UP-born baseballers meet Obama at White House

It was a weekend to remember for Uttar Pradesh-born US baseball league players Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel as they met US President Barack Obama and Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho at the White House in Washington DC.

Two years ago Rinku and Dinesh were struggling to make ends meet in their respective villages in UP when they found their calling in baseball after winning a pitching contest through the 'Million Dollar Arm Hunt' reality show.

Both Rinku and Dinesh were then flown to US where they first trained under University of Southern California pitching coach Tom House and then earned a Major League contract with Pittsburgh Pirates.

On Sunday, Rinku and Dinesh got an invitation from Obama and landed up at the White House where they met a host of dignitaries, including US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the AC Milan football team and its star forward Ronaldinho and Hollywood actor Kal Penn Modi among others.

"President Obama came to us and shook our hands and said it's nice to meet you. This is a very big honour. We still cannot believe that we met President Obama," the duo wrote on their blog.

"We met Nancy Pelosi. She is a very important person in the United States. She is very nice. We were very surprised to see that so many important people in the United States wanted to meet us. This is a very big honour. We thank all the people at the White House and Pirates for this trip.

"In the evening, we went to the reception organised for the DC United soccer team and AC Milan soccer team. We met many soccer players. We met the best soccer player in world - Ronaldinho. We also had breakfast with Kal Penn Modi on Monday morning," they wrote.