Sure, it’s a nice story, interesting concept, and a legitimately good, plausible idea. But it would have been an even better one, had the real, actual results amounted to any actual success.
SPOILER ALERT: the two Indian guys that Million Dollar Arm is about didn’t amount to anything in professional baseball. Neither of them advanced beyond the low minor leagues, and for all intents and purposes are no longer pitching professionally; Dinesh Patel flamed out in 2010, and Rinku Singh may or may not still be pitching, but not for anyone in the United States, and hasn’t since 2012.
Sure, baseball is a beautiful and wonderful game, and it is often hard to not romanticize the analogies and the metaphors that the game provides, which makes it easy for there to be a demand to make movies about the sport. Regardless, that kind of realistic information isn’t going to stop Hollywood, or Disney from making a film to exploit the story of how such results came to fruition, without actually getting to that part.
After all, one of the guys glorified in Moneyball, a guy named Jeremy Brown, was given the royal treatment in plot, but nothing is mentioned of his eventual reality, which was floundering in the minor leagues for six years, before calling it quits in 2007; but at least he got to sniff the major leagues for a handful of games, replacing someone who was injured, before getting sent right back as soon as they were activated again.
The irony is that I would bet money that Million Dollar Arm isn’t going to give enough focus on the two guys playing the discovered Indian pitchers who chased an outlandish dream to America, as much as the cameras are going to be rolling on Mr. McHugeDong himself, Jon Hamm. I like Mad Men and Jon Hamm for the matter, but ultimately the story is not about him, but the idea that a country with a population as high as the country of India should be able to procure a handful of individuals with the natural athletic prowess to throw a baseball with high velocity and accuracy. I have a jaded suspicion that the film will be produced in a manner that takes a little too much away from the original plot, and finds ways to ensure an inordinate amount of screen time for Hamm and his McHugeDong.
I have to imagine that they’re really not going to have much choice than to go that route, because of the way the story actually transpires. Jeremy Brown’s role in Moneyball was kind of a melancholy footnote, but definitely not the main plot of the entire movie. That’s not the case with Million Dollar Arm.
People who sort of know how minor league baseball works, tend to have at least heard about the “A-system,” and how there’s A, AA, and AAA, before making it to the major leagues. In reality, there are typically a total of six or seven levels for most organizations, starting with a coastal league, rookie league, short-season A, Low-A, High-A, AA, and AAA.
Dinesh Patel spent two years in the Gulf Coast League, which is the lowest rung of the professional baseball. He appeared in a grand total of a whopping 15 games, and his earned run average 5.27, which for all intents and purposes is not good. He was cut and although Wikipedia states he’s trying to teach baseball to youths back in India, it’s safe to say he’s done.
Rinku Singh fared a little better than Patel did, lasting four seasons in American pros before vanishing. He ascended through the Gulf Coast League, short-season A, and made it all the way to Low-A, where he played parts of two seasons with the West Virginia Power, before his eventual cut. Overall his numbers weren’t terrible; they were vastly better than Patel’s numbers, which makes it obvious to why he lasted two more years, but in the grand spectrum of the game, they weren’t so spectacular, that he had any chance to be a difference maker with the Pirates organization. He struck out three guys for every one he walked, which isn’t bad, and his ERA was 2.99 which also isn’t bad, but “isn’t bad” also isn’t what the major leagues are looking for, because they’re looking for “very good” and better. Singh was eventually cut, and persevered by going to play professionally in Australia, but there’s no further word on what he’s doing today.
The point is, the original concept and story was an interesting one, and one definitely worth trying, but it was still ultimately driven by greed. If it were truly about the pursuit of making baseball into an actual global sport, that would be one thing, but the underlying ambition was that there was lots of potential money to be made from the country of India. Sure, Dinesh didn’t look like he was going anywhere, but as far as Patel was actually concerned, I’ve seen many, many worse relief pitchers take the mound than what Patel could have accomplished had he continued to develop and grow. But I think when MLB realized that low-A baseball is kind of hard for people in India to actually watch, considering it’s not televised, and when the investment wasn’t panning out, he got the axe.
This wouldn’t be the first time in professional sport that a league has exploited a country’s citizen to draw his fellow countrymen into ratings, web hits and potential merchandise, only to cut them in the 11th hour, when they’ve felt like they’ve bilked enough without having to actually commit.
I bet they won’t talk about that reality in Million Dollar Arm, either.
