Before the recent screening of THE SANDLOT at AutoZone Park in Memphis, my friend Jim Walker asked me to speak to a group of young men at PBS (Presbyterian Day School) about where the idea for the story of the movie came from. Here's Jim's publisher's letter from his upcoming issue of 4Memphis magazine:
Forgiveness: A Tool To
Rewriting
History Or The Future?
I imagine we have all
heard more than once someone making the
statement: “I could never
forgive that person.” Even if we have not said
it, if we are truthful,
we have thought it. Unfortunately many of us live
our lives under the
umbrella of anger because of some condition or
memory of our past.
Last month we announced
that 4Memphis was bringing David Mickey
Evans the
writer/director/voice of “The Sandlot” to AutoZone Park for a
special screening of the
film on the Jumbotron. The Sandlot’s positive
messages about
friendship, acceptance and childhood innocence, are
now speaking to their
second generation of fans. It was fun to watch
fathers and mothers bring
their children to AutoZone Park to share together
this special showing of
their beloved movie.
The parents had watched this movie as
children many times, but now for the first time
they heard the voice of “The
Sandlot” answer important questions i.e.
why he wrote the movie
and where the characters we all love came
from. David Mickey Evans
was quick to quote Mark Twain in explaining
the characters, saying “None
of these boys was any boy I knew, but all
of these boys was every
boy I knew.” In fact the boys of his childhood
could not have been more
opposite than our friends in “The Sandlot.”
David Mickey Evans shared
with the crowd his childhood, growing up
in a poor, multicultural
section of Los Angeles. It was a neighborhood
where baseball, football
and basketball were played seasonally by the
kids on the street. The
other game these neighborhood boys played was
to bully the two boys
that didn’t look like them. Evans and his brother
lived daily with
emotional harassment and occasionally physical abuse
by the kids of the
street. The fun of the neighborhood pick up game
was not theirs to enjoy;
it was something to be feared as their childhood
tormentors were all
gathered in one place.
The vicious dog in “The
Sandlot,” Hercules, and the challenge to retrieve
a ball from over the
fence were real, but the conditions in which Evans’
brother had to retrieve
the ball were much different. Evans’ brother was
offered the long-awaited
opportunity to be a part of the street baseball
game, if only he would
retrieve the ball that had been knocked over the
fence. In the end, Evans
had to carry his brother home, having been
badly bitten on the leg
by Hercules as he attempted to get the ball.
Evans childhood and
early adult life were filled with anger and hatred
for the boys of his
neighborhood. He
was driven to be
successful by his desire
to seek revenge on the
boys of his
youth. Like many of us,
Evans felt if he
made enough money or had
enough
power he could somehow
punish the
boys of his neighborhood,
even if that
punishment was to only
show them
how wrong they had been
for not being
his friend. His anger and
drive to
be successful did not
serve him well
as an adult. He was only
allowing the
abuse that had destroyed
his childhood to destroy his current life was
well.
In his late twenties,
Evans surrendered his anger and decided that he
had to forgive the boys
of his youth. He decided to go back in time and
rewrite his childhood and
in doing so he would forgive those who had
hurt him and his brother.
“The Sandlot” was born. He wrote the kids as
friends and heroes,
playing together and overcoming a great obstacle.
He knows nothing of what
happened to the boys of his youth. They
didn’t ask for
forgiveness. They never sought his friendship. However, in
Evans’ process of
forgiveness, he allowed these bullies to become his
friends, and this
personal story he wrote for himself has become one
the most loved and
watched movies of all time.
He and I discussed in
detail his personal journey, and he would tell you
that although he would
not wish his childhood on anyone, if he had the
actual ability to go back
in time to change it, he would not. It made him
who he is and allowed him
to give the world “The Sandlot.” Much like
the Old Testament’s
character of Joseph, who was sold into slavery by
his brothers, Evans is
able to declare, “What they meant for evil, God
has used for good.”
Forgiveness, the key to
Evans’ and Joseph’s success is also the key to
success for the citizens
of Memphis. Forgiveness didn’t really change
Evans’ past, it changed
the way he dealt with the present, and that
changed his future. The
citizens of Memphis shouldn’t forget the past,
but instead should work
to forgive the wrongs of the past. Forgiveness
will allow us to live in
the present and build for the future.
Jim Walker
Letter From the Publisher
Seek the Peace and
Prosperity of the City in which I have placed you.
Jeremiah 29:7
14 / 4Memphis
Best,
DME
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