- ‹ previous
- 1063 of 7915
- next ›
Major League Baseball Catches Outsourcing Fever
Or maybe this is better described as insourcing....
The Pittsburgh Pirates hope Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel really do have million-dollar arms.
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 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.
The article notes that when Singh and Patel (picture) first came to the United States and began playing catch, they "were mystified by the concept of gloves and had to be taught not to try to catch the ball with their bare hands." But the article also notes that the pair has athletic experience throwing the javelin, so this will definitely end well.
Digg
Reddit
Twitter
Facebook
Buzz Up!
StumbleUpon
MySpace
LinkedIn
Delicious
Furl
Google
Yahoo
Probably not of much interest to anyone, but, of course, cricket comes to mind.
India, at 1.3 billion, is bigger than the whole baseball market, yet is also the biggest base for cricket, which otherwise is only popular in any large numbers through Pakistan, the Carribbean islands, the UK, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, Australia and New Zealand. An additional 360 million odd.
Cricket is an odd game, but so is baseball. And I know US fans don't like to know this, but they're both British games.
Over the 50 odd years I've known the game the Indians are better known for their slow spin bowlers, which requires very specific ball grip and wrist snap at release, combined with extreme accuracy. Yet you cannot succeed at cricket without fast bowlers, which India has certainly also had.
In case you are interested, fast bowlers, from a run, comfortably exceed 100 mph, lauching the ball with as much complexity, or more, as baseball from a shorter distance to the batsman. This also requires controlled specific grip, snap and accuracy.
Baseball is combining those homegrown Indian skill sets. And they practice those skills from childhood, much as kids played stickball so long ago here, in the streets or any space, just for fun, free of over-controlling coaching.
The average Indian highschool cricket bowler may well understand more about gripping and moving the ball than a similar US highschool pitcher. We'll see if they transfer those to the US professional game.
Don't underrate their athletic abilities. With a set of two, much depends on their coaching and training to measure success.
Good luck to Rinku and Dinesh.
I guess I'd be sad to see cricket decline, but not if baseball had a real world series.
If you'd gone without a winning season since the early 1990's, you'd be thinking creatively too. It's not like they can just outbid the Yankees.
I think major league
I think major league baseball has another problem thats all the steroids for sale and their players using them and not getting in any trouble and simply giving an apology in the olympics you lose your medals.