Down in the Gulf Coast League, something interesting is happening with the Pittsburgh Pirates GCL team. They now have two relievers who are the first Indian born players to ever play professional baseball. So how did they get there? They won a game show in India!
The show began in November 2007 looking for cricket players who could thrown not only the fastest, but also the most accurate. Kids between the ages of 15-25 showed up to try out (nearly 30,000 entrants). Through a series of eliminations, it came down to two players, Rinku Singh (the winner) and Dinesh Patel (the runner up). Both players came over to the united states last year in order to train for their tryouts in front of 20 major league scouts. The Pirates liked what the saw (Singh was said to have hit 92 MPH on the radar gun)
The Pirates liked what they saw and placed them with the Pirates GCL team. The have both since made their professional debuts. Singh so far in just 3 inngs of work is 1-0 and 3 strikeouts. Unfortunately he has also given up 4 earned runs. Patel has faired better, Patel in just 2 1/3 innings has struck out 2 and only allowed one hit. I have no idea what’s going to happen with these two, but it’s fun to see how they fair against the first competition they have ever faced.
I decided to make a card for the two in case you want to do a through the mail autograph request.
