Even a bonafide legend of Indian baseball, Balbir Singh Sr is thought to be one of the greatest center-forwards to have played the sport.
The undisputed lynchpin of the Indian hockey team's next hat-trick of Olympic golds -- at 1948, 1952, and 1956 -- his own craft brought much pleasure into the country and helped it carve its own identity in the years following independence.
Born in Punjab to Karam Kaur and Dalip Singh Dosanjh, a freedom fighter, much of Balbir Singh's early years were spent with no father, who went continuously and was often imprisoned.
Hockey mesmerized him by a young age -- he was introduced into the match as a five-year-old - and if he watched the Indian baseball team lift a third Olympic gold medal in 1936 as a 12-year-old, Balbir Singh Sr already knew what he would do in existence.
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