their makeshift baseball field in Los Angeles, during the summer of 1962.

Scotty Smalls is fairly brainy but struggles with making new friends due to being uncoordinated (as he doesn't have any skill at sports) and general shyness. In addition to being TheNewGuy, his mom recently remarried and he isn't quite adjusted to his new step-dad. Watching a group of kids play at the sandlot, he is invited to join by their best player and team leader Benny Rodriguez. An outcast among the group at first, Benny [[BigBrotherMentor guides Scotty to become a decent ball player]] in his own right and is accepted by the others.

* ChekhovsSkill: Benny's incredible ability to beat fielders in a baserunning rundown (known as a "pickle" in baseball), as established from his first scene, comes in play at the end [[spoiler: when he has to "pickle" the Beast for the Babe Ruth baseball.]]

** Rather: "[[PrecisionFStrike Oh SHIT!]]" when [[spoiler: The Beast leaps over the fence to get the ball back from Benny.]]

* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: As is typical for these types of films, the end has Scott narrating what ultimately became of his friends, as their images fade out one by one. At the very end, we're treated to a TimeSkip showing that [[spoiler: Scott is now a sports commentator, and Benny plays baseball professionally for their hometown Los Angeles Dodgers.]]

Scotty Smalls is fairly brainy but struggles with making new friends due to being uncoordinated (doesn't have any skill at sports) and general shyness. In addition to being TheNewGuy, his mom recently remarried and he isn't quite adjusted to his new step-dad. Watching a group of kids play at the sandlot, he is invited to join by their best player and team leader Benny Rodriguez. An outcast among the group at first, Benny [[BigBrotherMentor guides Scotty to become a decent ball player]] in his own right and is accepted by the others.

* GroundedForLife: Subverted; Smalls clearly fears this fate, and is glad when his dad decides to only ground him for one week.

* WidescreenShot: All over this movie, since it was filmed in J-D-C [[note: Joe Dunton Cameras]] Scope. People tend to be very spread out when they're on a baseball field.

* WidescreenShot: All over this movie. People tend to be very spread out when they're on a baseball field.

* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: The movie takes place in 1962 and features Benny, who's Hispanic, and Kenny, who's black, hanging out with white kids all around town with no one batting an eye (their races aren't even commented upon). At the time, institutionalized racial segregation was still in effect and even in a more liberal area like Southern California, you'd be hard pressed to find a black kid playing baseball with a bunch of white kids (even a Hispanic kid would be considered pushing it).

* NostalgicNarrator: The adult Scotty, voiced by the film's writer-director David M. Evans.

* CarryingACake: During the ChaseScene at the end, the bakers avoid this trope twice, only to fail at the last moment. Cake in the face and they feel despair.

%%* The Autographed Ball: Benny hits the team's only baseball so hard that he knocks the cover off. With his stepfather Bill away on business, Scotty borrows a baseball from his trophy room that is autographed by legendary player Babe Ruth. Being ignorant of baseball history, Scotty does not realize the ball's value, and hits his first home run, sending it into [[AngryGuardDog the Beast]]'s yard. When the other boys learn of the autograph, they tell Scotty its value and make several attempts to get the ball out of the yard using makeshift retrieval devices, but each is destroyed by the Beast. - unlaunched

* TheAutographedBall: Benny hits the team's only baseball so hard that he knocks the cover off. With his stepfather Bill away on business, Scotty borrows a baseball from his trophy room that is autographed by legendary player Babe Ruth. Being ignorant of baseball history, Scotty does not realize the ball's value, and hits his first home run, sending it into [[AngryGuardDog the Beast]]'s yard. When the other boys learn of the autograph, they tell Scotty its value and make several attempts to get the ball out of the yard using makeshift retrieval devices, but each is destroyed by the Beast.

* HelloNurse: Wendy Peffercorn has two scenes. The first has just Squints and Yeah-yeah staring at her entranced. The second, in the pool, has all nine boys staring at her.

* AnAesop: Tobacco is bad for you. Chewing tobacco, in this case.

* BerserkButton: In ''Heading Home'', you talk about Tommy's mom or bring up her illness, he'll go Creator/QuentinTarantino on you.

* TheSixties: Babe Ruth, Tobacco as a baseball icon, and Smalls mentions Maury Wills "breaking the stolen bases record".

* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: When the gang go to play baseball on the 4th of July, they hit the ball just as the fireworks are going off. They are so mesmerized they all stop playing just to watch.

* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: When the gang go to play baseball on the 4th of July, they hit the the ball just as the fireworks are going off. They are so mesmerized they all stop playing just to watch.

* RoleReprisal: Chauncey Leopardi returns as Squints for the third movie.

* WouldHitAGirl: Singleton in the sequel. David responds by decking him in the face.

* GiveGeeksAChance: Squints has a hopeless crush on the lifeguard at the local swimming pool, Wendy Peffercorn. He is so desperate for her to notice him that he nearly drowns himself just so that he can give her a kiss while she's performing CPR on him. [[spoiler:During the film's WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue we learn that Squints and Wendy eventually got married and had nine kids. They still happily married in ''Heading Home''.]]

* MadnessMantra: ''"Lotioning...oiling...lotioning...oiling..."''

* NiceHat: Inverted with Small's first hat, which Benny tells him to throw in his fireplace, and played straight with the hat he gives Smalls. [[spoiler: He doesn't throw the hat away. He's wearing it while announcing the game.]]

* NotEvilJustMisunderstood: The dog, A.K.A. Hercules. The whole movie revolves around the boys' fear of the dog on the other side of the fence. They have believed that the dog was a monster that wanted to kill them. The truth? It's just a big dog who wants to play and may have been protecting its territory because it thought the boys were threatening.

** Also the team's reaction when Smalls tells them the ball he hit over the fence was signed by "Baby Ruth".

* TheQuietOne: Ryan from ''Heading Home'', who hasn't talked since his dad died. But starts talking again when he got angry at Tommy switched teams. He then tells the other team to stop talking so he can speak up giving a RousingSpeech.

* RetiredBadass: [[spoiler:Mr. Mertle played professionally, was such a close friend of Babe Ruth that he called him by his real name, George, and could have equaled or even ''rivaled'' the Babe in terms of skill, [[CareerEndingInjury had he not lost his vision via a fastball to the face]].]]

* ScaryBlackMan: What everyone assume Mr. Mertle to be. "He's the one who made the Beast eat that kid!" [[spoiler: He's actually a CoolOldGuy.]]

* {{Bookends}}: The game opens and closes with Scotty at work calling a Dodgers game. [[spoiler: It's revealed at the end Benny plays for them.]]

Basically this movie was to the kids of TheNineties what ''Film/TheGoonies'' was to the kids of TheEighties, and has been mentioned by many, including RogerEbert, as a summer counterpart to ''Film/AChristmasStory'', with its nostalgic, episodic nature about childhood and being narrated by the writer as a grown version of the protagonist.

Basically this movie was to the kids of TheNineties what ''Film/TheGoonies'' was to the kids of TheEighties. It also follows TheHerosJourney so well it's practically the baseball version of ''StarWars''.

* ClusterFBomb: Subverted. For most of the movie, the boys swear plenty, but when it comes time for the name-calling contest, they decide [[NotUsingTheZWord not to use the "B" word]] and substitute it with "female dog!" Granted, that's what it ''means'', but still...