April 7, 1993: “The Sandlot” Premieres

April 7, 1993: The Sandlot premieres, set in Los Angeles in 1962 -- but filmed in Salt Lake City. It's not the best baseball-themed movie with James Earl Jones in it, but it’s pretty good. Think of it as A Christmas Story, but in Summer, and after World War II.

"So what is the best baseball-themed movie with James Earl Jones in it?" Yer killin' me, Smalls. (It's Field of Dreams.)

Scott Smalls (played by Tom Guidry) is a 10-year-old boy whose mother (Karen Allen) has remarried after his father's death. The stepfather (Denis Leary) has a baseball signed by Babe Ruth, who, at this point, has been dead for 14 years, and last played 27 years earlier.

Scott finds a sandlot where a group of neighborhood kids play baseball. The leader -- in such a group, there's always a leader -- is Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez (Mike Vitar), who's so fast, he's known as Benny the Jet. He can hit, too.

Scott -- the other kids call him by his last name, Smalls -- has never played before, and they think he's a square: Michael Palledorous (Chauncey Leopardi), the center fielder whose horn-rim glasses give him the nickname "Squints," calls him "An L7 weenie!" with the letter L and the number 7 forming a square. But Benny teaches him how to play ball, and he gets the hang of it. But not the hang of all they do: The catcher, Hamilton "Ham" Porter (Patrick Renna) -- In baseball movies, why is the catcher always a fat kid? -- hears him say something unaware, and says the movie's most-quoted line: "Yer killin' me, Smalls."

Benny hits a ball over the fence, into a junkyard. Game over: They have no more balls, and none of the boys has 98 cents to buy a new one. (About $9.35 in 2022 money.) So Smalls goes home, and grabs the Babe Ruth ball. Benny also hits that ball into the junkyard. Smalls tells the boys he's in trouble, because the ball was his father's, and it was signed by Babe Ruth -- only he doesn't know who Ruth was. The other kids know, and they know Smalls is really in trouble.

Because, as Squints tells it, in "The Legend of The Beast," the junkyard is owned by Mr. Mertle, supposedly a mean old man with a giant dog known as "The Beast," which has eaten kids who went in there. The kids try several methods of getting the ball back, all of which fail, because the Beast sabotages them. The movie really does make the Beast out to be a merciless monster, like the shark in Jaws.

Finally, in a dream, Benny is visited by the ghost of Ruth (Art LaFleur), who tells him he can beat the Beast and get the ball back: "Just remember, kid: Heroes get remembered, but legends never die." The next day, Benny goes over the fence and gets the ball back -- but the Beast chases him. Benny vaults over the fence to escape -- and so does the beast, breaking the chain that had tied him to his doghouse.

We now get to see that this is just a dog. A big dog, to be sure, but not a monster. Finally, Benny gets back to the sandlot, and jumps over the fence, knocking it down onto the Beast, stopping him. The Beast isn't seriously hurt, and turns out to be a nice dog, who just wanted "his" ball back. And the ball is already badly chewed up, with Ruth's autograph barely even visible. It's worthless now.

The kids take the Beast back to Mr. Mertle (James Earl Jones), who turns out to be a blind old black man who had played in the Negro Leagues, before a beaning cost him his sight. He offers the boys a deal: Come over once a week to talk baseball, and he'll give Smalls a ball signed by Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and all the legendary 1927 New York Yankees. Smalls gives that ball to his stepfather, and explains it all, and is only grounded for a week.

According to the narration of the adult Smalls (voice of David Mickey Evans, who directed the film and co-wrote the script, physical form by Arliss Howard), the boys stayed together in the sandlot for 3 full Summers, with the Beast, who Mr. Mertle had actually named Hercules. Which made sense, since Hamilton had called Ruth "The Hercules of Baseball."

But that 1st Summer, 1962, would never be topped, for reasons that also included time by the pool, a 4th of July fireworks display, and the Pennant race that the hometown Dodgers would eventually lose to the arch-rival San Francisco Giants, despite Sandy Koufax pitching his 1st no-hitter and Maury Wills setting a new single-season record of 104 stolen bases (since broken).

Smalls gives an overview of what happened to the other kids. A pair of brothers went into real estate and "invented mini-malls," which is an anachronism, because they already existed in 1962. One boy served in Vietnam, and another went into the 1960s counterculture and "disappeared." Hamilton becomes a professional wrestler, calling himself "The Great Hambino," in Ruth's memory. The black kid, who was the team's pitcher, got as far as Class AAA ball, started a business, and had that business sponsor his son's Little League team, which he coaches and plays on the sandlot.

And Smalls becomes a broadcaster for the Dodgers, who signed Benny the Jet, and he (played as an adult by Mike's brother, Pablo Vitar) becomes a major league star. He now owns both balls: The chewed-up one he inherited from Mr. Mertle, and the '27 Yanks ball Mr. Mertle gave to him and he then gave to his stepfather. In the broadcast booth at Dodger Stadium, he keeps the balls on display, along with a picture of the sandlot boys.

The Sandlot became one of the most beloved baseball movies ever made. Unfortunately, a sequel was made, The Sandlot 2, in 2005, and 20th Century Fox, who made the original, thought so little of it that it went direct-to-video.

Set 10 years after the original, it is implied that Smalls' mother and stepfather had another kid right after the events of the first movie, and Johnnie meets the next generation of sandlot kids. The only returning character is Mr. Mertle, and this time, Hamilton's old insult at the local bullies' team's pitcher, "You throw like a girl!" gets turned on its head: Since this is 1972, the height of "second-wave feminism," an all-girls team challenges the boys.

Surely, Fox wouldn't have been dumb enough to make a 3rd movie. They were, and don't call me "Shirley." In 2007, The Sandlot: Heading Home went direct-to-video. Luke Perry played a 2004 player who gets knocked back to 1976, and relives his childhood at the Sandlot, where his coach is Squints, with a now-adult Leopardi reprising his role.

In 2018, a prequel film was announced. What were they going to do, set in 1947, with the backdrop of Jackie Robinson integrating baseball? The idea was dropped. In 2019, with Disney having bought 20th Century Fox out, a TV series was announced for Disney+, with the original cast, but nothing came of it. Perhaps it's for the best: The Sandlot was lightning in a bottle, a lucky break, a great moment that had its moment, and was going, going, gone.

*

April 7, 1993 was a Wednesday. These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians, 4-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Albert Belle hit a home run off John Habyan in the bottom of the 8th inning, and that made the difference. Bernie Williams homered for the Yankees. Don Mattingly went 2-for-4.

* The New York Mets beat the Colorado Rockies, 6-1 at Shea Stadium. Bret Saberhagen outpitched Bruce Ruffin. Todd Hundley went 3-for-3 with an RBI.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-1 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Doug Strange hit a home run in the top of the 11th inning. Cal Ripken went 2-for-4 with a walk.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Florida Marlins, 4-2 at Joe Robbie Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-1 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Braves led 3-0 going into the bottom of the 8th, but the Cubs scored 2 in the 8th and 1 in the 9th. Ron Gant hit a 2-run home run in the top of the 10th, and the Cubs could only pull 1 run back in the bottom of the 10th.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-1 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-2 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Barry Bonds went 2-for-4, including, after 176 for the Pirates, his 1st home run as a Giant. There would be more.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-2 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Frank Viola outpitched David Cone. George Brett, in his final season, went 1-for-3 with an RBI.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Houston Astros, 6-3 at the Astrodome in Houston. Milt Thompson hit a bases-loaded double in the top of the 10th inning. This was the 1st sign that this might be a special season in Philadelphia.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the California Angels, 3-2 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers, 12-7 at the Oakland Coliseum. Rickey Henderson went 1-for-2 with 3 walks. Mark McGwire went 2-for-3 with a walk and 4 RBIs. For the Tigers, Tony Phillips went 4-for-5 against his former team, and Cecil Fielder had 5 RBIs including a grand slam.

* And the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Seattle Mariners, 2-0 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Al Leiter pitched 7 innings of 2-hit shutout ball, and 2 relievers finished a 3-hit shutout. Ken Griffey Jr. went 0-for-4.

Football was out of season. There were 3 games in the NBA:

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Washington Bullets, 98-90 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Charlotte Hornets, 109-96 at the Charlotte Coliseum.

* And the Indiana Pacers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 113-105 at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Rik Smits led all scorers with 34 points.

And there were 4 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs:

* The New Jersey Devils beat their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, 5-2 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Hartford Whalers beat the Ottawa Senators, 6-1 at the Ottawa Civic Centre (now the TD Place Arena).

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-3 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. Ulf Samuelsson scored the winning goal with 2:49 left in overtime.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-4 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. Geoff Courtnall scored the winning goal with 3:27 left in overtime.