Finding Out "The Sandlot" Was Filmed In Utah Just Ruined My Weekend
So I was casually perusing the internet like the rest of you on this slowwwwwww ass summer Friday with very few blogworthy stories and stumbled upon a website that was selling dirt from the baseball field in The Sandlot (I can’t say which site was selling it because #NoFreeAds).
I thought I had reached rock bottom in life as I was walking back to the computer with my wallet in hand, getting ready to buy dirt from a random field in a fictional movie because I love the fuck out of The Sandlot when I looked a little closer at the ridiculous item I was about to buy.
Wait, wait, wait. The Sandlot was taped in UTAH? Home of the Jazz, Salt Lake City, and…the Jazz?!? I did some in-depth investigating (Googled “Sandlot location”) and according to the top result, my worst fears turned out to be true.
I don’t know why, but suddenly the movie doesn’t hold the same appeal or coolness after finding out every scene except for Benny The Jet’s last glimpse of greatness was in LA. Yes I realize that movies are shot in different places than the story takes place allllllllll the time. But going from California to Utah is like going from Earth to Neptune. It’s one thing to have a coming-to-age movie about friendship and baseball in California during the summer of 1962. Shit was popping off in Cali back then. Baseball had just moved West. The free love movement was going wild. The drug scene was flourishing. But Utah is just Utah. I guess Utah in 1993 felt a lot more like Cali in 1962 than 1993 Cali did. They probably didn’t have to change any of the bathing suits from the pool scene and I feel like anybody that plays baseball in Utah still dresses like those little bastards on the Tigers.
While I feel like you would get exiled from Utah both in the 60s and today if you dressed like this.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure the people of Utah are very nice and I want no part of some angry #UtahHive firing off angry tweets and snail mail. Finding out The Sandlot was filmed in my native New York would make me sad too. I have no beef with Utah. I truly feel bad for each and every person in this picture that was about to get their guts ripped out.
Fuck Michael Jordan, right guys? Cool.
Anyway, I think Utah would be a fine state for a movie about a bunch of friends who bonded over a sport they do in the Winter X Games. But a movie about baseball in the 60s being filmed in Utah makes the movie seem wayyyy less believable. I know Utah never has had and never will have a Major League Baseball team for a washed up Benny The Jet to land on as he hangs on to his Major League life like 2018 Jose Reyes. Squints birthing a million kids with Wendy Peffercorn wasn’t because he landed his dream girl and they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. They did it to keep up with the rest of the Joneses. There’s no way blind ass James Earl Jones would move to Utah after he retired. Dude was crushing baseball and tail with The Great Bambi George (Herman Ruth). That guy either stays on the East Coast or settles in California. And while Utah has been a member of the Union since (*uses Google again*) 1896, this goosebumps-inducing scene loses some majesty when you realize it was filmed in a neighborhood full of Smiths instead of in a state where America realized its manifest destiny and was, based on everything I have seen in movies about that era, the center of the country’s social revolution.
Finding out The Sandlot wasn’t actually shot in California would be like finding out the Field of Dreams field wasn’t in Iowa. Oh fuck, it WAS actually based in Iowa, right?
Phew.
Anyway, you can keep that tin of Utah dirt, 20th Century Fox. I’ll spend my money on something else just as pointless that won’t ruin my childhood. Namely any movie-used products from Die Hard.
P.S. My favorite Easter egg from The Sandlot is how Dennis Leary checks his watch before beaning Smalls in the face.
Leary was clearly sent outside by his wife against his will to play with his unathletic stepson who had just rolled a ball back to him and had no time for that nonsense. So Leary put one directly on the kid’s eye and got out of that game of catch ASAP. Such a lowkey brilliant move on his part.