In an interview with The Movie Nerds, Patrick Renna, who played Hamilton "Ham" Porter in the original movie, revealed that The Sandlot cast is going to reunite in an upcoming show called Little League Dads. He clarified that they are not reprising their roles from 1993 and that it's not a sequel, and they will instead be playing the titular dads in the upcoming series. Renna also explained that he only ever heard of talks and rumors about the Disney+ sequel and never met with anyone from the studio about it. Check out his comments below:
I don’t know. I know there were talks of it. I never met with anyone from Disney — I sort of just heard rumors. But I’m bringing them back. At the end of June, I’m filming a TV show called Little League Dads. They’re going to be five minutes each and I’m going to put them on my YouTube channel and I’m having all of The Sandlot guys in it. We’re all going to be the dads. It won’t have any Sandlot IP in it, but it will be a reunion of the cast at least and that should be fun. As far as a Sandlot sequel goes, we’ll see - you never know.
Renna added that Little League Dads is one of multiple projects coming from his production banner, Hambino Productions. The show featuring The Sandlot cast also has some well-known talent behind it, including Friends writer Sebastian Jones, Malcolm in the Middle writer Dan Kopelman, and Superstore director Victor Nelli. At the same time, Renna is also continuing to work on opportunities outside his production company, including a Hershey's commercial.
Little League Dads is being written by Sebastian Jones and Dan Kopelman. Sebastian wrote on Friends for a long time and Dan’s a very well known writer. Victor Nelli is going to direct it so we have a really good team. Kyle Howard is my producing partner with Hambino Media so he does it with me and we do a lot of different fun projects and we’re developing different things.I continue as an actor outside of that - similar to what I’m doing with Hershey's - that’s sort of just me as an actor having this fun collaboration with this great brand. I got to have my son in it as well so when we filmed the commercial for Hershey’s, he was in a couple of the spots too so that was a lot of fun. I said “do you want to eat s’mores for a day and have some Hershey chocolate - and get paid to do it?” He said “yeah, I’ll do it.” Skip school? No problem. Of course, we had a set teacher and all that.
Renna does not specify which actors from The Sandlot will be in Little League Dads, but his comment about "all" of them indicates that it will be an extensive reunion. That being said, Mike Vitar and Tom Guiry, who respectively played Benny Rodriguez and Scotty Smalls, have faced legal troubles in the past 11 years, and Vitar left acting after 1997.
Chauncey Leopardi and Brandon Quintin, who played Michael "Squints" Palledorous and Kenny "The Heater" DeNunez, are among those who portrayed the kids in the 1993 movie and who may now be playing the dads in the YouTube show.
As for The Sandlot actors who were adults at the time, Denis Leary and Karen Allen continue to be involved in other projects, from Leary in Going Dutch to Allen in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. James Earl Jones, who played Mr. Mertle, passed away in 2024, but he was in many movies and films in the years after The Sandlot, among them being many Star Wars projects where he voiced Darth Vader again.
As for Renna, he is responsible for delivering what is arguably The Sandlot's most memorable quote: "You're killing me, Smalls!" Elsewhere in his career, Renna has starred in Boy Meets World, ER, Boston Legal, CSI, Bones, GLOW, and the 2024 baseball movie You Gotta Believe.
Release Date
April 7, 1993
Runtime
101 minutes
Director
David Mickey Evans
Writers
Robert Gunter, David Mickey Evans
Producers
Dale De La Torre, William S. Gilmore
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Mike Vitar
Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez
©20th Century Fox Film Corp/Courtesy Everett Collection
English (US) ·