It's official, the Pittsburgh Pirates have gone global. They haven't signed a working agreement with those rowdy fellows in Somalia who share their nickname nor have they followed so many others into Latin America or Japan. No, the Pirates are tapping more remote outposts. They signed a South African shortstop earlier this fall and now they're hitting the world's second most populous country. They signed Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel today, making the duo the first two Indian-born athletes to sign professional baseball contracts. Singh and Patel caught the eye of the baseball world by winning an Indian reality TV show called Million Dollar Arm, which was run by Barry Bonds' marketing agent. Singh won, brought Patel with him to the U.S. and both had a tryout in front of scouts. Pittsburgh GM Neal Huntington saw enough to roll the dice.
"We are intrigued by Patel's arm strength and Singh's frame and potential. These young men have improved a tremendous amount in their six-month exposure to baseball, and we look forward to helping them continue to fulfill their potential."In addition to their mound skills, Singh and Patel are also wickedly good bloggers (much thanks to Walkoff Walk for sharing their genius with the world). The Pirates are hoping they turn out better than Patel's blog review of Rock n Rolla: "it was supposed to be big action, but it was no action at all."
Even if they never make it to the big leagues, the Pirates just became India's most popular baseball team, which ought to be good for some outsourcing opportunities -- Jack Wilson, welcome to Mumbai! -- if nothing else.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-24-2008 @ 10:58PM
bakatron said...
jeez did he goto the WRONG country for pitching. next door is pakistan which has the better throwing arms in the region.
for clumping the ball around for miles... i really want to see a program where they convert an indian batsman into a major league ready baseball player. the dividends will be amazing for any major league team. the talent for batting in india is mindboggling.
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11-24-2008 @ 11:00PM
bakatron said...
this is from a fan that does understand both cricket and baseball well enough that feels that you can convert cricket into baseball players (however not vice versa).
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11-24-2008 @ 11:36PM
gd said...
bakatron: interesting proposition; I've been called the best American born batsman several South Africans have ever seen. I think the reverse is true though. It is quite easy to guard the wickett and wait for your pitch. Also the crickett bat, with its large flat area is easier to make contact with. However I was a pitiful baseball player with a goofy swing that was perhaps tailor made for crickett. Its really the fielders (or whatever they are called in Crickett, I think maybe the slip , 3/4 slip) they catch a wooden ball bare handed.
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11-25-2008 @ 1:21AM
bakatron said...
gd - ive always felt that a good slip fielder is akin to a good shortstop. i find being a good infielder in baseball to be pretty challenging since its really requires a level of flexibility not seen in cricket fielding. likewise, slip asks a person to instantly react to a ball coming a persons way.
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11-25-2008 @ 4:12PM
gd said...
Bakatron- are there any baseball leagues in SW Asia? As populat as crickett is perhaps it would make a good off season game (unless it would mess up the crickett swing playing baseball). The slips would make great 3rd basemen becuse if you can knock the cross beam of the wickett off with a throw (I'm really showing my ignorance here) you can hit a 1st basemans mit. If the Pirates started a developmental league in the region it might yield incredible dividends in 5 to 10 years as well as start some baseball diplomacy. Thanks for the article. GD
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12-26-2008 @ 10:40AM
Prateek Sharma said...
It makes a good storyline but Baseball is unlikely to find fans in India. Indians are far too much glued to cricket, where runs get scored all the time and games change within minutes. They would rather watch the abridged and bam-bam version of cricket - Twenty-Twenty. I reckon if you take a random sample of Indians and make them view baseball, 99 out of 100 will begin yawning in under 10 minutes.
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