Flick Friday: The Sandlot

Our first flick of the year is The Sandlot.  The movie was released in 1993 and it is one of just a few Friday Flicks that I actually saw in the theater.  Mrs. WW, our two oldest sons, and I spent a hot summer afternoon watching the movie in the air-conditioned comfort of the Pickwick Theater in Park Ridge, Illinois.  The boys were seven and five at the time, and they seemed to like the movie.  I do to.

The story is this....ten-year-old school-loving Scott Smalls move into a new town, knowing no one.  Through the kindness of baseball loving Benny Rodriguez, he begins hanging out with a group of eight other ballplaying kids at the local sandlot.  Smalls knows nothing about baseball nor how to play, but over the summer he learns the sport and makes some friends.

Along the way,

they play some ball,

spend an afternoon at the pool,

chew some tobacco and get sick,

and take on, and whip, a neighborhood Little League team.

When Benny smashed their only ball, Smalls grabs a ball in his stepdads den, a ball signed by some girl named...

....Ruth, Baby Ruth.

Good luck or bad, Smalls wallops the smash of his lifetime and hits a homerun with the Babe Ruth ball that clears the fence and ends up with...

...the Beast!

The boys make several attempts to get the ball away from the Beast, but each time the Beast wins.  Finally, the ghost of Babe Ruth tells Benny to just hop the fence and get the ball.  He does, but also has to endure a long chase.

The boys end up in the home of the Beast owner, a former Negro League player now blind.  Friend of the Babe, he has a ball signed by

the 1927 Yankees.  He gives Smalls the ball, who in turn gives it to his step-father...and everyone lives happily ever after.

Its a great story and a great movie.

And it has some baseball cards,too

Check out the cereal box

The movie is set in 1962 and that is a box of Post Sugar Crisps with baseball cards on the back.  And yes, those are definitely 1962 Post cards on the back of the box.

Later in the movie, the dream Babe Ruth asks for a card of Hank Aaron.

That's a Topps 1954 Hank Aaron card.  But I'm pretty sure that there weren't plastic holders for cards in 1962. 

And while I'm pointing out goofs, here's another.

At the beginning of the movie, Benny hits a long shot and just as he comes around third, he gets caught in a pickle.  He eventually scores and his classmates celebrate...

...with high-fives.  I know that people didn't high-five in 1962.

As far as Cubs connections, well, the movie is set in southern California and Benny later plays for the Dodgers.  We see game action with the Dodgers and Giants, but no Cubs.

I did find one Cub connection, and it actually is what holds the whole movie together.

Throughout the movie, Babe Ruth is discussed...the legendary Babe Ruth.  And the movie points to one moment in his career that made him a legend...

....his called shot against the Cubs in the 1932 World Series.  

The whole movie is centered on the baseball signed by the legendary, mythical Babe Ruth. the Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, The King of Crash, The Colosus of Clout.

No magical Babe, no movie.

The Cubs saved the movie.