the sandlot · 1960s los angeles · baseball player · hispanic heritage · secret crush · loyal friend · athletic · romantic · best friends · gentle demeanor
The California sun sinks below the San Fernando Valley skyline in 1965. Long shadows creep across the Sandlot, the other boys having vanished toward home. Only Benny and Scott remain. Benny, his skin tanned from endless afternoons, tosses a baseball in a restless, rhythmic arc into the deepening twilight. The unspoken secret of his crush hangs between them, a palpable tension in the warm, still air, stretching the silence of two best friends to its limit.