It’s been for-ev-er, but the cast of “The Sandlot” will be virtually reuniting — for charity, of course.
Patrick Renna, who played Hamilton ‘Ham’ Porter, the character who coined the infamous phrase, ‘you’re killin me smalls,’ exclusively talked to ET Canada to discuss every intimate moment from the cast’s “not so PG” group text to the possibility of continuing the charming baseball story for future generations to the real reason he arranged a second reunion.
“I just saw so many other reunions going on and thought, ‘we gotta get the guys together.’ I guess I had a little bit to do with it and everyone jumped on board pretty fast,” Renna said. “It’s a lot of work and coordinating everyone was insane. I mean filming was supposed to only take an hour and it ended up taking five. It’s quite the technical endeavour because two of those hours were technical difficulties.”
“But we were still able to reenact a scene where Smalls kicked the ball over the fence and then started freaking out,” Renna continued. “It’s a good one for the whole cast.”
Renna will be joined by his co-stars Art LaFleur, Brandon Quintin Adams, Chauncey Leopardi, Grant Gelt, Marley Shelton, Marty York, Shane Obedzinski, Tom Guiry, Victor DiMattia, Will Horneff, and director/writer David Mickey Evans.
But this exciting gathering will be slightly different from the first time the cast reunited on a baseball field just two years ago because third baseman of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Justin Turner, and his wife, Kourtney Turner will be hosting the 45-minute-long special. Proceeds from the reunion will benefit the Justin Turner Foundation, which supports homeless veterans, children (and their families) battling life-altering illnesses and diseases, as well as various youth baseball organizations. More recently, the foundation has been putting its efforts towards helping those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I teamed up with him because I knew of the foundation, and he’s such a fan of the movie,” Renna exclusively announced. “We wanted to help, and they were great hosts. They’re so funny.”
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Now that the gang is back together, it’s been rumoured for the past year that Disney+ was interested in creating a TV adaptation of the classic film that would include all of the original cast members. While there hasn’t been much talk for the public ear, Renna is setting the record straight.
“I know they were in talks about it and I think the pandemic has changed things for everyone, obviously. But I think once life resumes, they’ll go back to being in talks. We all were brought to a studio in Hollywood about a year ago and talked about what the concept of the show would be and to see if we were all interested and everyone was pretty much into it. I really liked the concept of us as parents focusing on our kids, so it’s great.”
But before Renna commits to the series, he might want to watch the movie one more time considering the 41-year-old actor hasn’t watched the film from beginning to end since the premiere in 1993.
“I don’t think I’ve watched the movie in its entirety since it was released. I’ve caught snippets of it and sometimes if I go to a baseball game, they’ll be doing a showing so it’ll be playing in the background, but I haven’t sat there and watched it beginning to end in 27 years. It’s different for me. It has a different experience,” Renna said. “Now ‘Goonies,’ I watched the whole thing last week. That’s my ‘Sandlot’. I see myself and everyone I know so well and it kind of ruins the experience for me.”
Be sure to watch “The Sandlot” reunion X on Renna’s YouTube Channel “You’re Killin Me With Patrick Renna” on July 15.
