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Editor's note: This article is a part of a series reviewing Utah and U.S. history for KSL.com's Historic section.
SALT LAKE CITY — David Fletcher estimates he probably watched "The Sandlot" with his brother at least 30 times growing up as a kid living in southern California.
"I remember when I was a little kid, watching that movie all the time," the Salt Lake Bees infielder said. "Me and my brother would watch it — I guess that's my biggest memory. We'd watch it like a couple of times a week."
Fletcher is one of the handful of current Bees players who weren't even alive when the movie opened in theaters on April 9, 1993. In fact, all but two players of the team were less than 5 years old when it was released.
That's why the film, shot in Utah, has resonated so much with this generation of baseball players 25 years after it was released; they've grown up with the movie. They are, in many ways, baseball's "Sandlot generation" and many of the league's current stars bring a fun approach to the diamond.
"It definitely motivated us to go out and play baseball for sure," Bees outfielder Michael Hermosillo said. "I think it was definitely just that whole baseball feel it had to it and just going and playing with your friends. There's so many times where it'd be a group of us that would go and play a game in the same way that they would, so it was so easy to relate to."
While many in the baseball world have celebrated the movie's 25th anniversary, people in Utah's community have as well. A two-day event is scheduled in August to celebrate the movie at Smith's Ballpark and at the now-iconic Glendale neighborhood sandlot featured in the film.
The Salt Lake Bees will screen the movie after a game at Smith's Ballpark on Aug. 10. The Bees have a scheduled bobblehead giveaway that night featuring one of the movie's characters, Hamilton Porter, wearing a Bees jersey while posing in the famous "Babe Ruth point" like he does in the movie.
Cast members, community members and Bees players will then head to the lot on Aug. 11 for a festival and another screening of the movie. Community members held a similar event to honor the movie's 20th anniversary in 2013.
"We're prideful of the things that come from our state," said Kraig Williams, Salt Lake Bees' communications manager. "There's not a lot of movies you can say were filmed in downtown Salt Lake that were big blockbusters or big parts of people's childhoods."
Though the story is based in southern California, the film has become one of the most popular movies shot in Utah, so much so that the actual sandlot the characters in the movie played on became Utah Film Commission's first historical marker five years ago.
However, unlike another famous baseball movie location, the "Field of Dreams" in Iowa, the sandlot is not a tourist attraction. It's now a field filled with overgrown weeds because Marshall Moore, vice president of marketing and operations for Utah Film Studios and former director of the Utah Film Commission, says neighbors prefer the privacy.
"There's not a lot of movies you can say were filmed in downtown Salt Lake that were big blockbusters or big parts of people's childhoods." — Kraig Williams, Salt Lake Bees communications manager
That said, it hasn't stopped movie fans from visiting the location, as well as the other filming locations scattered around the Salt Lake Valley and Ogden.
"When I worked at the Film Commission, we actually had a lot of requests from people just calling in or showing up at our office saying, 'Hey, how can I find the sandlot?'" Marshall recalls.
The demand led to Marshall and his staff making an itinerary of the locations for eager fans to view set locations. Those locations include the sandlot in Glendale, Scotty Smalls' home in Sugar House and Vincent Drugs in Midvale.
And while the film has become a cult classic, it was not as highly praised when it was released. The film received mediocre reviews at the time. In fact, it still has only a 57 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Deseret News film critic Chris Hicks, for example, gave it 2 1/2 stars in a review the day it was released, panning it for having scenes that drudge on too long and having an ending "as sappy as they come."
"But if you can accept 'The Sandlot' on its own terms, as a sentimental, nostalgic look at growing up, through that overused metaphor, baseball, and take to the kids as updated, ragtag versions of the old 'Our Gang' youngsters, you'll have fun," Hicks wrote in the review.
It fared decently in theaters and eventually brought in a modest $33 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. That's roughly $57 million in 2018, using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistic inflation calculator.
Twenty-five years later, the movie has a 7.8 out of 10 score on IMDB and an audience score of 89 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, showing how the movie is perceived by people now.
"The Sandlot" may not have been a cinematic masterpiece, but it's a movie baseball fans and Utahns have kept close in their hearts 25 years later.
The movie is timeless, Marshall argues.
"It definitely is a type of movie that doesn't stop being watched by different generations," he said. "I think the message of just having fun in the summer — with a lot of free time on your hands and just being with your friends — that message makes everybody feel good and they long for those days."
