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When one thinks back to their childhood, way back in the day, for many of us, the thoughts of those glorious days of old, spent on the hallowed grounds, those neighborhood diamonds and fields with our buddies, comes flashing back. As a writer of three successful books, I used that very experience during my own youth to write, "The Golden Arm Gentleman", about a generation growing up in a much different time than it is today. It was a time when playing ball was all that seemingly mattered. My neighborhood guys, although we would occasionally butt heads, we always seemed to have each other's backs when it really mattered. The movie Sandlot seemed to amazingly capture that very spirit; of that glorious time in the summer, when we were up early playing ball all day long, right up until our mothers called us in for dinner. But the real awesomeness of this film, I mean the real magic here, comes from the writers, and their insightful abilities to have assembled a cast of players, that we all knew very well, because, well, they played in our sandlot games too. Of course, we all had a Smalls on our team, you know, that one guy that initially couldn't hit his way out of a wet paper bag, but by summer's end, was hitting the ball like Pete Rose. And there was always a Benny Rodriquez, the best player on the field, but his modesty and caring nature always shined even brighter than his playing abilities. We all had that big catcher behind the plate, that next to eating, playing ball all day long, was all that really mattered to him. Yes, they were all there; the intellectual guy, the pitcher on the mound who emulated the various pitching styles of the day (Seaver, Gibson, Koufax, Jim Palmer), even the small nerdy guy with the glasses (who was tough as nails by the way). Bravo to the movie Sandlot, for giving many of us a chance to relive our childhood, that of playing the summer game that we loved more than life itself, with our guys from the neighborhood. It's a grand reflection from a much different time, when we were out on America's sandlots physically playing the game, not sitting behind a computer screen playing a video version of it. And atlas, it was a much different, easier time than it is today. But I'm so very glad that I was able to be a part of it.

A very simplistic story, carried by the raw emotions of Al Jolson. The movie is pretty much an easy-read, as most early talking films were. Jolson would go on to make several other films, and be remembered as a talented singer and actor.