Needed him to make 9…doesnt make sense

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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Sandlot

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ejc15 — 13 years ago(March 17, 2013 12:23 PM)

So the kid moved to AZ only leaving them with 8 players. Normally Smalls would have made 9 for a full team but that is only if playing another team.
As they never kept score or seemed to have baserunners but instead had a never ending game of batting practice, wouldn't they need 10 to fill out the team.
9 fielders and the batter. On top of that as soon as Smalls goes to play he is told to go to left center, are they just playing with 2 outfielders.left and right center, and if so, shouldn't he have gone to right center as the newest and worst player?

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MichaelWilson-2 — 12 years ago(April 20, 2013 11:37 PM)

Benny does say adding Smalls allows him to rotate 8 positions now instead of 7. To me, that's seemingly his way of acknowledging they have a full team if they ever play a real game (which of course, they later do).
As far as sticking him in left center, it looks like from where the scene is filmed, left center is simply closer than right center, so Benny goes with that. It could also be that he knows the LF usually has the weakest arm in the outfield, and seeing how Smalls threw that first day, and how baseball-obsessed Benny is, he stuck Smalls in left center for that reason.

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ejc15 — 12 years ago(July 05, 2013 01:46 PM)

Good points, but it would take a terribly savy person to understand that detail about the stronger arm, and despite the knowledge, when it comes to kids and lower levels of baseball/softball, right field remains the position for the worst fielder as the fewest balls are hit there

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nwfeld01 — 12 years ago(July 05, 2013 07:00 PM)

Nobody wanted to play left field because of the beast, so therefore that is the only position left open and hence why he sticks him in left.
It's the millennium. Motives are incidental.

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GuyNCognito — 9 years ago(May 07, 2016 05:36 PM)

Or maybe it is because Left Center is by the Beast and they are all afraid of it..
Grant discovered raptor eggs in Jurassic Park

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jeffsodaman — 9 years ago(May 07, 2016 10:23 PM)

Having 9 made it at least seem like a full team. Yeah, they were playing against themselves, so the batter and any base runners took away from the fielders, but even if they practiced just for fun, it was the one aspect where they wanted to stay true to the rules, even if just in spirit. By having 9, they could at least call themselves a full team.