Oh Benny, Benny, Benny. What happened to you? One day you were an upstanding neighborhood ball player, helping out the underdog and working tirelessly toward your dream of being an LA Dodger. Now you’re an aging neighborhood ruffian with a growing rap sheet. Where did your mother go wrong?
Yes, we’re talking about The Sandlot’s Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez, also known as Cuban-American child actor and lifelong Angeleno Michael Vitar, whom we recently praised for his role as a barely pubescent galán in that classic of 90s childhood sports films. But it seems like Vitar’s been watching more Goodfellas than The Sandlot these days, because just last week he was arrested and released on $30,000 bail for allegedly jumping and beating a man whom he spotted handing out candy to neighborhood children, along with a mob of his tough-guy buddies.
As we mentioned in our previous article, 36-year-old Vitar followed up his childhood career in Tinseltown, which included a turn in The Mighty Ducks franchise, with a steady gig as a muscly LA fireman, meaning he’s probably capable of doing some serious pummeling. Why he was inspired to carry out such a despicable, violent act, and whether or not he was wearing a uni-color track suit and yelling profanities in a New York Italian accent is not entirely clear at the moment. What we do know is that old Benny may be looking at up to four years of prison time.
Shoulda stuck with baseball, bro.