Voice of the Naturals : Davis carries on family tradition in broadcasting
Posted on Sunday, July 13, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/hl/Sports/25041/
SPRINGDALE — Four years ago, Steven Davis’ career plans didn’t include being a radio announcer for a minor league baseball team.
In fact, the voice of the Northwest Arkansas Naturals had another line of work in mind altogether. Davis wanted to be a basketball coach.
Then a senior at the University of Kansas, Davis was in his fourth year as manager of the men’s basketball team. Before that he had been a volunteer assistant at Lawrence (Kan. ) High School.
Yet as much as Davis loved being involved with basketball, there was another group of athletes he wanted to be around more: the Kansas City Royals.
“ I would have been happy to (be a coach ), but I didn’t want to spend the summer sweating. I wanted to be over at Kaufmann Stadium watching the Royals, ” said Davis. “ So, I thought, ‘ Well, if I want to do that, I need to find something where I can be involved with multiple sports. ’
“ I had always told my dad what he did was really easy, so I decided to give (broadcasting ) a shot and it’s worked out OK so far. ”
Davis’ father, Bob, has been the voice for the Kansas Jayhawks for the past 24 years and is in his 12 th season of calling games for the Royals.
Bob never pushed his son to go into broadcasting, but when Steven decided that was what he wanted to do, the elder Davis encouraged him to start small, as he had done years ago in western Kansas.
So shortly after graduating from Kansas in 2005, Steven found himself in Casper, Wyo., working as the broadcaster for the Royals’ rookie-league affiliate, the Idaho Falls Chukars.
“ I told him to have fun, enjoy the relationships he made and wished him good luck, ” Bob said. “ I said, ‘ I hope you have a winning team because that makes everything fall in place. ’ Of course, as a broadcaster, that’s something you have no control over. ”
After three years in Idaho Falls, Davis applied for the opening with the Naturals, who were moving from Wichita (Kan. ) to Springdale.
The Naturals hired Davis in February and put all his front-office experience to good use immediately.
As the Naturals’ only employee who goes to all road games, Davis is responsible for coordinating the team’s travel plans — everything from booking hotel rooms, to lining up buses and handing out per-diem money.