The Sandlot

In the late spring of 1962, fifth-grader Scott Smalls moves to the San Fernando Valley with his mother and new stepfather, Bill. Although he prefers to play with his Erector set in his room, his mother encourages him to make friends. As school ends and summer begins, he tries to join a group of boys who play baseball daily at the neighborhood sandlot, but all of them, except their leader and best player, Benjamin Franklin "Benny" Rodriguez, are scornful of Smalls' inability to catch and throw the ball. In an attempt to improve his skills, Smalls plays catch with Bill, but a stray throw leaves him with a black eye. Nevertheless, Benny invites him onto the team as a left-center outfielder. Despite skepticism from the rest of the team, Benny helps Smalls earn their respect.

At their next game, Ham gets a turn at bat with Benny as catcher. DeNunez taunts Ham with his trademark "Heater" pitch, and Ham, in response hits a home run into an adjacent backyard, much to the team's chagrin. Smalls attempts to retrieve the ball, but they stop him. That night, the team has a campout in the nearby treehouse, where Squints tells Smalls about "the Beast", a legendarily fearsome English Mastiff living behind the fence for two decades. Every baseball hit into the yard over the years has been claimed by the Beast, which is kept chained up by its owner, Mr. Mertle. It's even rumored that another kid once climbed the fence, but didn't live to tell about it.

One particularly hot day, the team hits the pool, in lieu of baseball, where Squints fakes drowning to receive mouth-to-mouth resuscitation from lifeguard Wendy Peffercorn; he kisses her, and she kicks the boys out, but it cements her and Squints' relationship. The team later plays a Fourth of July night game by the light of fireworks, and Smalls observes that, though the rest of them regard baseball as just a game, to Benny, "baseball was life". They later engage in a verbal scuffle, led by Ham, with a rival Little League team, and easily defeat them in a challenge game on the team's diamond. They celebrate their victory at a fair, where a combination of Big Chief chewing tobacco obtained by Bertram and riding the Trabant causes a disastrous mess for themselves and everyone around them.

One day, Benny hits the cover off the team's only ball. While the team is amazed, and interprets it to be an omen, Benny is bummed that their game is over as a result. With Bill away on business in Chicago, Smalls borrows his prized baseball autographed by Babe Ruth to keep the game going. Smalls is next at bat, and he hits his first home run, sending it into the Beast's yard. Smalls, who's not fully recovered from the carnival incident, panics after learning of the value of the ball, and the significance of Babe Ruth's autograph from the other boys (and that Babe Ruth was "The Great Bambino" that Smalls had overheard the boys talking about earlier), and collapses. The team pool in their savings to buy a replacement ball, on which they forge Babe Ruth's signature, to temporarily replace the missing autographed ball until they can figure something out. Smalls suggests going to Mr. Mertle for further assistance, but Squints insists he will not help them. The team attempts to recover the ball with various makeshift devices, but each attempt is sabotaged by the Beast. That night, Benny dreams he meets the spirit of Babe Ruth, who advises him to rescue the ball himself, with the words: "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die. Follow your heart, kid, and you'll never go wrong".

Equipped with a new pair of PF Flyers, Benny retrieves the ball by "pickling" the Beast and leaping back over the fence, but the dog breaks its chain and chases him through town, wreaking havoc along the way. Benny races back to Mr. Mertle's yard, but the Beast crashes through the fence, which falls down on top of it. Smalls and Benny free the dog, who gratefully licks Smalls' face and leads them to its stash of baseballs. They meet Mr. Mertle, who turns out to have been a baseball player and friendly rival of Babe Ruth, but subsequently became blinded from being struck by a pitch. He kindly trades them the chewed-up ball for a "Murderers' Row" ball autographed by all the 1927 New York Yankees including both Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth, and asks them to visit every week to talk baseball.

While Bill loves the "Murderers' Row" ball, he's still displeased about his "Babe Ruth" autographed ball being stolen and chewed up, and grounds Smalls for a week. Afterwards, their relationship improves and Smalls begins to call him "Dad". The boys continue to play on the sandlot the rest of that summer, and subsequent summers through their Jr. High school years, with the Beast – whose real name is Hercules – as their mascot. Eventually, they go their separate ways: Yeah-Yeah is enrolled in military school, enlists in the Army, and later develops bungee jumping; Bertram disappears into the counterculture movement; Timmy and Tommy become an architect and contractor, and the two become wealthy upon inventing mini malls; Squints marries Wendy and they have nine kids, and run the local drug store; Ham becomes a professional wrestler known as "The Great Hambino"; and DeNunez plays triple-A baseball, but, just shy of making the Majors, later becomes a business owner and coaches his sons' Little League team, called "The Heaters". Benny becomes a local legend after his pickling of Hercules (who lives to be about 199 years old, in dog years), and earns the nickname Benny "The Jet" Rodriquez, well into his adult years.

As an adult, Smalls becomes a sports commentator and remains friends with Benny, now a player for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Performing the play-by-play for a Dodgers game, Smalls cheers Benny on as he steals home to win the game, and they give each other the same thumbs-up sign they have shared since childhood. Afterwards, Smalls looks around his broadcast booth, at the Murderer's Row ball, the chewed-up Babe Ruth ball, the forged Babe Ruth ball, which he keeps on display, and other mementoes, including a photo of the sandlot team from '62, and remembers that first summer with the team.

• The Sandlot 2 (2005) – a direct-to-video sequel in which a new Sandlot gang is featured. The only returning cast member is James Earl Jones as Mr. Mertle. Evans also returned to direct the sequel and voiced Smalls' younger brother, Johnnie.
• The Sandlot: Heading Home (2007) – another direct-to-video sequel starring Luke Perry as Tommy "Santa" Santorelli who gets knocked back to 1976 from 2005 and relives his childhood. Chauncey Leopardi reprises his role as Squints.
• A prequel film was announced in July 2018.[18]
• As of 2019, a TV series with the original cast is in the works for Disney+,[19][20] as a result of Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox.[21]

The film's original score was composed by David Newman, and was not released until 2006, when a limited edition was released as part of the Varèse Sarabande CD Club. This release paired it with selections from Newman's score for The War of the Roses.[22] A complete release devoted exclusively to the score in observance of the film's 25th anniversary by La-La Land Records in 2018.[23]

• List of baseball films

• Clair, Michael (June 17, 2018). "'The Sandlot' cast reunited at Dodger Stadium for the film's 25th anniversary". MLB.com. Retrieved June 17, 2018.

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