Leisure and Sandlot

"The Sandlot" After watching "The Sandlot", and learning about the concepts of leisure, recreation and play there are many examples of each throughout the movie. "The Sandlot" is a story of a boy, Scotty Smalls who moves into a new neighborhood with his mom and his step dad, Bill. As a new kid in town he is often seen inside but one day he discovers that there is a group of kids in the neighborhood that go a to lot every morning to play baseball. This very special lot was called the Sandlot. This is where most of the aspects of leisure occur in this story.
Leisure
In "The Sandlot" there are many examples of leisure. Leisure can be defined as a state of mind, in which one feels relatively free from constraints, feelings of positive affect occur, and leisure in motivated by internal forces which allows the exercise of perceived confidence. For example, when the boys are all down at the sandlot and are playing baseball is a perfect illustration of leisure. There are many different aspects of leisure that were illustrated in this movie. Not only did playing baseball with the boys create leisure activities but it also created a subculture. A leisure subculture can be found in this movie when Scotty Smalls meets the boys of the neighborhood and when narrator introduces them, they each spit. Another example of how the sandlot and playing baseball created a subculture is the way the rest of boys dressed. When first meeting the players of the sandlot, Scotty wore slacks and a button down shirt which was a bit overdressed for playing baseball. Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez, the leader and captain of the boys told Scotty that he should change his clothes in order to fit in with the rest of the group. Instead of putting on his slacks and shirt the next morning he wore jeans and t shirt. Although most of the boys are involving themselves with leisure at the Sandlot, Benny's participation in the game and constant desire to play ball could be considered as serious leisure. Serious leisure can be defined as the systematic pursuit of an amateur that finds the activity substantial and interesting, later in life that individual will pursue a career in which the serious leisure activity is centered around. With serious leisure in mind with Benny, in the end of the movie when Benny is a professional baseball player shows the spillover theory .This theory suggests that leisure activities are chosen that have similar qualities and characteristics as job related activities. There are also many examples of flow in the movies. Flow is when the state of being between "boredom and anxiety" and the challenge of the activity matches the skill of participant. I would say when Benny hits the ball one time and the ball gets busted, there he was experiencing flow. Another example of flow could be when Smalls finally caught a fly ball and also when he able to throw it back to second base. At that time, Smalls was experiencing flow and he was in an unconscious state of mind but extremely focused on catching and throwing the ball. One final thought about leisure is that are sometimes constraints that directly or indirectly affect the leisure activity. These constraints are known antecedent or intervening constraints. The beast in the movie would be a considered an intervening constraint which affects a group or individual not to be able to participate in the leisure activity. In the movie, the beast can be seen as an intervening constraint because when someone hits a homerun it goes into the yard of Mr. Myrtle where the beast resides and once the kids lose the ball that is the end of their leisure activity because they only have enough money to buy one ball.
Recreation
In the movie there are also many examples of recreation, which is often seen as an activity that is engaged in during one's free time, as well as being pleasurable, and it an activity that has socially redeeming qualities. Although I discussed that when the boys are playing baseball is an example of leisure, but as discussed in class you engage in recreation during your leisure time. Being that it is the summer all the boys spend their days from early in the morning till dark and sometimes even after dark to engage in recreational activities. Another example of recreation could be seen when the boys hit a homerun and the beast, the intervening restraint stops them from continuing baseball and then they go swimming down at the community pool. The swimming in the pool is a form of recreation when the boys are not playing baseball or in one circumstance it is too hot to play. Recreation activities are often related to restoring or refreshing oneself. At the pool, Squints decision to make the beautiful Wendy Peppercorn rescue him was one of the potential outcomes of recreation. He was not only restoring himself in the pool, but had other objective. Recreation takes place on a voluntary basis and this can be illustrated when Smalls sees the boys gather together and go to the field. Smalls participation to follow the kids and than to try to play with them is a perfect example of recreation. Recreational activities are socially redeeming, and contribute to the outcome of society. As one could imagine moving into a small town can be very hard on a child but his decisions to participate was socially redeeming to him because he had than made friends with the neighborhood children.

Play In "The Sandlot" there were also times when the boys were not involving themselves in leisure and even recreation but involving themselves with activities that are human or animal behaviors that are self motivated, and carried on for intrinsic purposes. Play is usually very pleasurable, and is often marked by competition, exploration and mimicry and role-taking. Play can occur in both leisure time and recreation. There are many theories that explain play. For example, when the boys are done playing baseball for the night they decide to camp out in their tree house at the sandlot and then the next morning wake up early and play ball. This can be seen as an example of the relaxation theory. This theory states the need for play results from the need for relaxation. Another example of play is when the boys go to the carnival. At the carnival the boys decide to chew tobacco which is an example of the recapitulation theory. The boys were trying to mimic "The Babe", "The Great Bambino" and other baseball players that chew tobacco. Another example of this theory could be when Ham Porter mimics Babe Ruth when he is up at bat, showing the crowd but in the movie he was showing fellow teammates where his shot will go. In the beginning of the movie, when Smalls is new to the town he would constantly be building things with his erector set collection. This could be considered the surplus energy theory is some respect. With Smalls extra energy which he has because at that point he was not really participating in any activities of leisure, recreation or play activities could be said that with his extra energy he was building contraptions with the erector set. In "The Sandlot" there were many examples of leisure, recreation and play. Each of these concepts was illustrated by either the characters or the story. These concepts often overlap with each other during leisure time. During an individuals leisure time they are able to participate in leisure activities, recreational activities as well as play activities.