Steve Overmyer: Reading the Room

A rejection letter that said your tape was so bad they didn't want it "infecting their other tape stock." A joke that landed wrong in front of a six-foot-ten Randy Johnson. A tip from David Wright to stop treating every loss like a funeral.

Steve Overmyer gets real about the mistakes that shaped him — and the lessons that stuck. From his first job in Fort Myers to the Jets post-game show to the locker rooms of New York, he breaks down the art of asking the hard question without torching the relationship, why you stop watching yourself in the mirror at a certain point, and what Satchel Paige pitching at 63 years old tells us about heart over measurables.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

I'm Jessica Curtis, and this is The Progress Report, a show about real people making real change across America. Today's guest is someone who has spent his career telling the stories that bring people together on the field, in the community, and across one of the most competitive media markets in the country, from anchoring at CNN to covering New York's biggest sports moments. And now, as a familiar face at CBS News New York, Steve Overmeyer has seen the evolution of media storytelling and what audiences truly connect with. But what makes his work stand out isn't just the highlights, it's the human stories behind them. Steve, welcome to the Progress Report.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

What's up, Rahiz? How are you guys doing?

SPEAKER_02 0:47

How are you? Good to see you again, Rob. Great seeing you again, too. Looking as fit as ever, my friend. Well, trying. I'm doing my best to stay young as long as I can.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

This man can still uh throw triple digit heat. And I mean, there are just a handful of people, you know, in in the world that can do something like that, especially at that age. So I commend you, man. That is you're such a uh a physical anomaly. Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

Well, you know, it's funny. One of one of my uh guys that I always loved, and I told you this, and and when I told you, you told me he was also one of your favorites was Satchel Page. And you know, being close to the uh the Jackie Robinson day date in uh the major leagues, um, I remember you saying, Steve, that you've read all of Satchel Page's books, and Satchel, of course, is is known for being the oldest rookie uh ever to make it to the major leagues at 42 years old in 1948 with the Indians, and then came back at 59 years old, they said, to pitch with the Kansas City A's. Um, and I think he threw like three shutout innings against the Red Sox in that game or something. Uh any other cool Satchel Page stories that you can share with us?

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Well, I mean, he actually pitched even later than that. I believe he was 63 when he pitched for a minor league team, the Miami Marlins. They were called the uh the Miami Marlins, and um, and he pitched uh one inning, three batters, got one strikeout. And I just love that his competitive juices, he was so good that even at an advanced age that he was still able to make things work. And I gotta be honest with you, when they say his age was 63, yeah, I bet you he was a little bit older than that. Because he I've heard that too. You know, and when when they say he broke in at 42, he might have been more like 45, could have been more like 46. So you start to do the math on that and and what it takes to do this. I've been around sports my entire life. You know what it's like to pitch at the highest level, and I see the toll that it takes on every one of these athletes' bodies. And these guys are 20 years old. These guys are 25 years old, and they are pushing themselves to the absolute limit. You know, to see someone of an advanced age to be able to do that, it just reminds you that there's a lot of ways to value uh an athlete, and one of them is physical prowess, another one is experience, determination, will to win. There are some intangibles that you cannot put a measurable on. It doesn't matter how big your hand is, it doesn't matter uh sometimes whether or not you've got the uh uh the the proper hip rotation on your swing, it's all about what's in your heart, what you've got inside you. And that's really why your your story really kind of shone a light for me here, uh, because you you were you were saying that, you know, I'm not going to let a dream pass me by. I'm not gonna let this opportunity go. And whether I make it to the majors or not, man, what kind of ride are we about to go on? And that's what I loved about that. I want to see what that journey looks like, man. Yeah. And that's that's ultimately that's that's the heart of the kind of stories that that that I love to tell. So that's cool. Just thank you for sharing that with us, man. Thank you for sharing it with the world.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Yeah, you're very welcome. And and you hit it, hit the nail on the head that you know that that's one of my missions in life is to hopefully be able to, you know, influence and inspire people to do what they love. And that doesn't always mean it has to be monetized. You know, you you if it's if there's something you love and you want to do it as a hobby, make sure you're making time to do that. There's a reason, there's a reason why God put these desires in our hearts to to pursue certain things. And we have to listen to those desires and and and go for it. And you know, a lot of times it can end up with something that that can be monetized, but even if it can't be, do it anyway. Do it because you love it.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

You said it. Steve, tell us a little bit about your journey. And I mean, you said you you've been in the in the sports or on the sports scene, I mean, for forever. So how where was the moment or when was the moment when when you were like, this is what I'm meant to do for my career? Kind of kind of walk us through your journey.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

Well, it started, okay. Wow, this is the first time I've talked about this. See, see, this is really odd. I I I'm so grateful for this because this is is I'm usually the one that's asking the questions. I love to pull the stories out of people. And um I really don't think about mine very often, but if I so uh if I have to go back and think about it, I was I was 15 years old, and um our high school had a radio station, WVSH, Honington North High School in Honington, Indiana, and um they were offering a radio class as an English credit. And I'm like, sounds like a win-win. I mean, I love English, but I get to do radio for an English credit. I'm in. I was an absolute wallflower. I didn't talk to anybody. I I I was the kid that could have been shoved into my locker, you know, if if there were bullies in my school. But when that mic turned on, it allowed me to shed all of those insecurities that I had as a 15-year-old boy. And I could just speak. I could speak without anyone looking at me, I could speak without anyone judging me. I could speak and they would all listen. And that did something to me personally that just infused me with a level of confidence that I'd never had before. And so I continued on with my radio career. I took the second semester of it as well, and uh and uh finished out four years with that degree in broadcasting in high school before I even went to college. And so by the time I got to college and all of these all of my peers were just learning the equipment for the first time, I'd been using it for four years. How cool. That's really cool. The comfort age. Yeah, exactly. And the comfort that you get from repeatedly doing an experience uh gives you the confidence to to just build on that. So anytime someone at that age would ask me, you know, how can I get into this? How can I get better? It's practice. It's it's the same as anything in life. It's nothing comes naturally. You you're you're not a natural singer. If you're a great voice, I I commend you because I know that you've put work into making that voice great. Yes, you know, 100%. And that's it's the same way, you know, with broadcasting, because broadcasting is about really kind of like uh finding a way to take something that is complicated and making it easily digestible to a thousand, a million people, and at the same time being able to say it in in your voice. So it's being able to do all of that. And and I'm I'm grateful that I was able to get that chance back at back in my high school. That's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

That's so cool. And I mean, much like much like a baseball player or anywhere else, right? You started out, you said you're an Indiana boy originally, and you know, you started in local markets, worked your way up to the to the big show, right? To the national national uh playing field. What did what did your early years in your in your professional journey teach you that still shapes how you approach telling a story today?

SPEAKER_00 8:50

I'd say my first job, which was in Fort Myers, Florida. Let me tell you, first job in Fort Myers, Florida. I got there, I was 21 years old. It was I was way too young to get a job in this business. And um what it what it what had happened was there was I in in the sports business or in the TV business, you send out tapes, you send out resume tapes. And at the time, I am dating myself, but they were three-quarter inch resume tapes that I was sending out. This was 1993. Yeah, I'm sending out three-quarter inch resume tapes. I got one back in the mail from this news director at the ABC affiliate in Evansville, Indiana, with a note that said, your tape, I he said, You need to find another career. You are horrible. Your tape is so bad, we are returning it to you because we don't want it to infect our other tape stock. Oh my god, how bad it is. And of course, you know, as it was, it was devastating.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

But the following week, I got a call from a news director in Fort Myers, Florida, which is bigger than Evansville.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

And she said she wants to sign me on the spot. So I faxed over the contract, dating myself again, faxed over the contract, and I was in Fort Myers, and it reminded me that, you know, no matter how good you think you are, we're still in a subjective business. At least the TV world is a subjective business. Oh, yeah. And the only way to continue to uh to stay in this business is to constantly get better. You're either getting better or you're getting worse. So I would always pick a camera up. I wanted to go shoot, I wanted to learn the ins and outs of how to work every equipment. I became a T D. I when our TD had a hissy fit one night, I jumped off the set in the Fort Myers and ran into the control room, and I actually punched the final block of the show because the TD, the technical director, didn't do it. So you learn to do everything in this business, and then when the curveballs come, you're a lot more prepared for when those curveballs hit you. You're not devastated, you know. So you learn to be resilient, you learn to, you know, that not everything is put, you know, not everything's placed on a silver platter for you, that it's uh you you you need perspective in life a lot of times. And and this business definitely gives you that.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

Yeah. And you know, Steve, my grandmother, Samarano, always said, consider the source. And I tell this to my athletes all the time that, you know, sometimes you're gonna have a coach who tells you, you know, I'm not interested, you don't throw hard enough, or you're not tall enough, or you're, you know, whatever the case may be, kind of like the this response you got from Evansville. And, you know, I think you're familiar probably with the the Phil Rizzuto story. He tried out for the Brooklyn Dodgers, and I think Casey Stangle was the manager, and uh told him, you know, why don't you go get yourself a shoe shine kit? I think that's a better career for you. And and then Rizzuto ends up getting signed by the Yankees, wins a bunch of World Series, he's in the Hall of Fame, has a great, you know, career as a broadcaster. But had he been discouraged by Casey Stangle, you know, we may never know who Phil Rizzuto was. And I I think that's my advice to young people out there is just because somebody may be harsh with you, or somebody may give you even not harsh negative feedback, you know, learn from it what you think you can learn from it, or discard some of it if you think that the source that's giving you that information is really not, doesn't know their stuff. And stay confident of what you can do. It's uh that's pretty cool that you stuck with it like that because that that could really deter a young kid getting a message like that from, you know, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Well, and it makes me it makes me think of um and Rob, I I've said I think when we when we talked to Tom Fagione a couple months ago, I mentioned this, but like when I was in college and and I'm I'm hellbent, I'm gonna I'm gonna go to Manhattan and I'm gonna either I I wanted to be a I wanted to be an anchor, a news anchor on TV, and then I wanted I changed and wanted to be a reporter, and then I kind of got into the college radio and whatever. So then I'm like, I'll do an internship in TV and in radio. Anyway, long story short, I am applying all over the place for an internship, and I got an email back from some guy at WABC Radio in Manhattan, and I I went home and I said to my dad, this guy sent me an email and said they don't really have a formalized internship program, but you know, blah, blah, blah. And I could come down and do an interview. And I told my dad the name, and my dad's like, Phil Boyce, he's the program director, blah, blah, blah. And I went down and I I did an interview. And I mean, to this day, I I see him occasionally at something that we're both at. And I I owe I owe my career to that man because he he gave some some kid, some comms major from East Strasbourg University of Pennsylvania, the opportunity to come an intern for the Sean Hannity show. And it led me down the path that I'm on now. And, you know, he has said to me multiple times, people like me, it's important to open the elevator at the bottom floor and let people like you in, because if not, it's just right, it's it we we let the cream just float at the top. We don't actually bring in new people and give people a shot. So that's um that's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

Yeah, I mean, I think that's kind of the uh you it that's that's the evolution of the business, right? And I'm grateful to be it at the I mean when I first got to New York, there was always this belief that New York, it is obviously the cream of the crop, but there was this belief that it that there were people that were just so arrogant and uh thought of themselves so highly. But what I've actually found when I've arrived here is they're certainly more in line with with my way of thinking. They're much more helpful and they're much more agreeable and feel like we're, even though we might be competitors working at other stations, we are still holding each other's mic flags when we're doing gangbang interviews. We are still working with each other, we're not giving each other information, but we're still, you know, uh good co-workers with, you know, compatriots in in the market. And I I think I understand the reason why is because once you get to that certain level, once you have achieved the highest, there's nothing to be insecure about anymore. There's nothing to to worry about from them anymore. You're you're in a much better place when you are the helping hand that reaches down that ladder and lifts somebody else up. You know, that's only going to make the it's only going to make everybody else better, including yourself, by the way. Yes. Because as I said before, if you're not getting better, you're getting worse. So you you need to constantly be learning either new mediums, uh, new ways to for me to tell a story, to learn new ways to write, you know, constantly, you know, asking yourself, uh, am I doing the best that I can? Because, you know, what's what's the fun of it if it's just you're not just collecting paychecks here? You know, this is this is the this is the fun. The fun is being able to come out and tell stories.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

At least it is from my standpoint. Sure. But I can understand the other side when you're constantly bombarded with news. There's no fun in constantly hearing all about the the negativity that you know is happening in the world.

unknown 16:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

Right. Yeah, and Steve, Steve and Jess, really, uh, you know, in the baseball world, I'm always telling players it's not always what you do in front of your coaches, it's what you're doing when nobody's watching. You know, that you're are you going home and practicing this stuff? Are you making it part of your life? And I know myself, I'm constantly going through my pitching motion in front of a mirror or, you know, throwing a ball up in the air and working on pitch grips. Do you guys ever find yourselves where you're in front of a mirror? You know, or did you do this earlier in your career where you're talking and you're trying to find the right nomenclature for how you want to say it, or or what you look like? Do do broadcasters do that kind of prep work on their own, or is it kind of like you just keep evolving, you know, during the job itself?

SPEAKER_00 17:32

For B, I definitely did early on. I mean, that was it was pivotal to to see yourself and judge whether or not what it felt like matched with what it looked like. But I I I I don't I certainly don't do that anymore. Um only because you certainly you you get to a place where you when you overjudge the the what you're you know what you're saying, what you're uh what you're doing, um sometimes that can get into your head and it can make you swing the pendulum in the opposite direction. So sometimes it's better in this business to uh to not watch yourself, though. I will say what I'll do is I'll go back and I'll look at a story that I did from three months ago, or maybe three years ago, and I'll ask myself today how would I have done that story differently, or how could I have been better at that, or maybe I need to go and do more things like that again, you know? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Do you feel like that the practicing almost makes you mechanical as opposed to a spontaneous, organic, you know, response to the to the people watching?

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Yes, and that's probably where that massively differs from sports, because sports, you want to train your body to do a repetitive exercise over and over again. I want my golf swing to be in the perfect triangle every single time.

SPEAKER_02 19:02

Get that you want to be machine-like.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Exactly. In in our world, we want to be human, and the best way to be human is to be a great listener, to absorb, to find a way to try to understand the person that you're speaking with and treat their story with the you know, with the reverence that it deserves. Yeah, and and treat every story with the gravity it deserves because we have to look at our jobs as we are the conduits of information. We are the conduits of your story. Yeah, it's not my story. It's um you're you're allowing me to share your story, you're trusting me, and I don't want to betray that trust.

unknown 19:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

To kind of to kind of piggyback off of that, you know, if you're the conduit to the public, um, was there ever a time or are there any short stories you could share with us where there was a tough question for an athlete that you knew the public wanted to know an answer to, and you wanted to make sure you phrased it the right way, or maybe there was even a little bit of, you know, anxiety about asking the question because you knew it was a tough subject to ask the athlete. Um, you know, have you ever experienced anything like that where it's like, well, I have to ask him this or I have to ask her that?

SPEAKER_00 20:19

Yeah. You know, I learned from a mistake, to be honest with you. Okay. Um, my first job, well, my second job, I should say, was in Phoenix, Arizona. And in 1999, I believe, I was at spring training with the Arizona Diamondbacks. I was a beat reporter with them. And I was there when Randy Johnson hit a bird as it flew across. Yeah, Rob, you know this story. You've probably seen it a million times. What you probably don't know is that that bird did not explode, it actually just flopped off to the side. But nonetheless, um Rod Barajas was the catcher, and everybody thought that Randy Johnson was going to laugh about this, but he was not in the mood. I go into the clubhouse afterwards, and I had already predetermined that this was the funniest things that I'd I'd seen, and I'd already had a joke ready to go. And uh, and I go to Rod Barajas and I said, Hey Rod, uh, can you tell me what it sounds like when doves cry? And Randy was standing right next to him and just took his glove, threw it in his locker, and storms off. And I realized that I've got to do a better job of reading the room and hero happening.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Jess, if you're not familiar with Randy Johnson, he's six foot ten, so it's a closing figure that uh fired his glove.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Oh man, so I I know how I I know what it feels like to make mistakes, and I think that that just reminded me. I think that was the point when I I I was it was reaffirmed that you know, we are all human, we need to. We need to ask questions in a little bit more of a delicate manner. But sometimes you ask a question and they will, they'll respond. They're already been out of shape. I mean, there are plenty of times, you know, I I I did the Jets post-game show for four years, and uh, I'm on the field or just outside the locker room with these guys, you know, 10 minutes after they lost a game. Yeah, you know, 10 minutes after a physical war was just taking place on the uh on the football field, and you gotta ask them questions about why you lost 41 to 10 to the Detroit Lions. That's it at that point, you um humility starts to be your leading driver. Especially when someone like Bart Scott is standing next to you. So you know, at that point, you're you know, you're you're you're you're setting in the you know in your ways.

SPEAKER_02 22:53

Yeah. Well, my dad always taught me it's not the what, it's the how. And and sounds like that's kind of what you're saying is that you know, you still have to ask the question, but how how are you gonna ask the question? What's you know, and I and I do notice I see sports casters sometimes when they're interviewing, you know, the losing team at the end of the World Series or at the end of the Super Bowl, there's a certain like somber depth to their voice where coach after this, and you know, as opposed to, hey, it was a tough one tonight, you know, you gotta kind of know how you're how you're gonna say it to them because like like Steve said, they are human beings and and they they're looking for a little empathy at that point, more than you know, being made fun of, so to speak.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Well, without a doubt. You can but you can that can go the other way too. You know, I remember when I first started doing uh Mets post-game shows on on S Y when I first got here to New York. Uh David Wright pulled me aside one day and he goes, Why are you treating every game like it's a funeral? We lost a game. Yeah, we're gonna lose somewhere between 80, you know, we could lose between 60 and 80 of these games all year. The best teams are gonna lose that many. So don't treat it like it's a funeral, be a lot more matter-of fact. And I yeah, I I I appreciated that approach. So now when I went to speak with Bart Scott after a 41-10 loss to the Lions, I'm going to say that defensive results were uncharacteristic. Now I didn't lay blame, I didn't accuse, I just said that the results were uncharacteristic. Uh sometimes you don't have to ask a question, you can lead to the point and allow them to respond to it. Now, if there was something inflammatory that was said, and it was said by, say, your coach, it's so much easier to walk into a conversation when you say uh when you ask the defensive backs, well, coach said that you guys were in cover two on that play, and the responsibility was of the free safety. Was that accurate? You know, something like that. Now you've you've taken the hard part of it and you've attributed it to someone that this person respects. So it's either never attacking the person, always uh uh questioning the outcome, or it's allowing that opinion to land on somebody else's. So uh you're you're not the opinion maker throwing casting shade on someone.

SPEAKER_02 25:26

And there is a difference with that. I remember Doc Gooden saying one time, he said that he was able to kind of almost make peace to a degree with fans when they were harsh with him if you know he wasn't performing well. He said, you know, because the way I looked at it was they're not booing me, they're booing my performance. And you kind of, you know, you you in that way don't define yourself as the performer. That's not all of who you are. So it's it's not me they're coming after right now. They're they're mad at my performance, and you know what? I am too. I'm not performing the way I want to. And I think, you know, that's kind of kind of what you're saying there is you're you're you're talking about what they're doing for a job, you're not, you're not attacking them as a person. And I think that's as an athlete, I love hearing that because I I do know the type of time we put into this and and how much it means to us. And you know, when when somebody just puts a label on somebody of the a choke artist, or you know, that's that's a that's an attack on the person. That's not just their performance. That's that's kind of saying, you know, that that's that's kind of who their uh personality is, that they can't perform under pressure.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

And and I'm sure we're seeing this now more than ever because we live in a world where opinions have to be bold and they have to go one side or the other, and you have to say something crazier than the next person. And now, you know, just recently, you know, uh we're hearing about how look, Francisco Lindore has not been playing at the level that we're accustomed to seeing Francisco Lindore playing at. Okay, now yesterday he made a play where he fell back on a ball instead of attacking a ground ball, and the guy got first, ended up leading to a home run. All things bad happened. But the but the fact that people are attacking Lindor and trying to create some sort of a drama of, you know, Lindor is angry that he's not the captain, Lindor is mad that you know that this team isn't together. You're you're literally just trying to imagine what's in this man's head. And I think that that's so it's so wrong-minded, especially when you consider there's another possible culprit, and that could be injury. You know, a few days ago he got hit in the head with uh uh with a baseball sliding into uh to second, I believe. And so, or his head hit the head hit the ground, I should say. The the man could be suffering from a concussion. Could that could possibly be it? I mean, who was it, Anthony Rizzo last year was three months without anybody knowing that he had a concussion? So there's other things that could be a consideration. So I always say try not to give definitive opinions, to give percentage opinions. There is a 30% chance that he could be injured right now, and that could be attributing to the to the what's going wrong with him. So I don't know. I think words are important and the way that you present them mean something, you know?

SPEAKER_01 28:26

Absolutely, absolutely. I feel like we've only scratched the surface here, especially when it comes to the stories behind the stories. In our next episode, we'll dive a little deeper, uh, you know, into those moments viewers don't see, and and really in into you more, Steve, and and what makes you tick. Until next time, keep looking forward because progress is always just ahead.