The Sandlot: Heading Home Information

The Sandlot: Heading Home is the second direct-to-video sequel to the 1993 theatrical film The Sandlot and the first direct-to-video sequel The Sandlot 2. It was released straight to DVD on May 1, 2007. The film stars Luke Perry, Danny Nucci, and Sarah Deakins.

Plot

Successful, arrogant baseball superstar Tommy "Santa" Santorelli is knocked unconscious by a wild pitch, taking him back in time to 1976. He wakes up to all of his childhood friends from the Sandlot greeting him. He asks who jacked his BlackBerry and why is everyone calling him kid. After seeing his reflection in the sheriff's sunglasses he realizes he is not in the year 2007, but in the year 1976. He faints.

Tommy wakes to his mother, who died of cancer, telling him everything is all right. He is convinced he is dreaming until he wakes up and his mother is making pancakes. He tells her that he is forty one years old, lives in Beverly Hills, has a "smoking hot" girlfriend who has her own reality show, and he does not eat pancakes but protein shakes. He then tells her he thinks he is dead. His mom calls the doctor and he gets mad at the doctor after trying to explain what TiVo is and calls the doctor a quack. They go back home and she shows him some family photo albums. He tells his mom about his cousin who will work at Home Depot after his band breaks up in the nineties. She is confused and asks him what Home Depot is. When his friends, Two-ton, Wings, D.P. and Timber ask him if he is okay. He says no, but his mother insists he should at least go ahead and play.

He meets Benny Rodriguez, the manager of his current baseball team, the Dodgers, and asks him how they were transported back in time, but Benny is younger and has no idea what he is talking about. After seeing Tommy hit every single hit over the fence, and after Q calculates he has a batting average of 1.000, they decide to sneak into a movie to ask Tommy to be on their team. The next day, Tommy meets one of the team-mates Ryan, who hasn't spoken since his father died, and tells Ryan everything that's happened. Ryan trys to unlock his bike combination, until E.J Needman, the neighborhood bully, and his teammates stick gum on his combination and start bulling him, until Tommy comes along with the rest of the sandlot gang to protect him. E.J. and Tommy start insulting each other until E.J crosses the line talking about Tommy's sick mom and the Bullies leave after Tommy threatins to beat up E.J. if he ever says anything like that ever again. Then, Tommy is on their team after finding out that they play againest E.J. He joins the team of Squints' Pharmacy. The night he joins the team the boys go to Mr. Mertle's House to get some old base ball equipment, and they find the house is filled with booby traps. Then Tommy and Benny teach the boys how to play better.

After winning several games Tommy switches over to Needman's team. When he told this to Ryan he got mad, and told him that he shouldn't speak for a while, he storms off on his bike leaving Tommy to think about real friendship. The day before the big game he went to the sandlot to find Benny and Squints talking about when they were younger, and playing on the sandlot. Then he realizes what true friendship really is. At the final game between the Sandlot boys and the Needman Realtors, Tommy realizes he should play with his friends. Switching teams, he ends up making the over the wall catch for the Sandlot boys. The Sandlot is saved and Tommy's team wins. He gives the winning ball to Ryan and rushes home to see how his mother suffering with cancer is feeling. She is very sick. Ryan shows up at Tommy's house and yells to Tommy. He says "Tommy, you forgot this," throwing the winning ball up to Tommy for him to catch but it knocks him out like it did before. He wakes up in the hospital room as his older self to find he is married to Judy, the woman he left to play for the Yankees, but soon Benny tells Tommy that he didn't ever play for the Yankees and stayed on the Dodgers his entire career, he has two kids, Heather and Oliver, and all of his friends from the Sandlot, now adults come to see how he is. He realizes that he relived his childhood days but this time choosing friendship over glory and ultimately earning both.

Cast

• Danny Nucci as Benny Rodriguez
• Luke Perry as Tommy "Santa" Santorelli
• Keanu Pires as young Tommy
• Samuel Patrick Chu as Matt "Wok" Wakamoto
• Brandon Olds as Two-ton
• Cole Heppell as DP
• Kai James as Timber
• Renzo Carbonel as Rolando "Roll" Alvarez
• Meshach Peters as Q
• Ryan Drescher as Wings McKay
• Sara Deakins as Sarah Santorelli
• Chauncey Leopardi as Michael "Squints" Palledorous
• Paul Jarrett as Earl Needman
• Alexander Ludwig as EJ Needman
• Cainan Wiebe as Ryan

Reception

Heather Boerner of Common Sense Media gave the film four out of five stars, writing "If you mixed Back to the Future with A Christmas Carol and sprinkled in a liberal dose of baseball fandom, you'd end up with this sweet, fun baseball movie that entertains while it instructs."

See also

• The Sandlot
• The Sandlot 2