<P> In the San Fernando Valley during the summer of 1962, Scotty Smalls is the new boy in the neighborhood, seeking desperately to fit in . He would be welcomed on the local sandlot baseball team that practices every day, which only has eight players . Smalls, however, cannot play baseball; on his first visit to the sandlot he finds himself in the outfield with a fly ball descending toward him which bounces off his glove, causing the other boys, except Benny "the Jet" Rodriguez, the team's leader, to burst out laughing . Smalls, humiliated, leaves the baseball field . </P> <P> Smalls asks his stepfather to teach him to play, and while his stepdad agrees, Scott cannot successfully catch or throw the ball . Benny soon teaches him what he needs to know, and with Benny's support, he gets a place on the team . </P> <P> Meanwhile, behind a wall at the end of the sandlot is a backyard inhabited by "the Beast", an English Mastiff so large and savage that it has become a neighborhood legend . One day, the boys' last ball lands in the Beast's backyard . Smalls attempts to retrieve it, but the others, knowing about the Beast, stop him . That evening, they tell him all about the Beast, and that his owner, Mr. Mertle, got him when he was just a puppy when thieves were plaguing his junkyard, Mertle's Acres . After a couple of weeks, the puppy became the Beast; he grew enormous and aggressive, killing and devouring the thieves, bones and all . Eventually, Squints' grandfather, who was the police chief at the time, had Mr. Mertle chain up the Beast in the backyard and keep him under his house forever . Smalls also learns that many baseballs end up in the backyard, and then they just disappear . </P> <P> The next day, at a local swimming pool, Squints pretends to drown so that he can kiss the lifeguard, Wendy Peffercorn, whom he has a crush on . She does not take too kindly to it, and they are banned from the pool . Nonetheless, she realizes that Squints has feelings for her . </P>

What kind of dog was the beast in the sandlot