Then And Now: The Cast Of ‘The Sandlot’ Is All Grown Up
It’s always a little hard to predict what childhood movies breed the most nostalgia but The Sandlot delighted our young hearts enough to hold a special place in them 30 years later. Whether it was the clever dialogue, the wacky hijinks, or the legend of The Beast that kept us interested, none of us have ever truly forgotten The Sandlot.
Unlike some of the cast of Stand By Me or The Goonies, the kids in The Sandlot didn’t grow up to be superstars. As such, it’s hard not to wonder what became of them in the years since. Today, we have the answers!
Mike Vitar (Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez)
After starring as the gifted young baseball player Benny “The Jet” Rodriquez in The Sandlot and Luis Mendoza in the Mighty Ducks series, Mike Vitar retired from acting in 1997.
Indeed, Vitar has largely stayed out of the public eye since then. He started working as an EMT for Gerber Ambulance in Torrance, California in 1996 before joining the Los Angeles Fire Department in 2002. He’s worked as an L.A. firefighter ever since.
Tom Guiry (Scotty Smalls)
The Sandlot‘s timid main character is more memorable by the “You’re killing me, Smalls” catchphrase directed at him than for his personality, but Tom Guiry’s talents for conveying different personalities have since become his bread and butter.
In other words, Scotty Smalls was Guiry’s first role but it was certainly not his last, as he also had appearances in high-profile movies like Black Hawk Down, Mystic River, and The Revenant. His most recent appearance saw him play Keith Whelan in the 2021 Netflix movie The Unforgivable.
Chauncey Leopardi (Michael “Squints” Palledorous)
He’s best known for slyly stealing a kiss from a lifeguard as Michael “Squints” Palledorous, but Chauncey Leopardi has acted off and on since then, with much of his work coming to him throughout the ’90s before he reprised his role as an older version of Squints in the third Sandlot movie from 2007.
He appeared in the music video for the Logic and Eminem song “Homicide” in 2019, but told People that he spends most of his time as a dad, husband, and business owner now.
Marty York (Alan “Yeah-Yeah” McClennan)
While his character clearly got into some sticky situations in The Sandlot, Marty York was largely known for starting each sentence with “yeah yeah” when he played Alan “Yeah-Yeah” McClennan. And while he seems particularly proud of appearing on the Golden Globe-nominated TV show SMILF in 2017, acting isn’t his main job.
He told People that he also works as a personal trainer nowadays, but described it as a side gig as well. He also appeared in a short documentary about his life in 2021, primarily as it concerned a life–changing car accident he experienced in 1997.
Marley Shelton (Wendy Peffercorn)
Marley Shelton was the subject of thousands of childhood crushes when she played the brave but fiery lifeguard Wendy Peffercorn, but that was just the beginning of her prominent roles. Indeed, Shelton has probably had the most prominent post-Sandlot career out of those who joined the cast in their youth, as she’s found her way into enviable projects ever since.
She closed out the decade with a role in Never Been Kissed, but went on to work with Robert Rodriquez during the 2000s, netting roles in both Sin City and his Grindhouse collaboration with Quentin Tarantino. She worked steadily throughout the 2010s and into the 2020s, with her biggest role in this period being Judy Hicks in the Scream series.
Brandon Quintin Adams (Kenny DeNunez)
Although some of his co-stars seemed to have smaller roles in the Mighty Ducks movies after starring in The Sandlot, Brandon Quintin Adams seemed to have the opposite career as a child. While he didn’t have the most prominent role in The Sandlot when he played Kenny DeNunez, he was better known as Jesse Hall in The Mighty Ducks and among horror fans as Fool in The People Under The Stairs.
One of his only credits in the 2000s saw him voice Raijin in Kingdom Hearts 2, but he made his official return to acting in 2014 after focusing on his family and music career for a time.
Shane Obedzinski (Tommy “Repeat” Timmons)
Shane Obedzinski played Tommy in The Sandlot and as his name would suggest, the smallest and youngest member of the Sandlot crew was best known for parroting everything his older brother said. Although Obedzinski also appeared in My Girl and a couple of episodes of the Swamp Thing TV series, he left Hollywood before 1993 was out.
Although Obedzinski is open to acting wherever he can get the roles nowadays, he told People in 2018 that he’s primarily focused on running his restaurant, the Times Square Pizza Company. It’s located in Tampa, Florida.
Victor DiMattia (Timmy Timmons)
Throughout The Sandlot, Timmy Timmons is best remembered for his engineering abilities, particularly as they help his friends rebuild their treehouse. However, it’s less clear what interests his actor pursued between his acting stints besides a little directing in the late 2000s.
Victor DiMattia took a lengthy hiatus from Hollywood after 1995 but made his return to the acting world with the 2018 film Get Married Or Die. According to People, he also hosted the Vic In A Box podcast from 2017 to 2019.
Grant Gelt (Bertram Grover Weeks)
Bertram was one of the friendliest of the Sandlot kids whose chewing tobacco set a memorable scene in motion, but he was described as “getting really into the ’60s” and disappearing after the events of the movie. Fascinatingly, Grant Gelt also left Hollywood for good after appearing in the 1999 miniseries The ’60s.
However, he didn’t disappear like Bertram did, as he told People exactly where he’s been since his last time in front of the camera. As he put it, “I do business development and run a creative agency for a tech company.” He lives and works in Nashville, Tennessee.
Art LaFleur (Babe Ruth)
From the late ’70s until his final role in 2017, Art LaFleur was a dependable character actor with 171 credits to his name. Curiously, two of those credits saw him play legendary baseball players in beloved sports movies, as just four years before playing Babe Ruth in The Sandlot, he played former Chicago White Sox star Chick Gandil in Field Of Dreams.
Since he played college football and worked as a sportscaster for ESPN and CBS, he clearly fit well in sports movies and was even honored with a special bobblehead by his hometown baseball team, the Gary SouthShore RailCats, in 2019. Sadly, he passed away from atypical Parkinson’s disease on November 17, 2021, at 78.
Patrick Renna (Hamilton “Ham” Porter)
Patrick Renna cut a memorable figure as the mouthy, expressive, and comedic character “Ham” Porter in The Sandlot, despite the fact that it was his first audition at the time. Nonetheless, it seems the movie was the start of a lifelong career path for Renna, as he’s been acting ever since.
He also produced his own starring vehicle in the 2015 movie Bad Roomies, but in recent years, Renna has been best known for his recurring role in the acclaimed but ill-fated Netflix series GLOW, where he played Cupcake.
Bill (Denis Leary)
Although Bill wasn’t as acerbic a character as Denis Leary often tends to play, the fast-talking comedian’s often-annoyed demeanor made him a good fit for a stepdad struggling to connect with Scotty Smalls. Leary was just starting to get mainstream attention as a comedian when The Sandlot was filmed, but he’d show he had a lot further to go.
He appeared in dark comedies and other edgy fare throughout the ’90s, but secured a lucrative recurring role in the Ice Age movies in the 2000s, as well as launched his own gritty firefighter dramedy called Rescue Me that ran for seven seasons. He’s acted, written, and produced ever since, most recently starring in the TV series Going Dutch.
James Earl Jones (Mr. Mertle)
By the time James Earl Jones played the kindly, misunderstood Mr. Mertle in The Sandlot, he had already achieved international renown as the voice of Darth Vader but had also established himself as a prestigious actor of stage and screen. Like Art LaFleur, he also had the distinction of being in both The Sandlot and Field of Dreams.
His impressive career continued healthily after this point, including lending his voice to another generation-defining character in Mufasa from The Lion King. As for the stage, he would become such a fixture of Broadway that there’s now a theater named after him in New York City. He passed away from complications of diabetes on September 9, 2024. He was 93.
Karen Allen (Scotty Smalls’s Mom)
Although she wasn’t in The Sandlot for long enough that her character even received a name, Karen Allen had a familiar face throughout the ’80s movie world after breakout roles in National Lampoon’s Animal House and Raiders Of The Lost Ark.
Although her career had a downturn in the 2000s, it was reinvigorated when she reprised the role of Marion Ravenwood in Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull. Among other roles, she would play the character again as recently as 2024, while also owning a clothing store called Karen Allen’s Fiber Arts in western Massachusetts.
Wil Horneff (Phillips)
Although Wil Horneff appears in only one scene as the Sandlot kids’ main rival, Phillips, their showdown, the exchange of insults preceding it, and his entrance to the Booker T. & the M.G.’s song “Green Onions” make his scene a memorable one for sure.
1993 also saw Horneff star as Josh Monroe in the computer-based thriller Ghost In The Machine, and he would continue acting until 2007, when he took a hiatus to pursue his education and travel overseas. Although he returned to acting in the 2010s, that seemed to begin and end with a starring role in the 2014 independent film The Longest Swim.
