The Sandlot is a 1993 movie directed by David Mickey Evans. Set in 1962, the movie starts when Scott Smalls (Tom Guiry), a shy kid struggling with his mom and stepdad, moves to a suburb in Los Angeles. After seeing a group of boys who play sandlot baseball, he is invited by Benny Rodriguez (Mike Vitar), the team’s leader, to join, despite his lack of baseball talent. Scott gets better at playing and becomes one of the team, joining them on summer adventures to the fair, the pool, and a dangerous journey over the fence at the field. The movie is a perfect celebration of childhood friendship and summer fun, with growing up and lessons learned along the way. The film got mostly positive reviews, and nearly 30 years later, it remains a beloved cult classic. With its strong friendships and life lessons, it’s much more than a sports movie – and it’s this, ironically, that just might make it the best sports movie of all time.

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It’s a Perfect Ode to Childhood

A scene from the Sandlot
20th Century Fox

While a baseball movie, The Sandlot is also a beautiful coming-of-age movie that captures childhood in all its simplicity. It makes you yearn for childhood summers past and really feel like a kid again. Even Roger Ebert, in his original review of the film, said that there was a moment when Benny “hit a line drive directly at the pitcher's mound, and I ducked and held up my mitt, and then I realized I didn't have a mitt,” as he was so caught up in the film’s “memories of what really matters when you are 12.” It’s simply a movie that lets kids be kids and play baseball, without an elaborate plot, or a typical sports movie narrative of the team winning a big game. The film feels like those endless summer days as a kid, when the small things like baseball mattered the most.

Going along with this, the kids also start to grow up in subtle ways. Benny learns to face his fear later in the movie and realizes that he can embrace his own greatness. Scott bravely joins the baseball team and experiences making friends in a new place. We also see him start to build a better relationship with his stepfather. Baseball serves as the backdrop for all of these changes; the unifying factor among the characters. The movie shows the power of a game like baseball and how its magic goes hand in hand with the magic of childhood and growing up, making it quite possibly the best baseball movie. It recaptures that magic, and while it’s aimed at kids, it’s perhaps even more enjoyable and poignant for adults, which is just another factor of the film’s greatness.

It Embraces the Power of Friendship

A scene from the Sandlot
20th Century Fox

With a simple plot, it's the team of friends who carry the movie. All the actors are natural in their roles and feel like real kids – they’re not perfect or polished or overly mature. Despite how different the characters are from each other, they make a perfect team. They joke around with each other and get into trouble, like when Squints (Chauncey Leopardi) pretends to drown, so he can kiss Wendy the lifeguard. The team is fun and lovable, and we live the movie through them. They’re always there for each other, experiencing all the summer’s ups and downs together.

In the film’s final scene, which takes place in the present, we learn that Benny plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Scott is the one who announces his games. In the announcing booth, Scott has a picture of the sandlot team, showing just how much those friends meant to him, and changed his life, even if most of them grew apart. The movie highlights the intensity of childhood friendships, and while the kids all tease each other, they were also the truest of friends that summer. It’s a powerful testament to how much the people we care for can change us, even years later.

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It Shows the Importance of Learning From Others and Facing Your Fears

A scene from the Sandlot
20th Century Fox

We see the importance of learning and facing your fears in many ways in the film, like Scott learning to play baseball even when he’s afraid, and Benny being kind enough to teach him. The biggest example comes toward the end, when the team must brave the unknown. Rather than winning a big game, the movie’s climax centers around correcting a mistake and facing your fears – themes that are timeless. After Scott takes his stepdad’s signed Babe Ruth ball, it ends up over the fence after he hits his first home run. It now lies in the paws of “the Beast,” as the team has named the vicious dog who lives there with Mr. Mertle (James Earl Jones). After various attempts to get the ball without crossing the fence, Benny – guided by a dream from Babe Ruth, who tells Benny to follow his heart, and that "legends never die" – decides he must do it himself. The dog chases him through town and back to Mr. Mertle’s, where he gets stuck under the fence. The kids help free the dog, and he happily licks them, proving all their fears wrong.

After getting the chewed-up ball back, the kids meet Mr. Mertle. They’ve been afraid of him and his dog, but they find out that Mr. Mertle is really a kind man, who played baseball and was blinded after getting hit with a fastball. He then trades them their old ball for his own, signed by the 1927 New York Yankees. After talking to the kids, he asks them to visit every week so they can talk about baseball together. While initially afraid of Mr. Mertle, the kids come to see how interesting he is, and can learn from his stories of playing baseball. They have a newfound respect for him and learn something new while facing their fears.

The Sandlot is movie magic in any genre, and any time period. It uses baseball as a gateway to the past and the present, a common link among kids (and adults), who can truly see the magic in the game, just like they can see the magic in summer and childhood. The movie embraces the timeless themes of growing up, making friends, and facing your fears, and it does it with humor and soul. It takes the magic of baseball, of sports, and lets everyone share in it, no matter who they are, and this is what makes it the best sports movie of all time.