We met six years ago, two innocent teenagers who had no idea how to drink from a water fountain, flabbergasted it took only a phone call to deliver pizza to the front door.
They didn't know Babe Ruth from a Baby Ruth candy bar, and were stupefied why the shortstop was always being punished since he was the only infielder without a base.
Their story comes to Hollywood tonight, with Indian pitchers Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel walking onto the red carpet for the Hollywood premiere of Million Dollar Arm.
"It's going to be a very emotional night,'' Patel, who turns 25 Thursday, tells USA TODAY Sports. "It's going to remind me of the old days, and how everything was before.
"Right now, my dreams have come true. Never in my life did I ever think something like this could happen. How can you dream of something like this when you had no dreams?''
Singh and Patel were javelin throwers from rural villages in India, who had never picked up a baseball until 2007, when an American Idol-type promotion aimed to identify a young athlete who might make the unlikely journey to a professional baseball career.
Singh and Patel prevailed, and were signed 13 months later for $10,000 apiece by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Now, they will watch their story unfold on the big screen, depicted by actors Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi) and Madhur Mittal (Slumdog Millionaire).
Jon Hamm, the diehard St. Louis Cardinals fan better known as hard-drinking Don Draper of Mad Men fame, will play the leading role of marketing agent J.B. Bernstein, creator of the contest.
And, oh yeah, six of the baseball scouts not named Alan Arkin are being played by sportswriters, including a USA TODAY Sports scribe who was specifically advised by Hamm to stick to his typing skills. While spending one day on the set one day in Atlanta, my biggest role, Bernstein says, was writing the first major story in a U.S. newspaper on Dinesh and Patel back in November 2008.
"That was highest issue sold,'' Bernstein says, "for any paper in the history of the country.''
It just so happened to be Nov. 5, 2008, with the news that Barack Obama had just become the first African American president in U.S. history.
"I always laugh that the front page,'' Bernstein, 40 says, "is probably the most-kept page in history.
"And the front page of the sport section was probably the most ever thrown out. Don't feel bad, we kept a lot of copies.''
Now, six years later, Disney is making sure that everyone knows about Singh and Patel.
Oh sure, Patel never made the big time in baseball. He was released after the 2010 season. Singh, 25, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery and had a bone chip removed last week from his elbow, has not made it past Class A. Yet, he remains in the Pirates organization, and refuses to give up his goal of becoming the first player from India to ever appear in a major-league game.
"I don't know what will happen in baseball,'' says Singh, who grew up in a one-room house as the youngest of seven children, "but I do know that life-wise and cultural-wise, my life has changed. I'm able to support my family. That's really a big thing for me. You get only one mom and one dad in the world, and you've got to take care of your real mom and dad.
"They were the ones who introduced me to this work, and taking care of them is my biggest responsibility in life.''
Singh's father was earning $25 a month driving a vegetable truck, now is retired at the age of just 49. The family is living in a massive nine-bedroom home, with enough rooms for the entire family.
Patel, whose family lived apart because of their poverty, now has everyone under one roof. That roof, thanks to the movie and book rights, and baseball, is about to become a whole lot larger. He is having a 15-room home built in Varanasi, India, that should be completed this fall.
Patel, who's attending college and is a baseball instructor in India and in China, returned this past week to the USA for a private screening with Dr. S. Jaishankar, India's ambassador to the United States, and Dnyaneshwar M. Mulay, consul General of India.
He and Singh even met President Obama a few years ago. Now, they're getting to know Hollywood.
"I have a good life now,'' says Patel, who learned English watching Baseball Tonight."I didn't make the major leagues, but I have to say, all my dreams have come true.
"If not for the contest and baseball, l would be in the Army.
"This is better than the Army.''
While Patel is carving out his future, Singh says he's apprehensive, and a bit fearful of the future. He still has three months of rehab in Bradenton, Fla., and time is running out to make progress. He has devoted so much of his life now to baseball, he's like any other American minor-leaguer, praying for that one chance to be in the major leagues.
When the movie premiere and parties end tonight, and Singh packs his bags and returns to Bradenton, he hopes the re-entry to reality isn't too bumpy.
He's proven a serviceable pitcher, with a 2.99 earned-run average in 84 career appearances, all in relief. Yet he's 25 and hasn't pitched above Class A, the numbers that work against him the most.
"This is the saddest part of my million-dollar journey,'' says Singh, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound left-hander. "What will I do after that? I ask myself what am I going to do (after baseball) on a daily basis. I'm not afraid of failing, but I'm here to be in baseball.
"I do know that I want to inspire kids, so I'm definitely going to keep doing this as long as I can.''
Still, no matter what happens after the premiere, Singh and Patel realize they opened doors, and inspired dreams. In a country with a population of 1.1 billion, perhaps some Indian youngster will watch and believe they could make it to the big leagues.
"You talk to kids in their villages,'' Bernstein says, "and they have given them hope that they can accomplish great things if they work hard. Their lives have been completely transformed the same way as someone in their country winning the lottery. This movie will make them famous, and will lead to inspirational speaking engagements.
"It's truly amazing what they've already accomplished.''
Even enough to intrigue Hollywood.
"Mind-blowing, isn't it?'' Hamm says.
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