Guru Gobind Singh Sports College
The Guru Gobind Singh Sports College is in the news as two of its students are signed to become pirates. No not the Somali kind of pirates, but players for the Pittsburgh Pirates, five times World Series Champions.
Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel are notable prospects mostly because they are prospects. They’re both from India - students at the Guru Govind Singh Sports College - who entered The Million Dollar Arm contest, brainchild of current USC pitching coach Tom House. They beat out 30,000 other Indian prospects, each winning $100,000 and a trip to the United States, where they have been training since May.
- Yahoo sports blog
From the Hindustan Times
Two Indian teenagers created history in the US sports Monday when they were signed up by prestigious baseball team Pittsburgh Pirates, five times World Series Champions, as professional players.
Rinku Singh, 20, and Dinesh Kumar Patel, 19, were signed up by the Pirates after the duo emerged winner of the "Million Dollar Arm" contest held in India, in which more than 30,000 Indian youth participated.
The person who could throw the most pitches 85 miles per hour or faster for strikes was adjudged the winner.
"Singh and Patel are the first-ever Indian-born players to sign a professional sports contract outside of the country, which has a population of more than 1.1 billion people," Pittsburgh Pirates said in a statement.
Singh and Patel, who were born in Bhadohi and Varanasi, respectively, in Uttar Pradesh, were brought to the United States in May after the contest and trained by the club's trainers.
Singh is the youngest of the nine children in his family, while Patel comes from a family of five brothers and sisters. Neither of them knew English when they came to the US and picked up the language by watching Baseball Tonight and by taking online classes.
"It's a dream come true," Patel was quoted as saying by USA Today. "We're very happy that we get to stay together," Singh said, adding it will make it "easier for both of us".
Baseball is the national sport of the United States of America.
The best I can tell from reading about them they were training in Olympic sports at Guru Gobind Singh Sports College as they had been throwing javelins and had never seen a baseball. Watching their blog it was obvious that they were not use to big city life, at least not a city as big as Los Angeles. One of the things they got to attend was a game at the University of Southern California Trojans, where tickets are hard to come by and can cost hundreds of dollars if the scalpers have any. They also were amazed at the gathering of the fans that often can't get tickets and park around the stadium in what is called a tailgate party, where everyone cooks and shares a big feast for everyone.
Also
Check out their blog Our Baseball Yatra; http://www.themilliondollararm.com/blog/
