How MLB’s All-Star Game tribute to ‘The Sandlot’ came together — and what the kids said about their experiences with major leaguers

When 10-year-old Ryan MacLuckie found out he’d been picked to be part of the tribute to the 1993 film The Sandlot at Tuesday’s MLB All-Star Game, he had one thought.

“‘I hope I get to be Benny,’” his father, also named Ryan MacLuckie, recalled. “When they gave him his wardrobe the first day we were filming, he got the Tug McGraw jersey, and it was open, and he had his hat on, and he said he felt just like Benny.”

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The 11 kids at the center of one of the All-Star Game’s most touching and striking moments were all local baseball and softball players that the league found through the Phillies’ RBI baseball and softball leagues.

They rode their bikes onto the field, and spent about three minutes each with a big leaguer, as fireworks fired off in the background, reminiscent of the famous 4th of July scene in The Sandlot.

Driving down the Shore every summer, the younger MacLuckie would always point out Millville — “That’s where Mike Trout lives!” — so getting to talk to the local baseball hero was a dream come true. He brought his Little League bat for Trout to sign, but nearly forgot to take his marker onto the field. Leading up to the tribute, his father ran around the stadium in hopes of getting the marker in his hands.

“[Trout] was super nice,” MacLuckie said. “I asked him for help with my batting stance. He told me to move my feet more out, so I could hit.”

“He’s smiling so big right now, he can barely talk,” MacLuckie’s father said.

He’s not the only one who received advice from a big leaguer. Eleven-year-old Damien Davis plays catcher, and he got to talk to Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski about how he grips his pitches and generates his power.

Thirteen-year-old Joseph Lund from Port Richmond was lucky enough to get paired with a Phillies player, Brandon Marsh, who said after Tuesday’s game that he “couldn’t stop crying” during the tribute.

“We were talking about how that’s his favorite movie, and how Ray Charles always makes him emotional in that song, and then I was telling him about how my grandmother is a really big fan of his, and I got to take a video of me and him saying hi,” Lund said. “I asked him to sign my cap, and he said ‘Dude, you don’t need to ask. Anything you want, I got you.’”

Charlie Fontanez was the rare kid on the field who had actually never seen The Sandlot until recently. When his baseball coach called to ask if the 14-year-old would have interest in appearing in an All-Star commercial tribute to the movie, he finally sat down to watch.

Predictably, he loved it, especially the famous 4th of July scene recreated for the spot.

Fontanez was at the pitcher’s mound with Dodgers star Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The two of them took a selfie, and then talked about pitching. Yamamoto admitted he’d been “a little nervous” in the World Series.

“[Charlie] was super excited,” his aunt, Sandra Fontanez, said. “He was talking about it for hours after. Literally, we probably went to bed at two in the morning because he was just telling me how everything went.”

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Noah Postell, a 14-year-old from West Philly, paired up with Freddie Freeman, who asked if he wanted to have a catch. Postell, who is a middle infielder and hopes to play at Cardinal O’Hara next year, said his only regret was that he didn’t keep the ball they were throwing around as a souvenir.

“That’s where the parent in me comes in, like I wish I was able to tell my son what to do, you know?” Postell’s father, Gregory, joked. “The ball that he was playing catch with, I wish he would have kept that ball and had Freddie sign that ball. … Maybe one day we can connect with Freddie Freeman and get a ball, but it was just an amazing opportunity.”

Fontanez said that the commercial director told her the league initially thought to hire actors for the spot, to make it an easy shoot. But the director insisted on finding players from the area, which made the moment truly magical.

“They’re baseball players,” Fontanez said. “Who better than them to be able to play a role like this?”