Rinku Singh, 19, of India throws during a workout in Tempe, ArizonaPosted on 12/26/2008 12:27:12 PM PST by BGHater
The story reads like one of Bollywood’s less credible scripts: two struggling javelin throwers from impoverished Indian villages have been plucked from obscurity to become star pitchers for a Major League American baseball team.
Dinesh Patel, 19, a right-hander, and Rinku Singh, a 20-year-old lefty, may never have played a competitive baseball game in their lives, but on the strength of their performances on a reality TV competition they have been signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates, the five-time World Series Champions. In the process they are thought to have become the first Indian citizens to sign a contract with a major US team in any sport.
Mr Singh, the son of a truck driver and the youngest of nine chilren, won the “Million Dollar Arm” competition by throwing a baseball faster and more accurately than 30,000 other contestants from across the subcontinent. The feat earned him a USD100,000 cash prize, six months intensive coaching and the opportunity to try out for America’s leading baseball teams.
Mr Patel, who was brought up in a dusty village in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh by his uncle and grandmother after his parents found that they could not afford to raise him, fouled his competition throw.
However, his ability to hurl a baseball at more than 90 miles an hour -- having never been coached -- was sufficiently impressive for the competition’s backers to pay for his passage to the US, too.
The pair’s success has already sparked a small-scale frenzy for baseball in India, a land more usually associated with cricket.
Rinku Singh, 19, of India throws during a workout in Tempe, Arizona
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
‘Burgh thing?
LMAO !!
Spearchuckers? That’s racist!
Oh, they really do throw spears? Never mind!
These two kids were throwing pretty hard (89 for the winner and 87 for the other guy, I believe) especially considering they really have no idea how to throw. If you can teach them some mechanics, they might be able to get into the upper 90s.
I doubt they’ll ever go anywhere, but it does make for an interesting story.
That kind of has the same hollow ring as, the Detroit Lions, the four-time NFL Champions.
Can you imagine the reaction to this headline had these two spearchuckers been from Africa? LOL!!!
Count me in the minority, but I'm betting that at least one of these guys makes it to the big show. What they lack in experience and coaching, they'll make up in grit and determination.
Call me old, but it wasn't that long ago that the "experts" said the Japanese would never get a position player into the major leagues. One of the things I love about baseball is that hard work and determination will often make up for size and raw talent.
Hmmm, looks like the pirates are looking to India to help keep the payroll down!
No. You aren't.
I’ve always wondered how hard it would be to “retrain” a cricket player to become a baseball player. It seems that the hand-eye coordination is already there.
This guy is probably already better than anybody on the Texas Rangers’ pitching staff.
A UK publication. If they wanted to be pejorative, they would have used “wog.”
People use to say that Japanese could never make it in the Majors.
To the gentleman that said that these two fine young Indians are better than anyone on the Texas Rangers payroll, you are SO RIGHT Sir!!
Texas Rangers need to be disbanded and the stadium sold to a local high school.
In a sports proud town where the Cowboys and the Stars have won world championships and the Mavs at the very least reached the NBA Finals, the Rangers stand alone as Tom Hicks personal lackeys who are incapable of doing anything.
Heck I am surprised they find their way to work every morning.
Umm.. If they get into the mid-upper 90s, they are going somewhere.
Rumor has it that GWB may buy back the Rangers from Hicks, who needs to cash to buy out Liverpool.
Nope.
No wonder Pittsburgh hasn’t been able to field a decent team in 20 years. This is how they scout players?
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