Denis Leary’s Red Sox Fandom Led to Problems on the Set of ‘The Sandlot’
The ‘90s family movie classic The Sandlot starred a bunch of kid actors, James Earl Jones, and, of course, two dudes in a massive dog costume. Also in the cast was comedian Denis Leary, who played Smalls’ stepdad Bill. In a surprise twist, he turned out to not be an asshole.
The Sandlot, which came out in 1993, was Leary’s first real movie role. Later that same year, he would show up in Demolition Man as the guerrilla rebel soldier whose complaints about fascist dystopias wouldn’t seem out of place in an ‘80s comedy club.
But despite the fact that he clearly wasn’t a seasoned actor at that point in his career, Leary still had some big demands while shooting The Sandlot. At one point in the film, Bill offers to play catch with Smalls, inadvertently giving him a black eye in the process. In 2023, prop master Terry Haskell revealed that Red Sox superfan Leary straight up refused to wear the vintage glove that had been prepared for this scene because “it had Mickey Mantle’s fake autograph on it.”
“He looks down and says, ‘This is a Yankee glove. I’m from Boston. I will never put Mickey Mantle’s glove on my hand,’ and threw it on the ground,” Haskell recalled. “He was dead serious. I had to go find him some Giants or Sox glove.”
Leary was recently asked about this story during an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, and he confirmed that it was 100 percent true.
Leary acknowledged that, even though he was “brand new to the movie business” he loved the Sandlot script and believed that it had the potential to become a classic one day. “This is one of those ones, If they do it right, this could be a thing that kids will watch forever,” Leary theorized at the time.
But when he was presented with the Mantle glove, Leary flatly refused. “Dude, I gotta tell you, I cannot — my character and me are both telling you, ‘I cannot,’” Leary told the prop master. “And I love Mickey Mantle, if you want to talk Yankees and baseball greats, but I’m not wearing (a Mickey Mantle glove),” he added.
The Rescue Me star also revealed that he has similarly refused to wear Yankees caps in other projects because “a Yankee cap on my head is Satan-esque to me” and the “Red Sox blood, the Bruins blood, they run deep.”
It should be noted that the Mantle glove did make complete sense for the character, considering that the movie’s entire third act hinges on the fact that Bill is a Yankee fan whose prized possession is a signed Babe Ruth ball.
Is there an opposite of method acting?
