"The Sandlot" is a baseball film set in California, during the 1960s. The young Scotty moves to a new neighborhood with his mother and stepfather. Gradually, after some difficulties, he becomes accepted on a neighborhood baseball team. He befriends Benny, a much better baseball player than himself. The boys often play baseball during the hot summer, the only difficulty occurring when Benny hits homeruns over the fence, where the baseball occasionally lands in a nearby sandlot guarded by a vicious dog. During one instance, Scotty offers his stepfather's baseball as a replacement.
             Scotty hits the ball over the fence-into the lair of the bestial dog. Only later do the boys realize that the ball was signed by Babe Ruth. When the other boys come to realize how valuable the ball is they try to get it back. Eventually, the boys learn that the dog is not vicious at all, and meet the owner. The boys restore the Babe's priceless ball to its rightful place, but more importantly they learn that appearances can be deceiving. At the end of the film, there is a flash ahead to the present, where Scotty is a sports announcer, and Benny is a professional ballplayer.
             The main theme of the film is that appearances can be deceiving. The boys think that Scotty is hopeless as a player at first, but Benny looks beneath Scotty's ordinary surface, and realizes that Scotty wants to fit in. The young boy becomes a valued member of the team, and the crucial ninth player needed to make a full team. Scotty doesn't realize that his stepfather's baseball is valuable at first; Scotty sees it as a ball, just like any other ball, even though it has the signature of the great Babe Ruth himself. Finally, all of the boys misjudge the dog 'Hercules' who looks so vicious but is really a decent and gentle dog. Even the boys' future careers are not immediately evident at the beginning of the film. The film is about ...