My Summer Surprise

The Sandlot (1993) – When his family moves into a new neighborhood, a lonely young man gets taken in by the local pickup baseball team. They bond as a team, as friends, and discover the secret beyond the outfield wall.

Directed by David Mickey Evans

Starring Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Art LaFleur, Patrick Renna, James Earl Jones

Why I Liked It – The movie was more than just another smart-mouthed kid baseball story.

Confession time! I actively resisted watching this movie for YEARS. If you’re a fan of “The Sandlot” you need to know this was, in part, your fault. With its endlessly quoted “You’re killin’ me, Smalls”, and fanboy enthusiasm, it was a turnoff for me. Plus, kid sports movies are an “either/or” proposition for me. The cutesy ones bore me. I love “The Mighty Ducks”, but it’s mostly about Emilio Estevez’s character, not the kids. Flame for me being a grumpy old coot (a la Walter Matthau in “The Bad News Bears”), but I stopped being enthralled by cute kid movies when I stopped being a cute kid.

But baseball season has begun, and I’m looking for baseball movies, and I don’t want to watch “Angels in the Outfield” or “Rookie of the Year”. “The Sandlot” pops up on my list of options, and with much sighing and eye rolling, I hit the button to watch.

Huh. Didn’t expect that.

The story is of the baseball ineptitude of Scotty Smalls, and the dedicated band of young baseball “purists” who eventually accept him. Part coming of age movie, part buddy film, part fantasy, the movie won me over. 1962 was a few years before my backyard baseball heyday, but it felt very familiar. Just a bunch of guys (sorry ladies, we wouldn’t hear about equality for a few more years), hanging out and playing the game that our fathers and grandfathers, and great-grandfathers played. Our imaginations ran away from us regularly. Girls didn’t play baseball with us, but they were interesting us in a new way.

The combination of all these things gave me an experience I hadn’t expected. These kids aren’t “cute”, but the gritty, obnoxious kids from my neighborhood. We rode bikes, played baseball in the summer, and football in the fall. We weren’t as good as our parents thought, nor as bad as we thought.

So, yes, the movie surprised me. Surprised me a LOT. A wonderful movie from several aspects. The perfect kind of surprise.

You can stream “The Sandlot” on Hulu, Disney+, YouTube, Google Play Movies, Apple TV and Amazon Prime.

Rating – **** Recommended