History Film / TheSandlot

-->-- '''Babe Ruth'''

''The Sandlot'' is a 1993 classic ComingOfAgeStory sports film, released on April 7, 1993. It was directed by David Mickey Evans, with a screenplay by Evans and Robert Gunter. 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.

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

* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: Hayley and her friends from ''The Sandlot 2'' are avid ballplayers who show some interest in Hayley's dad's rocket scientist work, but they also frequently sport feminine outfits and makeup and enjoy pool parties and petting cats.

* SpiritualSuccessor:
** You could say this is ''Film/AChristmasStory'' for the summer months.
** You could also say this was ''Film/FieldOfDreams'' for kids. It even shares two of the same actors - Creator/JamesEarlJones and Creator/ArtLaFleur - along with two assistant directors.

* KarmaHoudini: Johnnie in the second movie manages to return the model spaceship back to the Goodfairers' garage without so much as a talking to about his actions. Averted with Scotty in the first movie, who is punished for a week for having taken Bill's signed Babe Ruth baseball and getting it destroyed.

* 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.

* FunHatingConfiscatingAdult: Mr. Mertle is known as one to the Sandlot team. "He's the one who made the beast eat that kid!" [[spoiler: This is a subversion as neither is really as bad as the children originally believed.]]

* 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 as an adult.]]

* ActorAllusion: Creator/JamesEarlJones as Mr. Mertle, since he'd also starred in ''Film/FieldOfDreams'', another iconic baseball movie.

* SlobsVersusSnobs: Plays into the dynamic of the Sandlot's crew versus their uniformed rivals; the rivals appear to be a collection of [[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant WASPs]], and all wear uniform clothing, while the crew is a RagTagBunchOfMisfits that's racially diverse, includes multiple examples of HollywoodNerd, the new kid in town, a somewhat rotund future pro-wrestler, and yet are so utterly devoted to baseball for the fun of it that they crush their uniformed counterparts.

Scotty Smalls (Tom Guiry) 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 mother (Karen Allen) recently remarried and he isn't quite adjusted to his new step-dad Bill (Denis Leary). Watching a group of kids play at the sandlot, he is invited to join by their best player and team leader Benny Rodriguez (Mike Vitar). 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.

* SpiritualSuccessor: You could say this is ''Film/AChristmasStory'' for the summer months.

** Played straight in ''The Sandlot 3'', which centers around a game between the sandlot kids and little league team to decide the fate of the Sandlot, as well as [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong the fate of]] [[MentalTimeTravel the protagonist]].

* 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. Though one has to wonder why they never thought to bring spare baseballs...

* BigGame: Notably subverted for a sports movie. The guys just play together for the love of the game. Only once do they square off against another team, about midway through the movie, and [[spoiler:the Sandlot team handily trounces their rivals without any trouble]].

* PopCulturalOsmosisFailure: In-universe, Smalls is such a baseball neophyte that he doesn't even know who ''Creator/BabeRuth'' was, let along his nickname "the Great Bambino", a failing which comes back to bite him hard in the second half.