Pirates and Indians...sadly no Peter Pan.

Link to Article
Two 20-year-old pitchers, neither of whom had picked up a baseball until earlier this year, signed free-agent contracts Monday with the Pirates. They are believed to be the first athletes from India to sign professional baseball contracts outside their country.
Singh and Patel came to the United States six months ago after being the top finishers in an Indian reality TV show called the “Million Dollar Arm” that drew about 30,000 contestants. The show sought to find athletes who could throw strikes at 85 miles per hour or faster.
While neither pitcher threw hard enough to earn the $1 million prize, Singh made $100,000 from the contest and Patel made $2,500, plus his trip to the United States.

Alright, it is admittedly not as interesting as our Somali sea-faring stories, but now we have Indians (dot) and Pirates. No B.S.

“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 United States 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.

No, seriously, this sounds like an awesome idea. Just like 2 Dominican kids? Guessing that means that Rinku is 33 and Dinesh is 41. See, they even sound Dominican.

The signings represent a shift in policy for the Pirates, who have mostly ignored nontraditional markets such as Asia for players.

And here we thought the Pirates just ignored the traditional and nontraditional markets containing talented players altogether.



I am rooting for a trade to Cleveland. "Okay guys, here are you uniforms...any questions?"