Pirates Sign Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, First Indian Professional Baseball Players

It's official, the Pittsburgh Pirates have gone global. They haven't signed a working agreement with those rowdy fellows in Somalia who share their nickname nor have they followed so many others into Latin America or Japan. No, the Pirates are tapping more remote outposts. They signed a South African shortstop earlier this fall and now they're hitting the world's second most populous country. They signed Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel today, making the duo the first two Indian-born athletes to sign professional baseball contracts.

Singh and Patel caught the eye of the baseball world by winning an Indian reality TV show called Million Dollar Arm, which was run by Barry Bonds' marketing agent. Singh won, brought Patel with him to the U.S. and both had a tryout in front of scouts. Pittsburgh GM Neal Huntington saw enough to roll the dice.

"We are intrigued by Patel's arm strength and Singh's frame and potential. These young men have improved a tremendous amount in their six-month exposure to baseball, and we look forward to helping them continue to fulfill their potential."

In addition to their mound skills, Singh and Patel are also wickedly good bloggers (much thanks to Walkoff Walk for sharing their genius with the world). The Pirates are hoping they turn out better than Patel's blog review of Rock n Rolla: "it was supposed to be big action, but it was no action at all."

Even if they never make it to the big leagues, the Pirates just became India's most popular baseball team, which ought to be good for some outsourcing opportunities -- Jack Wilson, welcome to Mumbai! -- if nothing else.