Biography of Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, first professional Indian MLB baseball players
The biographies of Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh, the first Indians playing professional baseball in MLB, are true rags to riches stories. Explore the wiki biography and career profile of Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel to know how two Indians never hearing of baseball ended up in Pittsburgh Pirates in Major League Baseball.
The story of Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, two Indian village boys making it to the highest level professional baseball for Pittsburgh Pirates in the Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States, is a real life rags to riches story. From their lower middle class backgrounds in Uttar Pradesh, they succeeded to become India's first professional baseball players in any American professional football club, let apart the Major League Baseball. Here you can learn more about the biography of Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh, their career statistics, and personal profiles. Keep reading!Biography and career profile of Rinku Singh, Indian baseball player in MLB
The biography of Rinku Singh truly exemplifies how opportunities, and moreover the right use of the opportunities, can turn one's life. Singh's father was a poor truck driver, and could hardly earn about Rs. 1000/- ($25) per week. The turn in Rinku Singh's life came with an Indian reality TV show, The Million Dollar Arm, organized by the American sports agent J.B. Bernstein, with a goal to locate people with abilities to throw baseball fast and accurately. Rinku Singh had never heard of baseball before, neither it was possible for him to hear of MLB, coming from a poor family in a Bhadohi village in Uttar Pradesh. Still, Rinku Singh managed to win the contest out of more than 37 thousands contestants, by managing to throw the baseball at a speed of 87 prize per hour, with Dinesh Patel coming up as the runner up.
Having won the contest and receiving the prize money worth $100,000, Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel were taken to Los Angeles to be trained in pitching and other aspects of baseball with Tom House, the famous coach of the University of Southern California, who had the glory to train internationally acclaimed pitchers like Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson.Biography and career profile of Dinesh Patel, Pittsburgh Pirates, Major League Baseball
The biography of Dinesh Patel followed almost the same trajectory like that of Rinku Singh. Coming from a Lucknow middle-class family, Dinesh Patel too had never heard of the game of Baseball. However, standing second in The Million Dollar Arm baseball throwing Indian reality TV show designed to find out potential baseball talents in India, next to Rinku Singh, Patel also ensured his ticket to Los Angels to become a right handed pitcher of the Pittsburg Pirates team, MLB. Baseball career statistics of Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, first Indian pitchers in MLB
Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel had to undergo a trial in November 2008 where Singh managed to pitch as fast as 92 miles per hour. The ensuing appreciations from the Pittsburgh Pirates scouts Joe Ferrone and Sean Campbell led the Indian duo to sign contracts with Pittsburgh Pirates, before the manager Neal Huntington. Thus, Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel became the first Indians in American Major League Baseball. On July 13, 2009, Rinku Singh became the first Indian pitcher winning a MLB game as he struck out the only batter who faced him. Rinku Singh's baseball career in the 2009 season finished with a 1-2 record as well as a 5.84 ERA in 11 games, which was pretty impressive. Next year in 2010 he managed to go 2-0 with a 2.61 ERA over 13 games with the Pirates GCL affiliate. In August 2010, Rinku Singh was promoted and in the 2010-11 season he played for the Canberra Cavalry of the Australian Baseball League, where he scored 1-0 with a 3.94 ERA in 16 innings.
However, Dinesh Patel's baseball career was not as impressive as that of his partner. He finished the 2009 season with Pirates with a 1-0 record and 1.42 ERA. His 2010 season was even less impressive, and he was released by Pittsburgh Pirates in November 2010.
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