The Sandlot/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Scott Smalls
Scott Smalls (played by Tom Guiry), simply called "Smalls" by the other kids, is a boy who moved to suburban Los Angeles in 1961 with his mother and his new step-father. The crux of the first half of the film is him trying to fit in with the kids of his new neighborhood. Taken under the wing of Benny, he finds a new passion for baseball. It is his mistake of unwittingly using a ball signed by Babe Ruth (which belonged to his step-father) that drives the second half of the film.

The grown-up Smalls (played by Arliss Howard) is The Narrator. In the Where Are They Now? Epilogue, he is revealed to be a radio commentator for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Benjamin Franklin "Benny" Rodriguez
Benny (played by Mike Vitar) is the oldest, wisest and most mature of the Sandlot kids, and the one everyone looks up to. He is Hispanic, and a major fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers (he almost always wears a Dodgers ballcap). He is known particularly for his speed, and it comes into play when he outruns The Beast after getting Smalls' ball back in the second half.

Benny is the hero of the film, next to Smalls' Supporting Protagonist. In the Epilogue, he is revealed to have become a long-time pro baseball player, and is on the Dodgers at the end of the episode. It is suggested he had a very successful career, and is nicknamed "The Jet". Grown-up Benny is played by Pablo Vitar in the final scene of the film.

Hamilton "Ham" Porter
Ham (played by Patrick Renna) is a bit of a snarker, and is not afraid to hurl insults or show off an inordinant amount of bravado. Although portly, he is a good power hitter on the actual team, and a home run by him (getting rid of their last ball for that day) introduces us to The Beast. He frequently tires of Smalls' naivete and lack of experience in certain things, like s'mores, frequently saying, "You're killing me, Smalls!"

In the epilogue, Ham is revealed to have become a professional wrestler.

Michael "Squints" Palledorous
Squints (played by Chauncey Leopardi) looks like a nerd, but is also a good baseball player and a hammy storyteller. He is also a bit of a lech, having a major crush on an older local girl, Wendy Peffercorn. He largely drives the myths surrounding The Beast.

In the epilogue, he's revealed to have bought the local pharmacy, and married Wendy. They have nine children (but what else are you going to do when your wife is Marley Shelton?!)

Alan "Yeah-Yeah" McClennan
Yeah-Yeah (played by Marty York) is a bit of a wise-cracker, and is known for starting a lot of his sentences by saying "Yeah-Yeah", hence his nickname.

Kenny DeNunez
DeNunez (played by Brandon Quentin Adams), an African American, is the team's pitcher, and possibly the most devoted to baseball besides Benny. When he grows up, he plays minor league ball for awhile and he does inner-city little league organization.

Bertram Grover Weeks
Bertram (played by Grant Gelt) also has the appearance of a nerd like Squints, but is much more low-key. In the epilogue, Smalls said he disappeared after getting "really into The Sixties".

Timmy and Tommy Timmons
Timmy (Victor DiMattia) and Tommy (Shane Obedzinski) are brothers, Timmy being the older one. Tommy is the youngest of the Sandlot kids, and frequently repeats everything Timmy says. At the end, Smalls says they become architects and invented the stip mall.

Hercules
Hercules is an English Mastiff owned by Mr. Mertle, a blind elderly black man who lives behind the Sandlot where the kids play baseball. Known by the kids as "The Beast", he greedily hoards any ball hit over the fence. Although the kids think he's mean and evil, it turns out he just likes keeping the balls and is defensive about them. Really, he turns out to be a gentle giant, and at the end he's considered their mascot.

Mr. Mertle (played by James Earl Jones), his owner, is actually a former Negro Leagues baseball player, whose blindness cut his career short. He befriends Smalls at the end. Smalls says at the end that Hercules lived to be 199 dog years old (about 28 1/2 years old).