Baseball in Bollywood

Sandwiched between all the stories of steroids and syringes I found this uplifting piece on the rising popularity of baseball in ... India.

You probably thought they only played cricket on the subcontinent, right? Well so did I but the fact is, there's a concerted effort to grow baseball in India, and apparently it's working.

Recently a group of high level American coaches and players traveled across India hosting baseball camps and training prospective coaches. The month-long series of baseball camps was described as "the most extensive coaching program Major League Baseball has conducted in India to date." former Minnesota Twins pitcher Jeff Brueggemann was one of the pioneers.

All this baseball building isn't the exclusive domain of men folk either. The sport's popularity is growing every bit as quikly with the babes as it is with the boys. According to the president o fthe Women's Baseball Federation of India (WBFI), "After the USA and Japan, now India has the largest number of active women baseball players,"

Veteran Bollywood actress Hema Malini, has even accepted the position of chief patron. That's her at bat during her visit to a school recently.