In the summer of 1962, a shy boy named Scotty Smalls moves to a new neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley and desperately wants to make friends. He is taken under the wing of Benny Rodriguez, the local baseball prodigy and leader of a rowdy neighborhood team that plays at a nearby sandlot. Benny teaches Smalls how to catch and throw, allowing the clumsy new kid to successfully integrate into the nine-player roster. The boys spend a blissful summer playing baseball, going to the local pool, and embarking on classic childhood adventures. However, their carefree days take a tense turn when they hit their last baseball over the sandlot fence. The yard behind the fence is guarded by "The Beast," a legendary and terrifyingly large English Mastiff rumored to eat anything that crosses its path. Hoping to keep the game going, an unknowing Smalls borrows a baseball from his stepfather's trophy room, which happens to be autographed by the legendary Babe Ruth. Disaster strikes when Smalls hits his very first home run, sending the priceless souvenir straight into the Beast's domain. After learning the true value of the ball, the panicked boys spend days engineering elaborate, failed mechanical contraptions to retrieve it. Ultimately, Benny has a dream inspired by Babe Ruth, jumps the fence, outruns the massive dog in an epic neighborhood chase, and safely recovers the chewed-up ball. The chase leads to the boys meeting the dog's owner, Mr. Mertle, a friendly, blind former Negro League player who generously trades their ruined ball for a pristine one signed by the entire 1927 Murderers' Row Yankees.