Indians in Baseball (And I'm not talking about the ones in Cleveland)

Here at IHOB, our goal since the beginning (like 2 weeks ago) has been to provide good, relevant baseball knowledge with a bit of international flair. It has occurred to me that we've lacked some level of international news, so here's a bit.

When you think of sports in India, many of you may think of cricket, soccer, or some other sport that isn't baseball. You've thought correctly, as baseball is hardly played at all in India. However, being a nation of over 1 billion people, in theory, at least a few of them should be very good baseball players because of absurd God-given talent. This was the logic JB Bernstein, a sports agent who organized the Indian reality TV show The Million Dollar Arm, a show aimed at finding the best pitchers in India, with the prize being the ability to come to the United States and hone their incredibly raw pitching skills. There was also a $100,000 first prize. The winners of the contest became the first two Indians to ever sign with a major league baseball organization. They are two very promising young Indian pitching prospects, both of which have since signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. The first, Rinku Singh, is a skinny, 6' 0" left hander who has a fastball that has reached the low 90's. He is only 20 years old, and is still less polished as a pitcher than many Latin American teenagers that have been being signed by major league teams for years. The second Indian pitcher is Dinesh Patel, a more muscular, 5' 11" right handed pitcher who has also eclipsed the 90 MPH mark. Patel is 19 years old, and is also extremely raw as a pitcher, with enormous upside and room for improvement. Once both of these pitchers are able to develop a more balanced and crafty repertoire, including the addition of a couple of breaking pitches, they may prove to be major-league caliber. It should also be mentioned that the first time Dinesh Patel threw a baseball, he was able to reach the mid-80's, and while I cannot say whether Singh had also never thrown a baseball before the competition, he also reached the mid-80's initially.

Given the poise and willingness to learn that these 2 men have exhibited thus far in their American odyssey, it is safe to say that they may very well develop into two very formidable young pitchers in the next several years, with proper training and a bit of luck. Considering the rural poor that they both came from, they are grateful for every day that they are able to spend being paid to play baseball, and will undoubtedly play ball the right way, with joy and gratitude for their ability to be paid to play a game. Whether these two ever reach the major leagues is at this point relatively immaterial, they are already pioneers and representatives for their country, and have made names for themselves in the baseball history books as the first Indians to sign with a major league team.