Texas Rangers: Sport DFW’s Top-5 Baseball Movies
By Reid Hanson
No. 2: The Sandlot, 1993
What makes The Sandlot so great? Well, like any classic film, it is imminently quotable. When a line like “You’re killin’ me, Smalls!” makes it’s way onto t-shirts years after the fact, it proves that the movie resonates beyond the theater. It has become stitched into the fabric of our culture.
Additionally, it’s one of those movies that if you catch it on TV, you’re likely to stop down and watch as much of it as you can. And if you can make it to the very end, all the better. Also, the 4th of July fireworks scene set to Ray Charles’ rendition of “America The Beautiful” can still make the room become very suddenly dusty if it catches me in the right frame of mind. It beautifully captures the magic of the sport itself.
The cast of characters is equally as memorable. Squints, Yeah Yeah, Hamilton Porter, and Benny all provide memorable lines and action. For sure, Benny’s clash with the dreaded and feared Beast towards the end of the movie provides the climactic sequence. It all leads to the group uncovering a treasure trove of baseballs that The Beast had claimed as his own, as well as an inadvertent meeting with a baseball legend that had been living right under their noses.
In all, the movie does a great job of reproducing the childlike joy of the game of baseball. The Sandlot is truly one of those flicks that never gets old.
-Ben Davila