I don’t think I have ever played a pickup baseball game. 

You have to understand how fundamentally wrong admitting that fact feels. I grew up living and breathing the game of baseball. I don’t remember a time I didn’t play Little League, watch my hometown San Francisco Giants, collect baseball cards, memorize stats or read countless stories and books about the game. 

Or watch baseball movies. 

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“The Sandlot” (1993) is one of my favorite movies, which comes as no surprise to any of you, I’m sure. Growing up, it seemed like the one baseball movie that everyone knew and watched, even non-baseball fans. While the game may not appeal to everyone, the charm of a childhood summer certainly does. “The Sandlot” captures the pure joy of that season perfectly.

But often, when I would watch that film, I also felt like I was getting a peek into a completely different universe than my own. 

I certainly threw and hit baseballs like the kids’ ringleader Benny the Jet (Mike Vitar), catcher and sayer of iconic lines Ham (Patrick Renna), relatable newcomer Smalls (Tom Guiry) and glasses-wearing Squints (Chauncey Leopardi). Little League was an annual event for me growing up, and I donned Dodgers (ew), Padres, Phillies, Athletics, Tigers and Pirates jerseys over the years. 

But when I watch “The Sandlot,” I can’t help but feel that I missed out on a core aspect of playing baseball. 

While I’m sure that playing pickup sports is generally down as an activity across the board, some seem to still be thriving. I have played plenty of pickup basketball over the years, and if there’s a net around, I can certainly find people who will play pickup volleyball. Even football has a thriving pickup culture, at least of the two-hand touch variety.

But I can’t remember a single time I got together with some friends to play a full-fledged pickup game of baseball. I’ve played plenty of catch, but never a proper pickup game.

I’m not the exception to the rule either, at least, I don’t think I am. I’m aware of anyone who played pickup baseball in my hometown. I’d be shocked if there was any pickup baseball around USC. We don’t even have intramural baseball, despite the fact that the logo for the company that runs the intramural website is a baseball player. 

What happened between 1993 — when “The Sandlot” was made — and 2013, when I was the same age as the characters in the film and would have loved to play ball with them?

I have a few theories. Baseball is obviously a far less popular sport than it was in the 1990s. Football is king, and the NBA has woven its way into popular culture in every space that baseball used to dominate. 

The equipment also does provide a barrier to entry. Any friend group hoping to play pickup basketball or volleyball, or even two-hand touch football, only needs to bring themself and make sure one friend brings the one ball they will play with. 

To play a full game of baseball, you need at least one ball, one bat and several gloves, at least one for each person playing the field. Baseballs are relatively cheap, but gloves and bats have become massive investments for parents. Many parents probably don’t want their child using a $300 bat in games for fun for fear they might ruin it. 

We are also just less social in person, of course. People seem to spend more time playing MLB The Show in the privacy of their room than the real game with other people. 

But part of me wonders if something even deeper is going on. Equipment is expensive, but if people really wanted to play, they’d make it work. The kids in “The Sandlot” have to pool their money to buy a single 98-cent baseball, and they still find a way to play. It’s also really popular in foreign countries where they have little to no equipment even available to purchase. Wiffle ball is a much cheaper alternative, and people hardly play that. 

The MLB is also still wildly popular and is not a dying sport, despite what pundits of other sports might lead you to believe. The problem, I think, is society’s collective attitude toward the game of baseball.

Technology isn’t even the enemy here. All of the technology that exists to make baseball players better today is super cool, and travel youth coaches who dedicate their lives to developing players should be financially rewarded for it. 

The problem is us. 

Because, yeah, it has gotten a lot harder to get good enough to make the Major Leagues just by playing pickup baseball. But so what if it has? 

“The Sandlot” shows us that even if we have no hope of making it professionally, there is so much power and fun in just pretending to be a big leaguer, even for a few hours. 

Imagination, above all, is the spirit of play. And playing is the spirit of sports, which have always been games at their very core. 

So while “The Sandlot” feels like a fantasy to me today, I hope that when the next generation is my age and they think about this film, it only brings up nostalgia for their childhood memories playing pickup baseball.  

Ethan Inman is a senior writing about sports films that have taken on a new meaning compared to when they were released. His column, The 35mm Yard Line, runs every other Thursday, and he is also a sports editor for the Daily Trojan.