The makers of “Million Dollar Arm,” the forthcoming movie chronicling the unlikely bid by agent J.B. Bernstein to turn two young Indian men into professional baseball players, portrayed it as more of a universal human interest story than a sports-centric film.

(CBS News) The baseball playoffs begin Tuesday night and the Pittsburgh Pirates are finally in. Until this year, the Pirates had 20 straight losing seasons, the longest streak in American professional sports. But the team is trying to build a winning future. Recently, CBS News’ Mark Strassmann took a look at one of their most unusual prospects.

When it comes to the business of sports, JB Bernstein is the go-to guy. The industry veteran has managed several high-profile clients through his firm, including Barry Bonds, Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith.

B’s more than 25-year career is quite a story to tell, which is why it’s the inspiration for Disney’s May 16, 2014 release, Million Dollar Arm.

Jon Hamm, lead actor on the Emmy-winning American TV show Mad Men, may get top billing on Disney’s upcoming true-life sports film Million Dollar Arm, but behind the scenes, two of the key driving forces behind the movie are a pair of modest Indian athletes who made the seemingly impossible jump from humble beginnings in Lucknow to international fame—simply by picking up a baseball in America for the first time in their lives.

Hollywood producer Mark Ciardi’s credits include inspirational sports films such as “Miracle,” “Invincible” and “The Rookie.’’ Ciardi’s career as a pitcher plateaued after four appearances with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1987, so he’s familiar with the universal sports theme of overcoming insurmountable odds.

BRADENTON —
The life story about some athletes from Manatee County will soon be featured on the big screen.

A movie is being made about two young men from India with no baseball experience. They won a reality show and were picked up to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates minor league team in Bradenton.

BRADENTON — It wasn’t long ago that Rinku Singh was growing up in India, unaware how life was lived more than 9,000 miles away in the United States.

He didn’t know English. He didn’t know baseball.

He didn’t know a splitter from a spitter, or a ground-rule double from a tailor-made double-play ball.

The story of Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh, India-born kids who parlayed winning a reality show contest into signing professional baseball contracts with the Pittsburgh Pirates, was the stuff of Hollywood legend when it happened back in 2008.

Jon Hamm is a wanted man on the set of Million Dollar Arm, the feel-good baseball movie that’s being filmed at the Georgia Tech baseball field on a glorious cloud-free Friday afternoon just outside downtown Atlanta.

Dressed in a baseball cap, sunglasses, shorts and sneakers, J.B. Bernstein looked well prepared to be outdoors in mid-May. Despite the intense heat, he never looked troubled as he mingled easily, moving about under the shade of a makeshift canopy, watching intently as a few hundred people attempted to translate his defining achievement into a movie.