An NBA legend is stepping up to the plate for Patrick Renna’s Little League comedy.
“I loved everything that I saw…We want to get involved and try to take this thing to the next level,” Chris Paul said in an Instagram video he shared with Renna, announcing that he’s signing on to executive produce DUGOUT DADS, the YouTube comedy series reuniting nearly the entire cast of THE SANDLOT.
Paul, an NBA All-Star, is backing the project through Ohh Dip!!! Entertainment, the sports media company he runs with his brother, according to The Daily Beast. The idea, as Paul put it, is to help turn a scrappy web series into something bigger.
DUGOUT DADS dropped its first eight episodes on YouTube Aug. 26, with the creative team treating this initial batch as “pre-season” for a fuller run to come. Renna stars as an idealistic father who volunteers to coach his son’s Little League team, only to discover that the real chaos on any given Saturday comes from the grown-ups instead of the kids.
“After years of coaching Little League, I’ve witnessed some truly epic meltdowns on the field, and it’s always the adults… I just knew those experiences had to become a show,” Renna said of the show’s origins.
Related: Patrick Renna Explains Why This SANDLOT Star Skipped DUGOUT DADS Reunion
Tom Guiry, Chauncey Leopardi, Marty York, Brandon Quintin Adams, Victor DiMattia, Shane Obedzinski, Grant Gelt and Will Horneff all return alongside Renna, playing fellow parents and coaches whose competitive streaks threaten to embarrass their own kids. Michael Peña joins the cast as another dad, and Danielle Fishel, known to a generation for BOY MEETS WORLD, plays Renna’s wife on-screen.
Sebastian Jones and Dan Kopelman wrote the series, and Victor Nelli Jr. directs. Renna produces through his own company, Hambino Media — named for his SANDLOT character, Hamilton “Ham” Porter — alongside Kyle Howard and Victoria Fradkin.
Movieguide® has followed this reunion from the start. Back in June, Renna called returning to work alongside his onscreen brothers meant reliving “a unique bond and brotherhood” built over more than thirty years. In July, he explained that the show borrows only the actors, not the old characters or story: “There’s no Sandlot IP.”
That distinction matters more now that a name like Chris Paul is attached. DUGOUT DADS was never trying to be THE SANDLOT again — it’s a new show built by grown men who happen to share a childhood memory millions of families still return to every summer.
THE SANDLOT earned its lasting place in family movie nights by valuing friendship and unsupervised summer freedom over spectacle, a simplicity that’s gotten harder to find on screen. Whether DUGOUT DADS can bottle even a little of that same warmth remains to be seen, but the fact that a professional athlete wants to help these particular actors tell a story about fatherhood and youth sports says something hopeful about what still sells: not nostalgia alone, but the real, sometimes embarrassing work of showing up for your kids.
Families who grew up quoting “You’re killing me, Smalls!” can watch DUGOUT DADS now streaming on YouTube.
Read Next: Fans Still Go Crazy for Patrick Renna and His SANDLOT Co-Stars
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
