People who watched a lot of kids’ movies in the 1990s might remember Mike Vitar. For those who are unfamiliar with that name, Vitar was a child actor who appeared in a number of kids’ movies in that period of time. One excellent example was The Sandlot, which was a baseball movie in which he played the role of Benny the Jet, who was the single most important character besides the main character. Another excellent example were D2: The Mighty Ducks and D3: The Mighty Ducks, which saw him playing a member of the team named Luis Mendoza. Besides these movies, Vitar appeared in a number of other projects over the course of the 1990s, thus cementing his status as a successful child actor.
With that said, Vitar’s last role was in 1997, which was when he played a one-episode role in Chicago Hope. In short, Chicago Hope was a CBS medical drama that started up in September of 1994 and continued until May of 2000, meaning that the role was not special by any means. Since Vitar hasn’t been in another role since 1997, it is safe to say that he is retired from his acting career, which in turn, makes it natural for some people to wonder whatever happened to him from that point forward.
What Has Mike Vitar Been Up To Since The Sandlot?
As it turns out, there is a fair amount of information that can be found out about whatever happened to Vitar since The Sandlot and the rest of the projects that he was involved with. First, he spent some time working as an EMT, which provided him with the expertise and experience that he needed to become a firefighter with the Los Angeles Fire Department. Nowadays, he continues to work as a firefighter in that particular city, where he happens to have a family as well.
With that said, Vitar winded up in the news for less impressive reasons in 2016. What happened was that Vitar and a number of his fellow firefighters approached a graduate student named Samuel Chang, who was handing out candy in a gated community at the time. Supposedly, the firefighters thought that Chang was handing out tainted candy for reasons that are not wholly clear. The firefighters further stated that they thought that Chang was on PCP at the time, though an examination carried out by a doctor found no traces of said drug in his system. However, it is interesting to note that Chang thought that he smelled alcohol on the breath of at least one of the firefighters, which might explain what went down.
Regardless, the firefighters went to attack Chang. One of them got him in a chokehold. After which, the other piled in. In particular, it is worth noting that Vitar joined in on beating on Chang midway through the process, with Chang’s cellphone recording of the occurrence sounding as though he said something along the lines of “I got the legs.”
Together, the firefighters beat Chang so badly that his pulse actually stopped at one point in the process, with the result that they had to get their equipment for the purpose of reviving him. Unsurprisingly, the beating left Chang with a number of other serious injuries, though he was lucky enough to survive it. One example of his injuries were the burst blood vessels in his eyes, which is why Chang has red eyes in the aftermath photo. Other examples of his injuries ranged from bleeding in his brain to the outright failure of his kidneys, which were on top of hemorrhaging caused by him being suffocated by the chokehold.
Due to the incident, Vitar was charged with misdemeanor battery. To this, he pleaded no contest. For those who are unfamiliar with the difference between pleading guilty and pleading no contest, pleading no contest means that someone is conceding the charge without actually admitting their guilt in the process. As a result, they are sentenced as though they had pleaded guilty, though the fact of them pleading no contest can’t be used against them in a civil lawsuit. However, it is interesting to note that people can’t plead no contest unless the judge is willing to accept it, thus placing certain limitations on how it can be used.
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