The Sandlot

In the summer of 1962, a boy named Scotty Smalls moves with his mother to a new town and a new stepfather, leaving his old friends far behind. The neighbourhood kids spend their days playing baseball on a local lot, and Scotty, who cannot throw or catch, is an outsider until the group's leader, Benny Rodriguez, invites him to join. What begins as a struggle to fit in turns into a season of friendship and shared adventure, built around the team's fear of what lies beyond the fence bordering the field.

The film was directed by David Mickey Evans, who wrote the screenplay with Robert Gunter and made his directing debut with it. Tom Guiry plays Scotty and Mike Vitar plays Benny, with Patrick Renna, Chauncey Leopardi, Marty York and Brandon Quintin Adams among the young cast. Evans went on to direct several further features, including a sequel to this film in 2005.

Produced by 20th Century Fox and Island World for about 7 million dollars, the film took roughly 34 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.8 out of 10 from around 114,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.6 out of 10 from about 1,400 votes. A critics' rating of 6.2 out of 10 from 65 reviews sits below the audience scores, which point to a durable following.