St. Louis' pride and joy, Jon Hamm, is starring in a Disney movie where he plays a desperate sports agent who goes to India to find cricket players who can play baseball. In the process, the kids teach him stuff about life, he falls in love with a nice and intelligent woman, and then he drinks a fifth of whiskey before berating his secretary and bedding his client's wife.
Okay, that last part probably isn't in the movie, but anyone who watches Mad Men will be subconsciously waiting for that scene and be mightily confused since Don Draper is learning life lessons from kids in a movie made by the same company that brought us cinematic masterpieces such as The Mighty Ducks and Cool Runnings.
Anyways, here's the trailer...
The film is loosely based on a true story. In 2008, sports agent J.B. Bernstein created a reality competition show in India titled Million Dollar Arm in which, like the trailer shows, he searched for cricket players who can pitch a baseball in order to get a tryout with a Major League Baseball team.
The winners of the show were Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel. They both came to the U.S., trained under pitching coach Tom House, and ended up signing with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, becoming the first Indians to play pro ball.
Patel played a couple seasons in the minors before going back to India in 2012. He didn't have a lengthy baseball career, but he earned enough money to help out his family, according to the Indian Express.
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As for Singh, he's still kicking around the Pirates organization and plays for the West Virginia Power in the class A South Atlantic League.
Million Dollar Arm is scheduled to come out in May, 2014.
If you're interested in seeing more of the real story, here's an ESPN documentary from 2008.
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