In the past I’ve authored articles about my favorite sports movies and there have been classics. But what about the films centered around youth and kids? The movie The Sandlot came to mind the other day which brings me to this article asking the question “where are they now?” With that I’ve chosen four movies that were successful, but the themes were focused on a young child or pre-teen. This is Part I of the four movies that will be reviewed.
This series of articles will identify those actors who starred in these movies and where they are today. Since The Sandlot was already mentioned, we’ll begin there.
The Sandlot
This movie was based on the year 1962 and while I was only three at the time, the every day life of this neighborhood group of kids was followed and much of their activity shown in the film is exactly how I spent my days as a youth growing up in Pittsburgh. The cast was a colorful and funny cast of actors that made this film an instant hit.
The story centered around how one of the kids, Scotty Smalls steals a Babe Ruth autographed baseball from this stepfather and uses it in the baseball games he and his friends were playing all without knowing who Babe Ruth was. The ball gets hit into a neighbor’s yard where what they think is a vicious dog hovers over the ball and the kids must find a way to get it back.
Here is the main cast of characters with their real name and movie name in parentheses.
Art LaFleur (The Babe)
This actor was well established in Hollywood appearing in many movies from 1978 to 2017. More interesting about LaFleur however is that The Sandlot was not his only sports movie which he played a part in. He played the part of former baseball player Chick Gandil of the infamous 1919 Chicago White Sox Black Sox scandal in the film Field of Dreams.
In the movie Mr. Baseball, LaFleur’s role was that of a coach for the New York Yankees. Four years after his final acting role, Art LaFleur passed away after suffering from complications of Parkinson’s disease on November 12, 2021, when he was 78.
Tom Guiry (Scotty Smalls)
One of the main characters in the movie was Smalls. As with his group of friends, in the movie this pre-teen (Guiry was actually 12 at the time of the time of filming) creates the story line for the movie by taking a ball from his step-father and then losing it in a neighbor’s yard setting off a hilarious set of events in trying to retrieve the ball.
Originally from New Jersey, at age 43 he remains an actor but has not appeared on film since 2021 when he acted in the movie The Unforgivable. Guiry has also played parts on television including stints with Law and Order, CSI Miami, Elementary, and Chicago Justice.
Mike Vitar (Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez)
The real star of the movie is Vitar who among the group of young baseball players is the only one with true talent. In fact, at the end of the movie we see Benny The Jet Rodriguez playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers and steals home base. In his personal life, Vitar’s acting career was short lived. After the 1993 release of The Sandlot, Vitar appeared in only five more films and before The Sandlot three other movies. He made a cameo in The Sandlot 2 which came out in 2005 and was also in D3: The Mighty Ducks.
In 1997 Vitar officially retired from acting and became an EMT in Torrance, California after which he became a firefighter which he remains on duty to this day. One of three children growing up, Vitar’s older brother Pablo played the part of Benny Rodriguez’s older character when he was seen as a member of the Dodgers. Tragically, Pablo Vitar died from colon cancer in 2008. He had previously served as a police officer in Los Angeles. Vitar also has a sister, Elizabeth.
Patrick Renna (Hamilton ‘Ham’ Porter)
Certainly, the funniest character in this movie, the pudgy Renna has never lost his image. To this day he looks just as he did in 1993, just older. Originally from Boston, Renna transitioned from acting to producing. He and his wife Jasmin have two children and a third on the way this year. Renna has his own website at patrickrenna.com where Hambino merchandise can be bought.
In The Sandlot, Renna’s character was a goofy, fun-loving kid who can be remember for trying to replicate Babe Ruth’s infamous pointing to centerfield predicting a homerun that Ruth made famous in the World Series when he appeared to do just that. Point and homer. In truth, Renna was a little league baseball player. When casting for The Sandlot was being done, Renna was in his first-ever audition. He was the last character to be cast in the film. Renna has appeared in an array of movies, television shows and even music videos.
Chauncey Leopardi (Michael ‘Squints’ Palledorous)
You have to love Leopardi’s character Squints especially for his scene with Wendy Peffercorn at the swimming pool when he faked a drowning just so the lifeguard Peffercorn could come give him mouth-to-mouth so he could kiss her on the lips. Always fooling with his eyeglasses, Squints represented nerds everywhere but in a good way.
Like Mike Vitar, Leopardi opted not to have an acting career and instead went into business for himself and have a family. Squints was married to his wife Jennifer for 13 years before divorcing but the two also have three children. His last film appearance came in 2018, and he has also appeared in several commercials. Leopardi’s movie resume is much longer than that of Vitar, but he will forever be remembered for his dorky glasses and his portrayal of Squints Palledorous.
Marley Shelton (Wendy Peffercorn)
The female attraction for the boys in The Sandlot was the character of Marley Shelton. Squints was determined to steal kiss from the older Peffercorn and as mentioned above, had to fake a drowning just to accomplish that. With a film career that began two years before The Sandlot in 1991, the 51-year-old Shelton is still acting to this day with her last role coming the movie Scream (2022) as Sheriff Judy Hicks. She also appeared in the television series Tracker last year.
With two children from husband Beau Flynn whom she married in 2001, Shelton hails from Los Angeles. She is the sister to three other girls, from parents Carol and father Christopher. Her younger sister Samantha is a professional singer and an actress.
Denis Leary (Bill). We never got the last name of Smalls’ stepfather and if it was said I missed it. Leary didn’t have a big role but came across as a brooding, quiet character. Leary has had an extraordinarily long film career starring in many major movies. He is also a comedian and has been married to Ann Lembeck since 1989 as the couple also has two children. If you’ve never seen the movie Judgment Night this is a must see with Leary playing the bad guy in a main role.
Leary is a strong supporter of firefighters in Massachusetts and his first movie was Long Walk to Forever, a short film released in 1987. Other films include Demolition Man, Natural Born Killers, Draft Day, and two movies set to be released next year, Ice Age 6, and Oh What Fun.
Karen Allen (Smalls’ mother)
Another movie veteran, probably not most of her notoriety from being in the Raiders of the Lost Ark which premiered in 1981. Like Leary, Allen did not have a major role in this movie. Karen Allen studied at the very prestigious Lee Strasberg Theater Institute. Allen made her first appearance in the comedy smash Animal House as Katy in 1978 giving her the opportunity to collaborate with John Belushi.
A year later in 1979, she had a big role in The Wanderers which became a cult classic. Her last movie came a year ago with the release of Unsinkable. Allen is also a veteran of television films and shows with appearances on shows like Knots Landing, Alfred Hitchock Presents, and Law and Order. This October Allen will turn 74.
James Earl Jones (Mr. Mertle)
James Earl Jones is one of the great actors of our time. With an incredible voice that was identifiable the moment you hear it, Jones began acting in 1953 and starred in films until 2021. He passed away on September 9, 2024, at the age of 93 in Pawling, New York. A native of Arkabutla, Mississippi, Jones was married twice with one child.
In The Sandlot, Jones played the neighbor across from the kids’ baseball playing area and the owner of the Beast as the kids called him who held the infamous Babe Ruth autographed baseball hostage as the group of youths tried to find a way to capture it back. At the end of the movie, the gang discovered that Mr. Mertle was a retired professional baseball player who played against Babe Ruth.
In his film career, James Earl Jones won an Oscar, three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, one Grammy, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and three times took home a Tony Award. Among all those honors, he was nominated 26 times.
The remaining actors making up the group of baseball playing friends in the movie were:
- Marty York (Alan ‘Yeah-Yeah’ McClennan)
- Brandon Quintin Adams (Kenny DeNunez)
- Grant Gelt (Bertram Grover Weeks)
- Shane Obedzinski (Tommy ‘Repeat’ Timmons)
- Victor DiMattia (Timmy Timmons)
If you are curious about the dog in the movie, named Hercules, he was on loan from his owner but in some scenes, a puppet was used to act out that part of the film. Two men were put to work going inside the oversized puppet to make the dog seem real.
The dog’s real name was Gunner and if you would like to know his full story about his actual owners and what became of him, you can find that story here. As you will read in this article, the dog passed away in his sleep 13 years after following his birth.
25 years after the 1993 release of The Sandlot, much of the cast reunited in 2018 in a short YouTube segment which you can watch at this link.
.In Part II, I’ll look back at another classic, The Bad News Bears.
