Dinesh Patel Biography 
Dinesh Patel, along with Rinku Singh is the first Indian sportsman to sign a contract with a major American sports club. He is a right-handed baseball pitcher who played for Pittsburgh Pirates. Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh are the two Indian javelin throwers signed by the Pirates after they won a baseball reality show, The Million Dollar Arm, an Indian reality television show, to find new baseball talent. Dinesh was released in late 2010 while Rinku Singh, is still in the Pirates’ organization. He now teaches students baseball in Delhi.
Dinesh was born in Lucknow in 1989 in a very poor family. As his parents were not able to raise him, he was left at his maternal grandfather’s home. Thus his childhood days were spent aside his grandmother in Khanpur. Since the age of 14, he started practising javelin throw at Sampurnanand Sports Stadium in Sigra and got selected for a regional game in 2004. He won gold medal at National School Games at Pune in 2006, thus beginning a successful career in javelin throw.
His association with Rinku Singh began in 2008 for 20 Major League Baseball teams in November. In 2008, he participated in ‘The Million Dollar Arm’- reality show contest in India that featured more than 37,000 contestants. Singh won the competition by throwing an 87-mph fastball and the pair was signed by Pittsburgh Pirates. They both were trained at Bradenton, Florida and later they played for the Pirates' Gulf Coast League team. Dinesh was able to build a new home for his family and improved its financial status as well. After returning to India in 2010, he hopes to begin throwing the javelin again and also a government job. The sports film, Million Dollar Arm is inspired from the true journey of both these Indian players.
Published: N/A
Updated: June 24, 2014
