Man, I haven't watched this for a little over 24 years now. For one reason, it was mine and my childhood best friend's favorite movie, and he was pretty much a living embodiment of Benny. He died in early 2001, and I was always a little worried that the nostalgia goggles might've been gone as an adult. But I tell you what, *this* is one of the biggest love letters to both the sport of baseball *and* the memories of childhood summers.

I didn't expect to get a little teary-eyed when adult Scotty was talking about the other Sandlotters moving away or growing up and losing contact with them, because now that I'm 40, that was a *little* too close to how it felt losing contact with some of my closest friends after graduating high school, and all of us either moving cross-country or out of the country for college.

This really is one of the best movies about the love of the game of baseball since The Natural. I also love how well it ***nailed*** the aspect of kids over-exaggerating local legends, like "The Beast" being this ridiculously huge man-eater of a dog when he was really just a very bored English Mastiff with a blind owner who couldn't really engage him the way a dog of that breed needs; poor Hercules was probably having the time of his life when the kids were trying to get that ball back, just happy to have anyone playing with him. Then Benny jumps over the fence with the ball instead of throwing it back like he was expecting, so Hercules escaped to keep playing. Mr. Mertle, likewise dealt with the same urban legend status from a bunch of neighborhood kids who'd never seen him, only for them to discover he's a nice old man who'd gone blind while playing with the '27 Yankees.

Man, this movie nailed what our tiny little worlds can look like to young kids.