Indian Pitchers Make Professional Debut

The video posted above seems like wholly unremarkable footage from a generic Gulf Coast League game between the Pirates and Yankees affiliates. That's until you realize that the pitcher for the Pirates is Rinku Singh and the first pitch thrown in that video is in fact the first professional pitch thrown by a native of India in a professional baseball game. Both Singh and his countryman Dinesh Patel made their professional debuts, fittingly enough, on the Fourth of July.

Their debuts came approximately a year after winning an Indian TV reality show that gave them a chance to pitch in front of big league scouts. Despite all of the jokes that were made at the Pirates' expense when the signings were made in November, both pitchers pretty much look like typical 19-year-olds out on the mound. The duo is approximately the same age as most of the Pirates' high school draft picks from 2009 that are playing with the GCL Pirates in Bradenton, as they're both just short of their 19th birthday. Below is a video of Patel inducing a groundout and covering first.



Singh gave up two hits an a run in his inning of work while Patel breezed through an easy 1-2-3 inning needing just nine pitches. Both pitchers are light years away from the majors, but this weekend was a cool first step for Indian baseball and anyone that's a fan of the globalization of the sport.

Hat-tip to Walkoff Walk, who's been all over this story since it started, and of course, Rinku and Dinesh's own Million Dollar Arm Blog, where the videos originated and they regularly post about their adventure in American baseball.