Patrick Renna and Danielle Fishel Reunite The Sandlot Cast for Dugout Dads, a Little League Parents Comedy: Podcast

Listen via: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Podcasts | More Platforms Patrick Renna knows there’s nothing quite like youth baseball for turning otherwise functional adults into complete maniacs. That realization became Dugout Dads, his new nine-episode YouTube comedy that reunites Renna with several of his The Sandlot castmates while bringing longtime friend Danielle Fishel off the bench. Speaking with Kyle Meredith, Renna and Fishel explain how a Little League championship meltdown sparked the idea, why they chose to fictionalize themselves rather than make a Sandlot sequel, and how an independently funded short-form series could eventually grow into something much bigger. Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts. The lightbulb went off for Renna while coaching his own kid, after watching parents react to a championship loss as if civilization itself had just ended. “All the parents were crying on each other’s shoulders, kicking over water coolers, yelling at the umps,” he recalls. Meanwhile, “the kids were playing tag five seconds later like they couldn’t care less.” Adding his old Sandlot teammates turned the premise into something more irresistible, though Renna is careful to point out that the actors aren’t simply dusting off their childhood characters. There are Easter eggs, sure, but Renna says the show has “a little Curb Your Enthusiasm flavor to it,” with everyone playing heightened, fictionalized versions of themselves and plenty of room for future cameos. Fishel didn’t need much convincing. A lifelong baseball fan with two sons who play the sport, she was already fluent in the particular insanity Dugout Dads wanted to mine. “I know this world. I can do this,” she remembers thinking when Renna called, even before there was a script. She describes her character as delivering “a loving eye roll” toward her husband’s coaching obsession, while leaving open the possibility that she might eventually become just as unhinged. More importantly, Fishel sees the series as a clever way to use nostalgia without getting trapped by it. “It’s not a reboot of a project. It’s getting a cast you know and love back together to do a brand new project,” she says, arguing that trying to recreate The Sandlot or Boy Meets World would be chasing lightning that already struck perfectly once. Listen to Patrick Renna and Danielle Fishel talk about Dugout Dads, The Sandlot, youth baseball, and more in the new episode above or by watching the video below. Keep up on all the latest episodes by following Kyle Meredith With… on your favorite podcast platform; plus, check out all the series on the Consequence Podcast Network.