James Earl Jones was widely respected on the set of "The Sandlot," even by his 13-year-old costars ... actor Patrick Renna recalls to TMZ.
We caught up with the former child star outside LAX, where he told us what it was like working with the film and stage legend ... and he had nothing but nice things to share.
As Patrick put it ... everyone knew who James was while filming the 1993 coming-of-age movie ... but, they unfortunately didn't get a ton of interaction with the A-lister.
While James' character, Mr.