23 Life Lessons From The Sandlot That Still Hold Up Today

At the beginning of the film, new kid Scotty Smalls finds a group of neighborhood boys who pretty much live on the baseball field and plots the best way to join their ranks. "I found out that they never kept score, they never chose sides, they never even really stopped playing the game. It just went on forever. Every day they picked up where they left off the day before. It was like an endless dream game." What's better than that?

When Scotty biffs his first attempt to join the game (and the group), he thinks his life is over, but as he soon discovers, second chances abound in life.

Baseball MVP and the head of the group of friends Benny Rodriguez befriends Scotty mostly because he wants a ninth player so they can be a real team, but his introduction, and a well-placed hit, leads to the team accepting Smalls as one of their own.

Benny tells Smalls to trust that he'll hit a pitch that he can catch, designed to prove that he's a worthy new team member, and he delivers, proving that sometimes you just have to trust that others know better than you do, close your eyes, and hope for the best.

Scotty's stepdad is trying to be a good guy but doesn't know how to be a father, and Scotty doesn't want to be a bother, leading to some awkward interactions, but with time and patience, they find a way to become a family.

Is there a more perfect scene than Hamilton Porter's wave to the ladies followed by a cannonball that drenches them all? We think not. Letting it all go with a dive bomb into the pool, splash zone be damned, is what Summer is all about.

Ah, Wendy Peffercorn . . . Squint's first crush, and potentially the first crush of an entire generation of boys living in her town. Who can forget the first person who made their heart go pitter-patter, especially if he or she was sitting high on a lifeguard chair?

When Squints fakes his own drowning to get close to his main crush, we all know that it's wrong . . . wrong, but hilarious. But we doubt his character regrets the dangerous charade for a single second.

By the end of The Sandlot, it's revealed that Squints eventually marries his first crush, Wendy Peffercorn, and they have nine children together. Predictable? No. But a little persistence and patience can go a long way in love.

For the majority of the movie, the Sandlot gang are convinced the beast on the other side of the fence is a dinosaur-size monster equipped to eat children whole. In reality, he's just a dog. Never let a fear blind you to reality.

The group's loyalty to each other is pretty awesome, but following the crowd also gets them in, as Smalls would say, a "pickle" or two. Use your own best judgment, no matter what everyone else is doing.

Ham's s'mores monologue is about as good as it gets when it comes to a description of how to assemble the perfect version of the fireside treat. "First, you take the graham. You stick the chocolate on the graham. Then, you roast the mallow. When the mallow's flaming, you stick it on the chocolate. Then, you cover it with the other end."

When Bertram Grover-Weeks whips out a bag of Big Chief chewing tobacco, the gang thinks they've hit the jackpot, despite none of them knowing what they're supposed to do with it. Lesson: don't indulge in substances you're too young to buy or, better yet, tobacco at all.

The kids learn their "just say no" lesson the hard way when they take their mouths full of chewing tobacco on an amusement park ride. Of course, some serious nausea, followed by a classic vomiting scene, ensues.

Sure, it's not nice to call people names, but when Ham goes on a verbal sparring spree with a kid who thinks he's better than the Sandlot gang because he plays on a real team, hilarity ensues. Sharpen your tongues, people. You might just need them every once in a while.

Even the coolest kid can't resist the allure of a sky full of fireworks, and that's the way it should be. Appreciate them while they last.

After Smalls unwittingly puts his stepdad's prized Babe Ruth-signed ball into play, he has the best hit of his life, which subsequently puts that ball in the realm of the beast. Life is a constant balance of joy and tragedy, sometime within the same moment.

The fence is a great divide for The Sandlot crew, and while they'd never willingly cross to the beast's domain, they're always willing to take a peek to see what lies on the other side. Look before you leap into danger, kids.

A ghostly version of Babe Ruth comes with words of wisdom: "There's heroes and there's legends. Heroes get remembered, but legends never die. Follow your heart, kid, and you can never go wrong." Be a legend.

In an effort to get Smalls's stepdad's Babe Ruth ball back, the kids come up with a host of inventive plans involving some vacuums, suspending a kid from a rope, and using an Erector Set. While none of the inventions gets the job done, their ingenuity is pretty impressive.

You never know where you'll encounter true bravery. It might even be from a kid willing to battle a beastly dog to get a baseball back. Appreciate it when you see it.

Benny Rodriguez is brave, but more importantly, he's fast, a talent that he puts into use when his ball recovery plan is met with a monster dog's escape. The chase that ensues is one of the best scenes in the movie and proves that when in doubt, running might be your best option.

When Benny and the beast's chase ends with the dog being trapped under the fence, Smalls and Benny face their fears and free him, and Smalls is rewarded with a kiss on the face. The beast isn't so bad after all, and he becomes the team's mascot. And his "terrible" owner (the inimitable James Earl Jones)? He ends up saving the day with a crazy-impressive ball collection of his own.