UP truck driver’s son wins baseball pitcher contest-and $100,000

The failed-cricketer-turned-javelin-thrower won today the Indian leg of the ‘Million Dollar Arm’ baseball contest, an American initiative to tap the Cricket crazy-continent to tide over a dearth of quality pitchers, and that’s when the organisers asked Rinku about his bankers.

With none of the 26 finalists able to match Rinku’s 87 mph effort, the Bhadohi boy’s life took an unexpected turn. In a month’s time, Rinku will move to San Francisco where top pros will iron out the flaws in his raw pitching technique for about a year. This will be followed by Rinku, along with other regional winners of the global contest, being showcased before representatives of 30 major league baseball teams who might want to sign the rookie.

J B Bernstein, the agent and managing director of Seven Figures Management, the co-organiser of the talent hunt, has a smile on his face when he says that Rinku has taken an elevator in life. “I have been holding such events across the globe but have never come across a winner who doesn’t have a bank account. But I tell you, if this kid works hard he might need more than one account to manage his money,” he says.

Rinku calls himself an all-round sportsman who was concentrating on athletics at the Lucknow Sports Hostel. “I met Suresh Raina and RP Singh there and they asked me to take up bowling. But since I could never quite straighten my arm I took to hurling the javelin,” says the boy who just a few months ago came to know that a powerful throw with a bent arm can be a big asset in this alien sport called baseball.

Ken Huth, the baseball coach linked with the event, speaks highly of Rinku the pitcher. “He showed a great determination in learning, otherwise it is...