Indian pitchers Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, neither of whom had picked up a baseball until earlier this year, signed free-agent contracts on Monday with major league team Pittsburgh Pirates.
The two 20-year-olds came to the US six months ago after being the top finishers in an Indian reality TV show called the Million Dollar Arm, which drew about 30,000 contestants. The show sought to find athletes who could throw strikes at 85mph (134kph) or faster.
While neither pitcher threw hard enough to earn the US$1 million prize, Singh made US$100,000 from the contest and Patel made US$2,500, plus his trip to the US.
PHOTO: AP
The contest was sponsored by a California sports management company that believed it could locate major league-worthy arms in a country of more than 1 billion. After working extensively with Southern California pitching coach Tom House since May, the pitchers staged a tryout in Tempe, Arizona on Nov. 6 that was attended by 30 major league scouts.
“The Pirates are committed to creatively adding talent to our organization,” Pirates general manager Neal Huntington said on Monday.
“By adding these two young men, the Pirates are pleased to not only add two prospects to our system but also hope to open a pathway to an untapped market. We are intrigued by Patel’s arm strength and Singh’s frame and potential,” he said.
PHOTO: AP
Neither pitcher has taken the mound in a game situation but have pitched in practice matches against junior college competition.
Both threw the javelin in India, a country best known for producing cricket players, and neither had left his small village before coming to the US.
The 1.8m, 84kg Patel hit 145 kph on the radar gun during his tryout, and 1.95m, 88kg Singh topped out at 135 kph.
Each has thrown harder during workout sessions that weren’t attended by scouts.
“Think of them as two Dominican kids,” House told the scouts. “They’re very raw. But I think this has a huge upside.”
When they first came to the US and began playing catch, the pitchers were mystified by the concept of gloves and had to be taught not to try to catch the ball with their bare hands.
Despite being more than raw, the Indian duo were signed by well-known agent Jeff Borris, who was attracted by their potential after watching them train.
Borris estimates they will need three to four years of minor league experience before becoming major league ready.
Patel and Singh are learning English, most of which they have picked up from watching ESPN’s Baseball Tonight and by taking online classes.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier