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THE SANDLOT: 20 YEARS LATER

PF has hit some pretty big milestones as of late. Not only did we recently celebrate our 75th anniversary, but the cult-classic film The Sandlot, which prominently features PF Flyers, celebrates its 20th year. We caught up with the writer of the film, David Mickey Evans, to get his thoughts on turning the big two-oh, and how he was inspired by one of our best-selling shoes, the Sandlot.

What was your inspiration for writing The Sandlot?

The film is a retelling of my childhood growing up in a poor, multicultural section of Los Angeles. It was a neighborhood where baseball, football, and basketball were played seasonally by the kids on the street. One day my brother went over a backyard wall to retrieve a baseball. While he did get the ball, the dog also got him.

When you were writing this movie, did you have any idea of the cult classic it would become?

Not a clue. There’s never any way to know whether an audience will even like a movie, let alone predict that it might have the sort of forever staying power that The Sandlot has had. When I write, I write for myself, and if I like it, then I believe there’s a good chance the audience will like it as well. But to have written something that is more popular now than it was 20 years ago, when it was first released, is one in a million, maybe one in ten million.

PF Flyers seem to be a character of their own, getting a 30 second spotlight with a voiceover. Why did you decide to include PF in the movie?

Really? You actually need to ask this question? Ok, here’s why: because PF Flyers are the single greatest sneakers in the history of mankind! And because Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez needed to literally “run faster and jump higher.”

Some amazing quotes have come out of this movie. Which quote or line is by far your favorite?

Definitely “You’re killin’ me Smalls!” and “Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.” I’m also partial to Squints’ line “I’ve swum here every summer of my adult life, and every summer, there she is…lotioning…oiling…oiling…lotioning…I can’t take this no more!”

Was there really a Beast?

Yes there was. And, believe it or not, his name was actually Hercules. He was a vicious german shepherd mix who lived chained up, in a brick-walled backyard at the end of the block where we lived. I’m pretty sure he had a little rubber stamp of a “screaming kid” which he used to stamp his “kills” on the side of his dog house whenever he bit someone. Like a WWII fighter pilot.

What are your plans for celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Sandlot?

I’m going on tour with the film, and plan to screen it at every MLB stadium in North America.

(Find upcoming tour dates at a stadium near you!)