Living their dream

A tale of two boys from a small town in Uttar Pradesh trying to make a career in major league baseball.

Eleven months ago, when Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel came to New Delhi from Lucknow to participate in a competition called the Million Dollar Arm, they had no clue what baseball was. In fact, they had not seen a baseball ever. Being trained as javelin throwers, somebody suggested they take part in the competition as the prize money was good. What they didn’t know was that they would be heading off to Los Angeles for a six-month training stint with the best baseball coaches in America.

“We thought since we could throw long and hard, why not give it a shot, since the money was good,” says the 20-year old Singh. More than 30,000 people turned up for the competition, which Singh won and Patel ended as a runner up, with the former getting $100,000 and the latter $2,500.

“It felt like a dream, winning the competition and coming here to try a hand at baseball,” says Singh. The initial days were an uphill struggle. Being far away from home, in a foreign country, getting trained at a game, which people don’t play even in metropolitan cities so forget small town India! Both of them worked hard, trying to learn the basics right and get acquainted with the game.

They come from a village near Lucknow called Bhadohi and a life full of hardships, with Singh’s father being a truck driver and Patel’s a tailor. “We had a hard life but never complained,” says Patel. “Sometimes, it feels too good to be true, to be living in Florida and playing baseball.”

If you thought that just with a strong throwing arm, one could carve a career in baseball, you couldn’t have been more wrong. Something which both these guys thought as well. The first six months included heavy duty training, which they somehow coped with.

Then came the real test. Scouts from various teams were called to take a look at these kids, who had come from a country, where baseball is thought of as a “weird version of cricket”. The result? Nerves got to the teenagers and they performed abysmally. “We just couldn’t perform and thought that we had blown our chances,” says Patel.

But their manager, Jeff Bernstein, a sports agent as well as the man behind Million Dollar Arm, coaxed the scouts to come again after two months. This time they knew that it was going to be a make-or-break opportunity for them. As Bernstein, says it was always going to be a massive challenge for them to convince people of their ability. And they did manage to convince them. They consistently pitched the ball at 90mph (more than good as per as baseball standards) and the scouts were impressed.

The Pittsburgh Pirates selected both of them for their roster. “It was a fantastic feeling to have been selected,” says Patel. Though they are still a part of their minor league team, they want to make it big. “As of now, we want to give it our best shot and leave the rest to god,” says Singh. It’s a laudable achievement to be picked by a team in a relatively short space of time. But long term, it will be difficult to have a professional career in baseball with a major league team, a fact they are aware of. “We will work hard and see where it takes us,” says Patel.

They miss home a lot, and do keep in regular touch with their family. Their village is now on the global map thanks to their exploits and the “family is extremely proud of them”. Though Patel says that his family members think that he is out in the US playing “some sport”. I ask them, were they scared ever? “No sir,” pat comes the reply. Of course, language was going to be their biggest barrier — and continues to be so. But they are picking up English slowly and do manage to converse with their coach and team mates.

A routine day for them includes eight hours of training and practice, something which they enjoy thoroughly. Then it’s back to their room. I ask them what they miss most from India. Hindi movies? No, that they regularly watch on their computers.

“We miss our families the most,” comes the expected reply. And you can feel it in their voice, when they talk about their days in their village. But America has been fascinating for them, and everything out there, they say, is nice. “It’s just so wonderful that sometimes I still think that this is a dream,” they sign off. Their story is the stuff of dreams, but the difference is that they are living their dream and working hard to make it better!