Rinku Singh (baseball)

Early life

Rinku Singh Rajput was born on 8 August 1988 in Gopiganj, Uttar Pradesh, India, in a Rajput Kshatriya family. The son of a truck driver, Singh grew up in poverty in Gopiganj, 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 the javelin and played cricket as a little boy. He was a junior national javelin medalist. Singh is an alumnus of the Guru Gobind Singh Sports College, Lucknow.

In early 2008, Singh entered an Indian reality television show The Million Dollar Arm. The contest was created by an 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.

Professional baseball career

• Gulf Coast League Pirates (2009, 2010, 2011, 2016)
• State College Spikes (2010, 2011)
• Canberra Cavalry (2010–2011)
• West Virginia Power (2011, 2012)
• Adelaide Bite (2011–2012, 2012–2013)
• Dominican Summer League Pirates (2011) 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 mph. After training, the two returned to visit their families in India before entering Pirates training camp in Bradenton, Florida.

On 4 July 2009, Singh became the first Indian citizen to appear in a professional baseball game in the US. He pitched the seventh inning, while Dinesh Patel pitched the eighth inning. On 13 July 2009, Singh won his first professional baseball game in America, striking out the only batter he faced. He finished the season with a 1–2 record and a 5.84 ERA in 11 games, allowing just one run on three hits in his final six appearances.

Singh went 2–0 with a 2.61 ERA over 13 games with the Pirates GCL affiliate in 2010. At the end of August, Singh was promoted to the Pirates Class A Short-Season affiliate, the State College Spikes. He met with US President Barack Obama at a White House Heritage Month event on 24 May 2010. Singh played for the Canberra Cavalry of the Australian Baseball League for the competition's inaugural 2010–11 season, going 1–0 with a 3.94 ERA in 16 innings pitched.

Singh opened the 2011 season in the Dominican Summer League. Singh pitched well in eight games spread over the DSL, Gulf Coast League, and New York–Penn League, then joined the West Virginia Power of the South Atlantic League in July 2011. Singh returned to the Australian Baseball League for the 2011–12 season with the Adelaide Bite. He made the World All-Star team for the 2011 Australian Baseball League All-Star Game. In 2012, he pitched in a career-high 39 games for the Power, throwing 72 innings, earning a 3–1 win–loss record and striking out 65 batters. Singh struggled with injuries and missed the entire 2013 season, but he was invited to 2014 spring training by the Pirates. Singh also missed the entire 2014 season due to Tommy John surgery. Singh also missed all of the 2015 season due to a broken elbow.

The Pirates re-signed Singh on 9 November 2015. He made one appearance for the rookie–level Gulf Coast League Pirates in 2016, pitching one scoreless inning. He elected free agency following the season on 7 November 2016.

Professional wrestling career

On 14 January 2018, Singh signed a contract with American professional wrestling promotion WWE. On 25 March 2020 episode of NXT, Singh, Saurav Gurjar, and manager Malcolm Bivens made their televised debut, attacking NXT Tag Team Champion Matt Riddle. The following week, Bivens introduced them as Rinku and Saurav, while revealing their team name to be Indus Sher (meaning Indian Tigers). On 8 April episode of NXT, Indus Sher defeated Ever-Rise in their debut match. Indus Sher vanished from television after June. At Superstar Spectacle on 22 January 2021, Rinku and Saurav resurfaced and teamed with Drew McIntyre in a six-man tag-team match to defeat Jinder Mahal and The Bollywood Boyz.

On 10 May episode of Raw, Singh, with the new ring name Veer, along with Shanky, would align themselves with Jinder Mahal. During the 2021 Draft, Mahal and Shanky were drafted to the SmackDown brand while Veer remained on the Raw brand, ending their alliance. Now a singles wrestler, Veer's ring name was tweaked to Veer Mahaan. After months of vignettes hyping his debut, Mahaan finally returned to television on 4 April 2022 episode of Raw, attacking Rey and Dominik Mysterio. Mahaan would go on to defeat the Mysterios in separate matches. On the 4 October episode of NXT, Mahaan returned to the developmental brand, teasing a reunion with his former tag team partner Saurav, now known as Sanga. Mahaan returned to the main roster as he and Indus Sher were drafted to the Raw brand in the 2023 WWE Draft. On 18 March 2024 episode of Raw, he and Sanga were defeated by Awesome Truth for a spot in the six-pack ladder match for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania XL. On the 5 April 2024 episode of Smackdown, he appeared in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, where he was eliminated by the Creed Brothers. On 20 April 2024, Mahaan announced that he had been released by WWE, along with the rest of Indus Sher.

Film

Main article: Million Dollar Arm

Singh and Patel's story is the basis for the Walt Disney Pictures sports film Million Dollar Arm, in which Singh was portrayed by Suraj Sharma. In 2009, Columbia Pictures purchased the screen rights to the story of Singh and Patel. The project stalled and eventually producers Joe Roth and Mark Ciardi set the film up at Walt Disney Pictures. Upon acquiring Million Dollar Arm, Disney hired Tom McCarthy to write the film. Jon Hamm played J. B. Bernstein.

Personal life

In 2012, Singh became a vegetarian after he witnessed several men in Bhadohi chasing a chicken in order to kill it. During his baseball career, he said that he recited the Hindu devotional hymn Hanuman Chalisa and listened to the Eminem song "Not Afraid" before pitching.

References

References

1. "Veer".
2. "Veer WWE".
3. (18 February 2021). "Magh Mela: WWE wrestler Rinku Singh Rajput takes holy dip in Sangam".
4. "BaseballAmerica.com: Stats: Rinku Singh". baseballamerica.com.
5. Shah, Wajiha. (31 January 2010). "Bhadohi boy Rinku is English-speaking baseball star of American league". [[The Indian Express]].
6. Rotstein, Gary. (8 December 2008). "The Morning File: The American Dream lives on -- Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel are new Pirates". [[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]].
7. Singh, Anuraag. (25 March 2008). "Rinku's village doesn't know baseball but they're all pitching for him". The Indian Express.
8. "A 'Home Run' for Baseball in India". intoday.in.
9. Vercammen, Paul. (11 December 2008). "Indian pitchers are first for America's national pastime". CNN.
10. Fornelli, Tom. (5 November 2008). "International Pastime: Pitcher Is Latest American Job to Be Outsourced to India". Fanhouse.
11. Langosch, Jenifer. (25 November 2008). "Indian hurlers' inking opens new market". MLB.com.
12. Kovacevic, Dejan. (10 July 2009). "The Bradenton Pirates: They are the world".
13. Staats, Wayne. (6 July 2009). "Patel, Singh make debuts in GCL".
14. (14 July 2009). "Rinku Singh makes history". Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
15. "Rinku Singh stats". Minor League Baseball.
16. Langosh, Jenifer. (30 August 2010). "Minor Matters".
17. (28 May 2010). "Uttar Pradesh baseballers Rinku and Dinesh meet Obama, Ronaldinho". [[The Times of India]].
18. "Individual Player Statistics". Canberra Cavalry Official Website.
19. "Rinku Singh Minor League Statistics & History". [[Baseball-Reference.com]].
20. Bloom, Barry. "'Million Dollar Arm' Singh aiming for Major Leagues". [[MLB.com]].
21. Crasnick, Jerry. (15 May 2014). "Two in a billion: From India to U.S. to big screen: The journeys of Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel". [[ESPN.com]].
22. Tim Williams. "Minor League Injury Updates: Holmes, Heredia, Ramirez, Luplow, Eppler, Frazier, Singh". piratesprospects.com.
23. (April 2015). "Rinku Singh to Miss the 2015 Season". Bucco Nation.
24. (9 November 2015). "Pirates Re-Sign Rinku Singh". Bucco Nation.
25. "Pirates Minor League Free Agents and Why Brandon Cumpton Isn't Eligible".
26. "Former MLB pitcher joins WWE Performance Center".
27. "Indus Sher def. Ever-Rise".
28. (4 June 2020). "WWE NXT Tag Team Were Pulled From TV Because Of Matt Riddle's Main Roster Call-Up".
29. "Former WWE Champion Returns During WWE Raw".
30. "See all the results from the 2021 Draft".
31. Powell, Jason. (4 October 2021). "10/4 WWE Raw Results: Powell's live review of the WWE Draft night two, Goldberg returns, the build to WWE Crown Jewel continues". Pro Wrestling Dot Net.
32. [[WWE]]. (1 November 2021). "VEER MAHAAN COMING TO #WWERaw".
33. Powell, Jason. (4 April 2022). "4/4 WWE Raw results: Powell's live review of the Raw After WrestleMania with Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, the return of Cody Rhodes, new Raw Women's Champion Bianca Belair appears, the "debut" of Veer Mahaan". Pro Wrestling Dot Net.
34. (9 May 2022). "WWE Monday Night Raw Results for May 9th, 2022". WrestlingNews.co.
35. (23 May 2022). "Veer Mahaan dominates opponents: WWE Playlist". [[WWE]].
36. (4 October 2022). "Sanga reunites with his old friend Veer: WWE NXT, Oct. 4, 2022". [[WWE]].
37. (20 April 2024). "Veer Released By WWE". Wrestlezone.
38. (30 May 2013). "Disney's "Million Dollar Arm" begins production". [[The Walt Disney Studios (production company).
39. Sneider, Jeff. (17 April 2013). "'Life of Pi' Star Suraj Sharma Joins Jon Hamm in Disney's 'Million Dollar Arm' (Exclusive)". The Wrap.
40. (1 August 2010). "Sony Making Movie About Pirates' Rinku Singh And Dinesh Patel". SB Nation.
41. (8 February 2011). "Tom McCarthy to Write Sports Drama Million Dollar Arm".
42. (9 May 2012). "Jon Hamm Sports Million Dollar Arm for Disney".
43. (9 May 2012). "'Mad Men's Jon Hamm To Play Sports Deal Maker in Disney's 'Million Dollar Arm'".
44. Ali, Qaiser M.. (5 October 2012). "Baseball player Rinku Singh turns vegetarian ahead of Australian Baseball League". [[India Today]].