Baseball Review // The NY Sandlot in NHV
Amrhyn Field, New Haven CT
September 6th 2025
Sometimes when a Sandlot team comes to town it's just for one game. Seeing the West Philly Waste come into New Haven for three games and then the New Hampshire Newts coming into New Haven for two games and then a third game the next day in Bristol made the idea of it feeling like a weekend and not just a singular game. But as the NY Sandlot came to New Haven to take on the New Haven Bat and Ball Society, there was no second game against the Elm City Char or a Sunday game against the Hartford Dark Twains and that was okay.
While it can feel like- as an out of state team- that you're dedicating your entire weekend to The Sandlot, coming around two hours from NY for one game means it's a day trip and you could head back home that night. In that way it feels more like a local game just with more driving. One thing I've noticed going to these games is that when there is more than one game in a day it feels more like a free-for-all with when players might show up and when they might leave. This is not quite as frequent within this single game, but it still did happen.
In the same way when the New Hampshire Newts played the Hartford Dark Twains in Bristol, this game was nearly four hours, a back and forth affair with both teams up and different times. While the Savannah Bananas can put a two hour maximum timer on a game, it is quite interesting that it feels like going to The Sandlot for one or two games still comes out being close to the same amount of time. There isn't really a way to put a minimum timer on a baseball game, but when you're going out to see some baseball the more the better.
One thing I've really started to notice about these Sandlot games is that it's less like a typical baseball game in the way that a pitcher might not get a mound visit from a manager but rather it feels more like the MLB All-Star game in the sense that everyone gets a turn. If you show up on a team and you want to pitch an inning or two, they'll find a way to put you in. And that just goes hand in hand with the fact that I've seen pitchers in other leagues pitch complete games and then the relief pitchers wonder why they even showed up.
This game was also about the hits. There was a lot of contact being made and many times that lead to deep shots as well. It makes me understand why people enjoy slow pitch softball- where the idea is not to strike out a batter but rather put the ball in play and deal with it- but at the same time there were strikeouts during this game. The way the game can find that balance between everyone getting a hit and everyone striking out just feels like the type of baseball most people want to see- and I know it's what I like to see.
As it can feel like we are beginning to leave summer behind, this day was humid and that was because we had been promised rain nearly all day. This wasn't just going to be a light shower either. I had received a text message from Eversource that they were on it with potential power loss. With The Society ahead, the game went into the ninth inning and you could see the dark clouds start to roll in. It wasn't happening yet, but you could tell it was coming.
My thoughts going into this game was that if it went on long enough, the storm might come and then it might just get called after six or seven innings because of the rain. Somehow, Mother Nature was on the side of this game though. As we made our way to the car, walking along the outside of the outfield, I felt the rain drops start to hit me. I looked back and the teams were doing their post-game high fives.
This truly felt like the weather managed to hold out until the exact moment that the game ended. This would make me believe that Mother Nature is a fan of baseball, but at the same time, it then proceeded to pour (with thunder and lightning) to the point where many baseball games were postponed on Sunday morning/afternoon. So maybe Mother Nature is just shining favorably on The Sandlot.
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