Nothing says summer quite like baseball and childhood nostalgia, and no film better encompasses
the two than The Sandlot.
The classic film about baseball and growing up introduced audiences to a charming group
of child actors.
What has the cast of this family-friendly classic been up to?
The anticipation is killing us, Smalls!
Tom Guiry was just 11 years old when he was cast as new kid in town Scotty Smalls, the
New York native's feature film debut.
Guiry, who started acting to deal with his shyness, landed an agent after she saw him
in a local play.
The Sandlot was one of his first big auditions, but he didn't initially get the part.
Luckily for Guiry, the other actor didn't work out, so he came back to screen test again,
and he knocked it out of the park.
Guiry followed up his work in The Sandlot with a role in the 1994 family film Lassie,
and yet another baseball film, The Last Home Run, in 1996.
However, the shy kid eventually blossomed into an actor who's mostly made a career out
of playing tough men.
He appeared in Mystic River and played a fur trapper alongside Tom Hardy and Leonardo DiCaprio
in The Revenant.
Though Mike Vitar made a considerable impression on young audiences as star player Benny "the
Jet" Rodriguez, he only made a handful of appearances in film and TV afterwards.
Following The Sandlot, he continued to display his athletic abilities on film as Luis Mendoza
in two Mighty Ducks sequels, but he quit acting in 1997.
In the midst of his acting career, Vitar started training in Emergency Medical Services in
the Los Angeles area, eventually becoming a firefighter in 2002.
He was honored the following year for his work saving two fellow firefighters during
a house fire in the Hollywood Hills.
Unfortunately, not all of Vitar's actions have been heroic: he was arrested in 2015
after allegedly assaulting a grad student on Halloween in northwest Los Angeles with
two other firefighters.
Patrick Renna stole bases and hearts as Hamilton "Ham" Porter with one line:
"You're killing me, Smalls."
He reunited with Sandlot castmate Chauncey Leopardi two years later in the soccer flick
The Big Green, following a turn opposite comedian Pauly Shore in Son in Law.
Renna continued working throughout the '90s, appearing on plenty of television favorites
like Home Improvement, Boy Meets World, The X-Files and a string of movies.
More recently, he appeared in the Kickstarter-funded film Bad Roomies, which he also co-produced.
Renna also recently returned to the screen in a big way with a recurring guest role in
the Netflix wrestling dramedy GLOW as the socially awkward superfan, Cupcake.
Chauncey Leopardi made his film debut in 1991's Father of the Bride remake starring Steve
Martin.
Just 12 years old on the set of The Sandlot, Leopardi admitted that he would constantly
pester director David Mickey Evans about when they'd be filming his character's kiss with
lifeguard Wendy Peffercorn.
"What?"
Leopardi worked quite a bit after receiving his poolside CPR, popping up in '90s faves
like Casper with Christina Ricci, who he co-starred with again in The Opposite of Sex in 1998.
He also played bully Alan on the beloved cult TV show Freaks and Geeks.
"Bill, you want some crushed nuts with your Sunday?"
"My what?"
"Ah"
"Hahaha"
Leopardi also had a recurring role on Gilmore Girls.
From 2009-2012, Leopardi made a living as a professional poker player, but a big loss
forced him into the job market.
He lives in Los Angeles with his daughter, and regularly appears at special fan events
and screenings.
Yeah, yeah.
Like more than one of his Sandlot castmates, Marty York made his screen debut in the film,
which he followed with small parts on Saved by the Bell: the College Years and a couple
of episodes of Boy Meets World.
Other than Sandlot fan events and a 2015 episode of Adult Swim's The Eric Andre Show, the place
he's appeared the most has been gossip site TMZ, which reported he was arrested for alleged
domestic violence in 2009.
Since his "little league days," York has transformed from scrawny kid to buff personal trainer,
and at one point he was working on developing a line of workout supplements he dubbed "Beast
Juice", a reference Sandlot fans will recognize as being inspired by the fearsome dog the
crew has to face.
Brandon Quintin Adams was one of the few kids in the cast who already had quite a bit of
acting experience prior to appearing in The Sandlot.
Adams got his start dancing in Michael Jackson's 1988 music video for "Smooth Criminal."
He did quite a bit of TV in the late '80s, and made his feature film debut in Wes Craven's
1991 horror flick The People Under the Stairs.
After the success of The Sandlot, he appeared again alongside castmate Karen Allen in Ghost
in the Machine and reunited with Mike Vitar in D2: the Mighty Ducks.
After doing some voiceover work for the video game Kingdom Hearts II in the late 2000s,
Adams pivoted into a hip-hop career, releasing an album called B Lee H.D.
Grant Gelt got his start with a string of TV appearances on Knots Landing, Tales from
the Crypt, Northern Exposure and others, making his film debut in the Steven Seagal action
movie Marked for Death in 1991.
However, The Sandlot gave him the biggest role of his short acting career.
Gelt has since started a new chapter in his career, moving from artist management into
a senior executive role at the artist-to-fan engagement platform Fullscreen Direct.
Actor Shane Obedzinski's on-screen career was brief.
He made his feature film debut in 1991's My Girl, starring Macaulay Culkin, and was cast
as little Tommy "Repeat" in The Sandlot a couple of years later after an audition in
Orlando.
Obedzinski quit acting after The Sandlot and returned to Florida to finish school.
After graduating, he toured for a few years with a local band before opening his own pizza
parlor in Brandon, Florida.
Denis Leary was still relatively new to acting when he appeared in The Sandlot as Scotty
Smalls' stepfather Bill.
He'd spent nearly a decade working his way up the stand-up comedy circuit in Boston and
New York before his one-man show No Cure For Cancer catapulted him to fame.
Leary continued making a name for himself throughout the '90s in everything from Demolition
Man to Pixar's A Bug's Life.
He was a regular on the late-night circuit and continued performing stand-up, as well
as producing Comics Come Home, the annual TV special for charity featuring prominent
comedians.
Leary is perhaps best known for his Emmy-nominated performance and writing on the FX firefighter
dramedy Rescue Me, which ran for seven seasons.
He also wrote, produced, and starred in the series Sax&Hugs&Rock&Roll for FX.
But he's still had plenty of other career home runs thanks in the HBO drama Recount
and appearances in two Amazing Spider-Man films
"I was wrong about you Peter.
This city needs you.
You're gonna need this."
He may not have been able to handle a certain treehouse vacuum cleaner, but Victor DiMattia
certainly cleaned up when it came to booking acting jobs.
Prior to playing Timmy Timmons, DiMattia appeared on TV as Dennis the Menace, as well as TV
shows like Family Ties, and Punky Brewster.
He made his big-screen debut in Turner & Hooch with Tom Hanks and worked with rapper Vanilla
Ice on his ill-fated screen debut, Cool As Ice.
DiMattia quit acting a few years after The Sandlot and pursued other interests, including
playing in a band.
He works as a bartender in L.A., writes comedy, and hangs out on occasion with castmate Marty
York, in addition to putting in regular appearances at Sandlot fan events.
On top of that, he also runs a pop culture-centered podcast called Vic in a Box, which he launched
in mid-2017 with a commentary segment on being part of The Sandlot.
The Sandlot cemented Marley Shelton's place as an all-time movie dreamgirl the minute
she appeared onscreen in Wendy Peffercorn's signature red bathing suit and white sunglasses.
Up until that point, Shelton had mostly TV credits on her résumé, but after The Sandlot,
her career really took off.
The California blonde later appeared in Pleasantville and Never Been Kissed and wasn't afraid to
go grindhouse for Quentin Tarantino in 2007's Death Proof.
She appeared in the stylish Sin City and has worked with Oliver Stone twice: in 1995's
Nixon and 2008's W. She also popped up as Joan's BFF on an episode of Mad Men in 2013.
Most recently, she appeared alongside Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in his 2018 video game
adaptation Rampage.
Veteran character actor Art LaFleur had some pretty legendary cleats to fill when he accepted
the role of The Babe in The Sandlot.
Luckily, LaFleur already had a couple of baseball films under his belt, Mr. Baseball and Field
of Dreams, making him something of a sports film MVP.
He's worked fairly consistently ever since, appearing in cult classics like The Blob,
family fare like The Santa Clause 2, and episodes of House and Key and Peele.
By the time Karen Allen appeared as the empathetic mom in The Sandlot, she'd already cemented
her place in fans' hearts as Katy in 1978's classic frat comedy Animal House and Indiana
Jones' gal pal Marion Ravenwood in 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark.
"Indiana Jones.
I always knew someday you'd come walkin back through my door."
Spunky and likable, Allen made for an affable sparring partner to Bill Murray in Scrooged,
and turned on the waterworks in John Carpenter's sci-fi drama Starman opposite Jeff Bridges.
After her son was born in 1990, Allen took smaller roles, such as her work in The Sandlot,
so she could spend more time with her family.
In 1993, she and her son moved to Massachusetts into a converted barn she'd purchased.
She got involved in the local theatre scene, acting in and directing plays at the Berkshire
Theatre Festival and teaching classes.
Steven Spielberg managed to lure her back for the fourth Indy flick, Indiana Jones and
the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 2008, but Allen has mostly remained happily out
of the spotlight.
Like his character in The Sandlot, James Earl Jones has his own history with baseball, at
least onscreen and in the theatre.
Prior to appearing as the reclusive Mr. Mertle in the 1993 flick, Jones similarly opined
about the love of the game in 1989's Field of Dreams, appeared alongside Richard Pryor
and Billy Dee Williams in 1976's The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings,
and won a Tony Award in 1987 in August Wilson's play Fences.
Jones has also used his golden voice to narrate on several occasions, including the 1984 documentary
There Was Always Sun Shining Someplace.
Beyond his associations with baseball, the distinguished, multi-award-winning actor has
been a fixture in film, TV, and onstage for decades, though it is his booming baritone
voice that has become his most recognizable talent.
From Darth Vader to Mufasa Jones has become the go-to guy for voices, narration, and commercials
needing gravitas.
"Totes mcgotes."