re: Over analyzing "The Sandlot"

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The bill of his fish cap may be the largest in history

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EVER

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I think a lot of has to do with his lack of social development more than just being a goob. regardless of a lack of common sense, smalls lacked basic social skills necessary for human interaction. Even after he was "in" with the guys he was still awkward 90% of the time.

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Which I dont get. I mean his mom seemed pretty freakin cool. Possibly even a milf back then. I mean she told him and I quote "to go play in the mud!" I mean what kind of moms tell their kid that? I wouldnt have gotten fed for a week had I went and played in the mud. His real dad must have literally had taped in the middle eye eyeglasses, carried multiple pens in his shirt pocket or something and watched PBS all day.

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Didn't family ever come visit him? Maybe some old buds from the Yankees? No one ever took him anywhere? The Beast had to go to the vet at least once in its lifespan.

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Very good points. Forreal though, were were all his baseball buds. That dude crowded the plate like nobodys business though so I dont know if he amde many friends with pitchers.

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All they would of needed was a 5 minute window without Beast security to hop Mr. Myrtle's fence and throw all the balls back over to the sandlot.

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I mean they tried vacuums, robots, a pulley system You dont have 5 minutes with the beast. 30 seconds tops.

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Furthermore, why was their tree house right over Mr. Myrtle/The Sandlot property? The Sandlot was public city domain which could have meant free reign for any kids to just post up in that treehouse and call it their own.

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This is a great question. And I will not stop till I find you an answer

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Ham would call the strikes at the sandlot

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Funny story. Obviously this was my favorite movie as a kid. My 11-12 year old summer baseball team traveled to play in a tournament, and I was the catcher. Well this one kid comes up to bat and im messing with him while he's trying to bat. Well his second time to bat I say "Hey, is that your sister out there in left field... Naked?" The kid turns around an yells at the top of his lungs and screams "SHUTUP!!" and proceeds to slap me with my catchers mask on. So I did my best Doc Swole impression and tackle him to the ground but then the ump broke us up before I got a chance to put a whoopin on him. Pretty crazy/funny looking back on it. Neither of us got ejected though. He immedietly struck out though. I win.

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But don't you think those uppity aholes from the Little League would have demanded an umpire?

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Knowing those aholes they probably tried to.


And...
YOU PLAY BALL LIKE A GIRRRLLLL!!!
*gasps*

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"Hey, is that your sister out there in left field... Naked?"

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i say this everytime im doing anything related to playing baseball

I'm probably the only one here that has never seen it start to finish. I've seen parts of it at least 6 times. Seems like a great movie, maybe one day with my grandkids...

I have 2 main questions about that movie that I have pondered on my entire life and I still cannot come to a satisfying, logical conclusion:

1. Why didn't Yeah-Yeah just throw the godforsaken ball over the fence back into the sandlot as soon as he grabbed it? And if the guys knew he was a babbling spaz, why even send him over in the first place? I mean, Timmy was a pretty logical cat. Why didn't they send him over?

2. As a future major leaguer, what in the hell was Benny looking at when he opened his gate and sprinted backwards all the way to the house after the catapult launched the baseball? Seriously, the beast caught the ball on its way down at the fence. He definitely didn't make it to the bigs as an outfielder.

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1. Why didn't Yeah-Yeah just throw the godforsaken ball over the fence back into the sandlot as soon as he grabbed it? And if the guys knew he was a babbling spaz, why even send him over in the first place? I mean, Timmy was a pretty logical cat. Why didn't they send him over?

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I ask this question every time I watch this.... He drops it when he gets scared. Why the hell didn't he hold on to it???

I was always curious how Kenny, (the black kid who pitched), was allowed to play with those white kids in the early 1960's.

Even more so, how was he able to swim in the white community pool?

remember this was all happening right in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement

I would assume this would explain why Mr. Mertle was such an unknown to the kids and never seen by them. He probably didnt get out of the house much because of the rampant racial discrimination of that time

Great thread. My thoughts..

Smalls was smart, but was a social retard. Thus not knowing about Smores and Babe Ruth. But at the same time, he learned about them in the moment. Once he ate a Smore, he knew what it was (even though it took a while to grasp). Once everybody told him about Babe Ruth, he realized that he was a (the) great baseball player. So he didn't need to go research after that.

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If anyone had a legit shot with Wendy Peffercorn, it would have been Benny, not Squints.

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No way. Squints had balls, and Wendy respected that (enough to marry him later). Squints =

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How could they play an honest game against the Little League team without one umpire? Ham was getting to call the strikes behind home plate? I don't think so.

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You've never played playground baseball before? Growing up, we played baseball constantly, and never had umpires outside of Little League. You called balls/strikes/outs, and if there was a dispute, you either argued until you got your way, or you did the play over.

I would have been pissed had they had real umpires for a playground game.

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Taking a ball that rest on a mantle? come on.

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That always bothered me a lot. He's definitely smart enough to know that a ball sitting on the mantle has to be important. Especially when it's got someone's autograph on it.

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How could they spend all that time next door to Mr. Myrtle's house and NEVER see the man? In all those years? I know the guy was blind but he had to have stepped out for some fresh air every now and then.

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It's all part of legends and myths as kids. I went to daycare for most of my childhood, and we played every day in the ginormous back yard. Baseball, basketball, football, etc. And the old man that lived next door..we all thought he was a creepy hermit who was out to pop any balls that went over the fence (he definitely did that several times though). We all basically thought he was evil and out to get us, even though we practically neveer even saw him...it's just kids being kids and hyping shite up to each other. In actuality, he was likely just a retired dude who watched TV all day and got tired of balls ending up in his yard.

It's just like the Beast. In Squints's story, the beast was like a ten foot tall giant monster, but in the end, he was just a regular sweet dog. Kids and their stories are always overhyped. That's the point IMO.

I will say, though, that's it's odd that nobody (or their parents) ever knew that someone famous (famous enough) lived there. I mean, dude was a MLB player who played with the greats and was on a first name basis with Babe Ruth.

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I always wondered what happened to Bertram. At the end the narrator says "Bertram got really into the 60s and no one ever saw him again." What the hell happened to him?

Also the actor who played Bertram, Grant Gelt, the last movie he was in was "The 60s" in '99

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That's awesome.

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Furthermore, why was their tree house right over Mr. Myrtle/The Sandlot property? The Sandlot was public city domain which could have meant free reign for any kids to just post up in that treehouse and call it their own.

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My friend nad I built a treehouse in a huge tree around his neighborhood. Wasn't their property. That kinda thing isn't uncommon at all. Plus, it makes sense to build it there since that's where they all congregated every day.

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"Hey, is that your sister out there in left field... Naked?"

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Think she'd go out with me?

Best part is the first pitch down the pipe and Ham just laughs at the batter. I always was aggravated at the fact that just about everyone on Phillips's team swung at pitches that were about 6 feet high. Made me question DeNunez's pitching skills.

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1. Why didn't Yeah-Yeah just throw the godforsaken ball over the fence back into the sandlot as soon as he grabbed it? And if the guys knew he was a babbling spaz, why even send him over in the first place? I mean, Timmy was a pretty logical cat. Why didn't they send him over?

2. As a future major leaguer, what in the hell was Benny looking at when he opened his gate and sprinted backwards all the way to the house after the catapult launched the baseball? Seriously, the beast caught the ball on its way down at the fence. He definitely didn't make it to the bigs as an outfielder.

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Both good questions. YeahYeah dropping the ball is frustrating. And so was the launch of the ball that the Beast jumped up and caught.

But all of that was necessary to advance the plot of (IMO) the best sports movie of all time. It's all a buildup to the end, and all the shite tehy try makes the end so much more awesome when JEJ is like "Why didn't you just come over and kncok on the door? I'd have gotten it for you.." Also, this thread reminds me that I now have my 5th movie for my "Top 5 movies" list in that thread from a week or two ago.

Anyone else never believe that Mr. Mertle could have really had a bunch of friends on the Yankees in the 20's? I know a lot of people believe Babe Ruth was possibly mixed and older players like Ty Cobb even hinted at it, but those were the 20's. What else was really big in the 20's? The KKK.

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I guarantee that I tell someone....Ur Killin me Smalls... at least once per week for the past 20 years.

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So you were using that quote before the movie came out?

Nice.