Elizabeth (Mia Goth) in a blue dress with blue feathers in her hair, holding a blue fan in 'Frankenstein' (2025)Image via Netflix
By
Ryan O'Rourke
Published 13 minutes ago
Ryan O'Rourke is a Senior News Writer at Collider with a specific interest in all things adult animation, video game adaptations, and the work of Mike Flanagan. He is also an experienced baseball writer with over six years of articles between multiple outlets, most notably FanSided's CubbiesCrib. Whether it's taking in a baseball game, a new season of Futurama or Castlevania: Nocturne, or playing the latest From Software title, he is always finding ways to show his fandom. When it comes to gaming and anything that takes inspiration from it, he is deeply opinionated on what's going on. Outside of entertainment, he's a graduate of Eureka College with a Bachelor's in Communication where he honed his craft as a writer. Between The IV Leader at Illinois Valley Community College and The Pegasus at Eureka, he spent the majority of his college career publishing articles on everything from politics to campus happenings and, of course, entertainment for the student body. Those principles he learned covering the 2020 election, Palestine, and so much more are brought here to Collider, where he has gleefully written on everything from the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes to Nathan Lane baby-birding sewer boys.
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Earlier this month, Netflix finally released one of its most expensive and most anticipated features in recent memory, Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein, on its streaming catalogue. Starring Oscar Isaac as the titular doctor and Jacob Elordi as his creature, it's a gothic dream project for the Oscar-winner, telling the timeless tale of a brilliant but egotistical scientist whose creation of life ultimately incites the downfall of both the man and his monster. Critics and audiences have both been enamored with del Toro's vision, too, with the former giving it a Certified Fresh 86% and the latter scoring it a Verified Hot 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite all the buzz, however, the film was recently overtaken on the U.S. streaming charts by a baseball classic, David Mickey Evans's The Sandlot, which soared to sixth place on the platform.
Released in 1993, The Sandlot was part of a golden age of baseball comedies, from Major League to A League of Their Own and Rookie of the Year. Instead of focusing on professionals, whether in MLB or the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, however, it centers on a group of kids who spend their summer in 1962 playing the national pastime at their local sandlot. At the center of the story is Scotty Smalls (Thomas Guiry), the new kid in town who quickly makes friends with the regulars at the local makeshift diamond. In between playing at the lot, they go on plenty of misadventures together at the local swimming pool, the fair, and more. However, their most dangerous quest comes when Scottie borrows his step-father Bill's (Denis Leary) priceless ball, signed by the Great Bambino himself, that swiftly gets hit over the fence into the lair of The Beast, a fearsome English mastiff that has claimed many baseballs over the years. They're finally forced to face their fears to retrieve the ball, in the process learning a thing or two about themselves and getting to know who The Beast's owner really is.
The Sandlot was a hit upon its release, earning a respectable $34.3 million at the box office. However, its legend as a classic coming-of-age baseball movie would be forged in the years to come, earning a cult following that exists to this day and has burned its iconic lines into pop culture history. In a retrospective review, Collider's Chase Hutchinson gave it a B+, writing that "For all the ways that we may outgrow some of its less engaging aspects, there is just something timeless that transcends any of its trappings." Joining Guiry and Leary in the iconic cast are Mike Vitar as the group's leader and future baseball star, Benny Rodriguez, Patrick Renna as the short-tempered "Ham" Porter, Chauncey Leopardi as "Squints" Palledorous, the late great James Earl Jones as the mysterious Mr. Mertle, and more.
'The Sandlot' Would Play on With Sequels and Other Projects
The love for The Sandlot as a definitive coming-of-age film with a message for the whole family earned the film not one, but two sequels, years after the first. However, the direct-to-video Sandlot 2 in 2005 featured none of the original cast returning, save for Jones, and failed to recapture the magic with critics. The Sandlot: Heading Home, meanwhile, brought in Luke Perry for a stranger, time-travelling adventure that similarly didn't live up to the original, but at least brought back a few more familiar characters, including Leopardi as Squints. Since then, there have been attempts to start the game all over again, including an attempt at a prequel film and a Disney+ television series that would've seen all the original cast returning under Evans' direction once more for a story about coaching their kids in the game of baseball. Alas, neither came to fruition, with the latter barely entering development before being axed amid the SAG-AFTRA strike, leaving The Sandlot quiet, for now.
The Sandlot is currently streaming on Netflix. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on the biggest streaming success stories throughout the year.
The Sandlot
Like PG Comedy Release Date April 7, 1993 Runtime 101 minutes Director David Mickey Evans Writers Robert Gunter, David Mickey Evans Producers Dale De La Torre, William S. Gilmore Sequel(s) The Sandlot 2Cast
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Tom Guiry
Scotty Smalls
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Mike Vitar
Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez
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James Earl Jones
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Netflix
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