Remember Nomomania? Consider that India has nine times the population of Japan, and you can see the possibilities here.
The Pittsburgh Pirates signed pitchers Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, who had never picked up a Baseball until this year but won a contest on Indian TV and have been training at USC with pitching guru Tom House. The "Million Dollar Arm" challenge began in December through JB Bernstein, Barry Bonds' marketing agent. It offered $100,000 plus instruction to the winner, defined as someone who could throw 85 mph or higher for strikes. Singh, a 19-year-old left-hander, was the best of 30,000 entrants. But scouts saw enough in Patel, a 20-year-old right-hander, that they gave him $25,000 and brought him along.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the Pirates signed the pitchers for about $20,000 each.
"They have potential, but they're very raw," Pirates G.M. Neal Huntington told the Post-Gazette. "There are a lot of things to cover. They've only had six months of Baseball experience. They probably wonder why they have to cover first base on a ground ball hit to the right side, but they love the game."
The players have been learning English by watching "Baseball Tonight." English? Is that what John Kruk and Steve Phillips are speaking?
