During the coronavirus shutdown, each day we will bring you a recommendation from The Post’s Peter Botte for a sports movie, TV show or book that perhaps was before your time or somehow slipped between the cracks of your viewing/reading history.
The Sandlot (1993)
Rated: PG
Streaming: Amazon Prime
A few Twitter followers — and even one Post co-worker — clapped back at me in recent days, noting my dislike of a few of the kid-targeted entries in the baseball-flick genre, as if I were trying to delegitimize their childhood memories or something.
The nostalgic “The Sandlot,” however, is one coming-of-age tale in this category that is fully endorsable — unlike corny and goofy films such as “Rookie of the Year” or “Little Big League.” (“The Bad News Bears,” by the way, also is about a ragtag team of kids, but definitely not intended entirely for kids, and I absolutely revere it, too).
Written, directed and narrated by David Mickey Evans, “The Sandlot” happens to easily be my 27-year-old son’s favorite film ever made about the national pastime, an entirely enjoyable and shareable tale about family relationships and the memories that bond kids growing up in American neighborhoods.
Set in the early 1960s, “The Sandlot” ostensibly is about a shy and nonathletic boy named Scotty Smalls, who moves with his mom and stepfather to a California suburb. He forces himself to learn the game to fit in with the local kids in a foregone era when being outside all day with your friends actually was expected and preferable to video games and organized playdates.
Karen Allen (“Animal House,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark”), Denis Leary (“Rescue Me”) and James Earl Jones (“Field of Dreams,” and yes, the voice of Darth Vader) provide the adult presence.
But it’s the group of pals with names like Squints, Benny the Jet and Ham Porter (aka The Great Hambino) — and their quest to reclaim a lost Babe Ruth-signed ball from Jones’ giant dog, “The Beast” — that form the center and the soul of this fun-for-the-whole-family ride.
The classic YouTube-worthy recitation of Ruth’s various nicknames — The Sultan of Swat! The Colossus of Clout! The Great Bambeeeeeeeeeno! — even was redone by Brett Gardner, CC Sabathia and a group of Yankees teammates in 2015.
Quote of Note: “You’re killing me, Smalls!” An exasperated Ham Porter, multiple times, to Scotty Smalls in “The Sandlot.”
Botte Blows: 4.3 of 5