'The Sandlot' Is Coming Back To Theaters For Its 25-Year Anniversary & I'm So Pumped
This may kill me, Smalls. 2018 marks 25 years since The Sandlot hit the big screen, and this ideal summer flick has remained a classic encapsulation of the possibility your childhood summers entailed. Seeing as many millennials were either barely alive or too young to catch the movie in theaters the first time around in 1993, select theaters are blessing moviegoers with special screenings of The Sandlot later this summer. We can now celebrate The Sandlot's 25-year anniversary by seeing it in theaters, and I'm already preparing to book my tickets.
Fathom Events is honoring the movie's milestone anniversary by showing the coming-of-age film in certain theaters on Sunday, July 22 and Tuesday, July 24. If you insert your zip code into Fathom Events' page for the special occasion, showings at theaters closest to you will appear, allowing you to book tickets for whichever screening works best for you and the other baseball fans in your life. I'm imagining little kids being taken to these showings for their first Sandlot experience, and the sweet thought is already making me a little teary-eyed.
In case you've managed to make it through life only vaguely aware of when someone is quoting this movie, The Sandlot told the story of a group of boys in 1962 who spend their summer playing together on their own baseball team. They soon embark on a quest to rescue a prized baseball from the possession of a neighbor's dog, but seeing as this dog is called the Beast, the mission takes on a significant meaning that soon defines the entire summer for the boys.
The movie's brief return to theaters actually comes several months after its true 25th anniversary. The Sandlot debuted in April 1993, and this past April, the men who played the young baseball players reunited for a TODAY Show feature. Cast members Marty York, Tom Guiry, Brandon Quintin Adams, Shane Obedzinski, Victor DiMattia, Chauncey Leopardi, and Patrick Renna joined The Sandlot's director David Mickey Evans for the nostalgic chat. If you think you're old, imagine how these guys feel after looking at such famous footage of themselves when they were so young.
The actors also commemorated the moment on social media, with Renna, aka the highly quotable Ham Porter, sharing a group picture on his Twitter account.
Although the reunion was missing Mike Vitar, who played everyone's first fictional crush Benny the Jet (it wasn't just me, right?), the interview is still quite magical. When asked to define why The Sandlot had developed such a legacy, Evans told TODAY:
The film was made with the same amount of love that people have for it, and it was the greatest summer of our lives.
Although the success of the first film inspired two direct-to-video sequels with new casts, the fact the original characters were never further explored definitely nails down The Sandlot's message that legends never die. Smalls and Benny didn't need a revival TV series explaining how they chased down their professional dreams and reignited their friendship after an inexplicable split, and that's exactly why The Sandlot remains so pure in many fans' eyes. How often can we say that about our favorite childhood movies?
If you know you can't make it to the movie theater for a viewing of The Sandlot, you can track down the new Blu-ray edition of the film that was released in March to celebrate its anniversary. The special version even comes with 10 custom baseball cards featuring the sandlot's baseball team that were made especially for the Blu-ray release.
I'll definitely be busy planning out my own cinema screening of The Sandlot next month.
