Thirty years ago today, the sweet coming-of-age comedy The Sandlot was released. A passion project from David Mickey Evans, who directed, co-wrote, and narrated the film, Sandlot is about group of young baseball players during the summer of 1962 in the San Fernando Valley. This means that as much time has passed between the events of the movie and its release and between the film’s release and now.

And much has changed – but much hasn’t. Sandlot is a whimsical tale of nostalgia in the same vein as Stand By Me, a story about misunderstood adolescents finding their way, refracted through the lens of adulthood. While the themes of friendship and insecurity are universal, however, the plot of Sandlot – of kids who gather to play ball outside and must find literal and metaphorical common ground – could never take place in the digital era. Kids no longer need to find people to spend time with now that cell phones and social media exists. Perhaps that’s a better reason than ever to seek out The Sandlot – to remember what it was like to connect, whether it be between a bat and a ball or between two friends.