A Gift for the Pirates

[Edgy MD]

Ken Rosenthal is reporting that the roster-juggling Pirates have called up infielder Gift Ngoepe.

Ngoepe will be the first MLB player born in South Africa. Moreover, he will be the first MLB player born in Africa.

[fimg=600]http://www.post-gazette.com/image/2016/03/09/1140x_q90_a10-7_cTC_ca7,7,2600,1444/20160309pdPiratesSports10.jpg[/fimg]

[fimg=600]https://ionenewpittsburghcourier.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/unnamed_edited-13.jpg[/fimg]

[fimg=600]http://12075-presscdn-0-91.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/DHP_8718-1000x600.jpg[/fimg]

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I admire the Pirates for truly searching the globe for guys and happy to see one make it.

That guy looks tiny but powerful. A more compact Rennie Stennett.

[Guest cooby]

The Pirates are a fun team to watch

[Benjamin Grimm]

"Gift" is a relatively common name in South Africa. They use a lot of nouns as names, for some reason. I also remember "Fortune" as a male name.

[Frayed Knot]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: That guy looks tiny but powerful. A more compact Rennie Stennett.

Listed at 5' 8" / 200
Sounds like he can pack a punch.



The Pirates, long acknowledged to be the first team to go heavily into the Caribbean under super scout Howie Haak, now turn over the first even African and the first born & raised Lithuanian in the same week.
Weren't they the ones who also went after those Indian cricket players a few years back? Never did see that Disney-fied movie version of that story.

[Edgy MD]

I lasted eight minutes on that one. But I'd be shocked if an undeterred Disney didn't nonetheless gobble up the rights to the Gift Ngoepe story.

[seawolf17]

Frayed Knot wrote: Weren't they the ones who also went after those Indian cricket players a few years back?

Yep. Neither one quite panned out:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=singh-001rin
http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=patel-001din

[seawolf17]

Also, yes, the movie happened: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Dollar_Arm

[Fman99]

Edgy MD wrote: Moreover, he will be the first MLB player born in Africa.

I thought there was an Egyptian player at some point, did I imagine that?

[Edgy MD]

Sammy Khalifa was a Californian from an Egyptian immigrant family, if that's who you're thinking of.

[Guest cooby]

OMG I loved that man

[Frayed Knot]

An article on Ngoepe

Just stumbled across this and so haven't read it yet. But it's SI's Gary Smith so it'll certainly be in depth and it'll almost as certainly be great.
Also not a surprise that Smith was on this story nearly eight years ago!



And he also singled in his first ever AB Wednesday night, going 1-2 plus a walk.