Mr. Mertle's Man Cave
Excerpt from a substack article about The Sandlot a 1993 movie starring James Earl Jones.
While Field of Dreams resonates with the romantics among baseball fans, collectors of sports memorabilia will most likely regard 1993’s The Sandlot as the ultimate James Earl Jones baseball role. [While what follows could technically be called spoilers, the movie IS over 30 years old, so I’m proceeding] In the film, Jones plays Mr. Mertle, a former baseball player who lives behind the sandlot’s outfield and owns “The Beast”, a guard dog of mythical proportions. When Smalls and Benny go to Mr. Mertle in a last-ditch attempt to recover a Babe Ruth autographed baseball belonging to Scotty’s stepdad they are ushered into Mertle’s house, ultimately agreeing to visit him weekly to talk baseball in return for a ball signed by the 1927 Yankees, to replace the Ruth ball mangled by The Beast.
When the two youngsters enter Mr. Mertle’s baseball room we are treated to a mancave that would make even some of the most advanced collectors of baseball memorabilia envious. Though the scene takes less than 5 minutes of screen time, the room is packed with collectibles in every nook and cranny and I wanted to try to identify as many of them as I could. What follows are my attempts to ID the contents of Mr. Mertle’s Mancave.
As Benny and Smalls close the door behind them we see several black and white photos as well as a baseball arcade game. Unfortunately, most of the photos that we see in the room are too small and/or out of focus to be easily. While I wasn’t able to make a positive identification of the arcade game, of the ones I’ve found it seems most similar to this circa 1930s Marvel’s Pop-Up game. Both game cabinets feature a coin slot in the middle with a directional wheel on either side, allowing the player to control a “fielder” who attempts to catch a ball that falls between pegs embedded in the game board.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-154415916
= new reply since forum marked as read
I love baseball movies!
Ty for sharing!
Tyia!