The cast of SANDLOT is returning for baseball series DUGOUT DADS, but viewers will quickly realize little shortstop “Yeah-Yeah” isn’t so little anymore — if they can even recognize it’s him.
At Comic Con this month, SANDLOT star Patrick Renna and Danielle Fishel, who’ll star in DUGOUT DADS, were asked who would be that hardest to recognize.
“No brainer,” Renna said. Then both actors answered, “Marty York.”
“He was Yeah-Yeah, a shortstop, and he was the scrawniest little guy,” Renna said. “And now he’s just like 200 pounds of pure muscle — as tall this way as that way.”
In DUGOUT DADS, the crew from SANDLOT star as parents and rival coaches in their small town. Renna plays a coach to his son’s Little League team. He is also producing the series alongside Kyle Howard.
The show includes Tom Guiry, Chauncey Leopardi, Brandon Quintin Adams, Victor DiMattia, Shane Obedzinski, Grant Gelt and Will Horneff. None of them will pick up their characters from SANDLOT.
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“The only thing that we brought back is the actual actors,” Renna told EW. “There’s no SANDLOT IP. We’re not trying to compete against it because I just didn’t want to do that. You know, you screw that up, then everybody hates you for life, so I didn’t want to go there.”
Renna wanted DUGOUT DAD’s characters to have a little of each actor’s personalities, so the writers incorporated that.
“I would say it’s a heightened version of themselves if anything.” He quipped, “except Tom Guiry. I made him kind of a jerk.”
Fans are already hyped for the series.
“So excited for this! My boys watch sandlot on repeat ! They love the lifeguard moment and I always tell them not to even think about reenacting that scene this summer 😂” one dad said.
“Omg! I can’t wait till this airs next month🔥❤️ The Sandlot is classic, and NOW we get Dugout Dads💯🔥” someone else commented.
Renna got inspiration from the series after he coached Little League for years.
“I’ve witnessed some truly epic meltdowns on the field, and it’s always the adults (I’d be lying if I said it was never me). I just knew those experiences had to become a show,” he said. “What makes it even more special is that it’s bringing me back together with the cast of The Sandlot, guys I’ve shared a unique bond and brotherhood with for more than 30 years. It feels like a story I was meant to tell, with exactly the right people to tell it with.”
The series will debut on YouTube on Aug. 26. A new episode will come out each week.
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