Pirates Sign Indian Pitchers from Reality Show

The 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 sports 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 mph 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.

7 months ago Stacey Comment 4 comments 0 recs |

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fer real?

http://www.themilliondollararm.com/blog/

"When people ask me what my motivation is, I have a simple answer: Money."

--Jerry Reed, on acting

by j.q. higgins on Nov 26, 2008 9:53 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, this seems on the level

Walkoff Walk has been following these guys for months.

by Brotz13 on Nov 26, 2008 10:13 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

That blog is hilarious

http://www.themilliondollararm.com/blog/?p=266

The American Football players are so big and have such huge muscles you would not even believe it. Each time they hit each other we are told it is like being in a car accident. These men hit each other many times per match. praise Allah that we have won a baseball contest and a not a football one. i don’t think we could even take a hitting once.

by PhilR8 on Nov 26, 2008 12:30 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I read like the whole thing

almost right after I read the news that they’d been signed. They still have no comments!

I was mostly looking for “Coming to America” type humor, and there’s a good bit of it in there. The “Barry Bonds Sir” really cracked me up. I was happy to hear that they LAUGH at Public Displays of Affection. I was worried that they’d consider it evil or something.

Anyway, I really hope these guys succeed now, I’ll be watching.

I hope we can learn from them as much as they have learned from us…. :)

The stock market will never recover, our armies will never again be #1, and our children will drink filthy water for the rest of their lives - HST

by the fix is in on Nov 26, 2008 4:48 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs