Rinku Singh
| Rinku Singh | |||
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| Pittsburgh Pirates | |||
| Pitcher | |||
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Born: August 8, 1988 Lucknow, India |
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Rinku Singh (born August 8, 1988 in Lucknow, India) is a left-handed baseball pitcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. Singh was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates organization after he won a pitching contest on a 2008 reality television show, The Million Dollar Arm. He was the first Indian to play professional baseball and has spent several seasons in the minor leagues, reaching as high as the level. He is the subject of the movie Million Dollar Arm.
Singh grew up in poverty, the son of a truck driver, in a rural village in Bhadohi. Singh was one of nine siblings who all lived in the family's one-room house. The home had electricity but relied on well water. Singh threw javelin and played cricket as a child. He was a junior national javelin medalist. In early 2008, Singh entered an Indian reality television show, The Million Dollar Arm. The contest was created by American sports agent J. B. Bernstein and his partners Ash Vasudevan and Will Chang to find the individual in the country who could throw the fastest and most accurate baseball. Having never heard of baseball before, Singh won the contest out of over 37,000 participants after throwing 87 miles per hour. The grand prize for the contest was $100,000.
After winning the contest, Singh and runner-up Dinesh Patel travelled to Los Angeles where they trained with University of Southern California pitching coach Tom House, who trained pitchers such as Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson. Singh said that most of his family did not agree with his decision to go to the United States. On their first day in the United States the two attended their first baseball game at Southern California. They continued to learn the game from House and Bernstein, as well as learning English.
Singh, along with Patel, tried out in front of scouts from 20 Major League Baseball teams in November 2008, and Singh's pitches reached 92 miles per hour (148 km/h). Reports from Pittsburgh Pirates scouts Joe Ferrone and Sean Campbell led to general manager Neal Huntington signing both to contracts with the organization. With the deal, the pair became the first Indians to sign American major league baseball contracts. The total signing bonus for the two was $8,000. After training, the two returned to visit their families in India before entering Pirates training camp in Bradenton, Florida. Singh and Patel began the 2009 baseball season with the Pirates' Gulf Coast League affiliate.
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