Baseball is known as the United States hobby, but for a long time it has been a global game. From the Dominican Republic to Japan to Venezuela, the supreme queen sport for fans, and innumerable players are on the major league baseball lists.
The next country that could soon be on that list? India.
While its residents can prefer a different game with a ball and a bat, Cricket, it is also the homeland of Arjun Nimmala, the main prospect in the Toronto Blue Jays organization. Chosen 20 in general in the 2023 draft, Nimmala is the first first -generation American to be selected in the first round.
Nimmala, who grew up to Tampa Bay, Florida, said his father introduced the Cricket at an early age, but also taught him baseball. He fell in love with the sport and played competitively in high school until the tiles selected him with only 17 years.
Two years later, it occupies the 46th position of 900 prospects per MLB and considered a future center of the organization.
While Nimmmala, currently with the affiliated Canadians of the Blue Jays, Vancouver, continues to ascend to the minor leagues, MLB is making an extensive extension in India by gathering tournaments for children and bringing baseball programs to schools.
“We want to try to present the sport to as many children as possible,” said Chris Marinak, director of Operations and strategies of MLB, to NBC News. “That is the foot of the door. That is the way you educate children in the game: you make children fall in love with it and become fans for the rest of their lives.”
He said the goal is to bring baseball to India both in the fields and in the internal houses.
“We are focusing on obtaining our MLB games in transmission and transmission,” Marinak said. “We have two partners in India at this time that they are putting the games live for the postseason and the regular season, and we are seeing a great interest of fans around consumption.”
MLB opened an office in India in 2019 and since 2021 has hosted the MLB Cup, a tournament for amateur youth teams throughout the country.
Nimmala traveled to India in 2023 to see the initiatives that the League was producing and to help grow the game in the country, where much of his family still lives.
“Being able to go there and not only see that baseball is also part of India, but also trying to make it bigger, I think that makes me proud,” said Nimmala. “Knowing that I have the possibility of doing that and just seeing how much baseball is already played in India, I thought it was great.”
When asked how big baseball can be in India, a country with 1.46 billion people, Marinak said the MLB has high objectives.
“When you have one billion fans who are seeing Cricket, create a real opportunity to grow the sport,” he said. “If we can take baseball to the crying scale, it would be great penetration in that market. It would look a lot like what you see in Japan [and the] USA. It can be done. “
Nimmala says that the goal is still to make the main leagues, although that could take several years due to their age and experience. His 17 homers last year led all the players 18 years or less, and after some struggles at the beginning of the season, he increased their production in the second half.
As of June 27, Nimmala hit .265/.331/.564 with 13 home runs in his last 53 games.
Known as a solid gardener, he has the strength of the elite arm, according to MLB.com.
But statistics only tell a part of their history. Simply being in the field, Nimmala is inspiring a completely new generation of Indian players.
“I receive many messages, especially on Instagram, of younger children who are Indians who start playing baseball,” he said. “They are like, ‘friend, I really admire you.’ I think it’s very great to see that.”
But even with all the responsibilities of being a pioneer, he keeps his eyes in the prize.
“I have 100% confidence that I will play with the Toronto Blue Jays one day and I will have an impact.”
