Chasing MLB dream, Nimmala looks to break mold with Indian heritage

This story was originally published on July 6. We have updated it to reflect Arjun Nimmala being drafted No. 20 overall by the Blue Jays.

BRANDON, Fla. -- As the national pastime, baseball has a reputation of being a sort of heirloom, one passed down from parents to children. The Nimmala family is flipping that script.

Balu Nimmala came to the United States in 2001, in search of work and a better life for his future family. In 2002, he went back to India and married Neeru, and the two returned to the U.S. for good. They moved to Florida from Puerto Rico in 2005, in time to see their first son, Arjun, born. Little did they know that he would be a real-life manifestation of the American dream through baseball as he heard his name called with the 20th overall pick by the Blue Jays in the 2023 Draft.

The Nimmalas knew virtually nothing about baseball at the outset, with Balu introducing it to Arjun, and then younger brother, Akhil (who is in the class of 2024), along with other sports, largely because it involved a bat and a ball -- much like his beloved game of cricket from back home, a sport Balu says is “like a religion” in India. Balu, the family folklore says, initially thought this stick-and-ball game was much easier because fielders used gloves, as opposed to the bare-handed ways of cricket players.

Both boys had played cricket at a very young age, in the backyard, and -- initially to the chagrin of their parents -- indoors. Balu saw some early hand-eye coordination from his older son and thought like so many other immigrants over the decades that the game could be a way for his first-generation American kids to fit in more.

“I think he was walking us with every step of the game,” Balu said from the home he and his wife bought in 2013. “We learned the game as he was learning it. So he’s taking us to places, in that sense.”

It was a learning curve for Arjun as well in the early days. There were certain cricket customs he had to break the habit of doing on the baseball field.

“In cricket, they run with the bat in their hands,” Neeru said with a smile. “So he used to do that. He would hit the baseball and start running with the bat in his hand. His coach was like, ‘Drop it! Drop it!’”

Arjun, MLB's No. 11 Draft prospect, would soon learn the right way to do things, and by around age 11, he stopped playing basketball to focus on the sport he loved the most. It was then that he started to get a sense he might be able to do this for a while.

“I also played a little bit of soccer and basketball, and those are both really fun sports for me,” Arjun said. “And at that age … it's just playing for fun. And then it came travel ball time for baseball, as well as competitive basketball. And I decided to go with baseball, because it was just the passion. I just had way more fun on the baseball field. So I chose baseball.

“It was always a dream of mine to play Major League Baseball ever since I knew what the MLB was. I kind of realized I was pretty good at the age of 12-13. Some of those skills started to pop out. And from then I was like, ‘Oh, I'm going to go play college baseball.’ And now I'm like, ‘Oh, maybe I play MLB.’ But it's always been a dream of mine and I'm going keep chasing that dream.”

The significance of this chase isn’t lost on Arjun -- who is just 17 years old -- or the rest of the Nimmalas. As much as he has been able to grow up as just another Florida kid with baseball acumen, there is an awareness that belies his age and life experience, as well as what his climb to the big leagues could mean.

The Nimmalas travel to India regularly to visit family in Vijayawada and around the state of Andhra Pradesh; they are well aware there has never been a player from India -- or even of Indian descent -- to play in the Major Leagues. To date, the closest brush with MLB might be the contest and subsequent signings of two pitchers, Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, dramatized in the movie “Million Dollar Arm,” though Rangers prospect Kumar Rocker’s grandparents immigrated to the United States.

“My Indian heritage, like with the gods, and back there,” Arjun said motioning to the altar, known as a Pooja Mandir, at the front of his house, not far from remnants of damage done by ball-playing in the house by him and his brother, “pray to God before a game, it’s always been there, and it’s going to stay. I’m really, really proud of my Indian background.”

With that pride does come a certain spotlight, one that countless pioneers have undoubtedly felt in baseball and other walks of life. He’ll not only be trying to accomplish something very difficult in making it to the big leagues, he’ll also be representing a much larger community, both within that group and to the world at-large.

“There’s always pressure that comes with that,” Arjun said. “I’m trying to make them proud and just play for them and play for me as well. The ballplayer always came first and then the Indian part of it kind of came second. I’d love to make them proud, but it always was me playing baseball for me.

“It’s different for sure. There are not many Indian people here in America. But that’s kind of what comes with it, just me being able to be myself and voice what the Indian culture is to the American people. That would be cool.”

Perhaps Balu and Neeru knew what their son might be able to do when they chose his name, a fitting one for the road he’s hoping to traverse in the very near future.

“Arjun is a name we both always liked,” Neeru said. “So without a doubt, we should go with Arjun. He being our first-born, it had to be something special.”

“Basically, Arjun is a warrior, the greatest skilled warrior,” added Balu about the name that comes from Arjuna, a famed archer from Hindu mythology. “We liked that name, and here we are.”