“This is my 25th season. In August, I will broadcast my 3,000th game,” Selby said.

He got off to a rather unusual start of anyone’s career. His first game behind the microphone was during freezing temperatures and the team got hammered.

“It was in 1986 with the Kinston Eagles in North Carolina. We opened up in Hagerstown, Maryland. There were snow flurries coming down. The public address announcer comes on and says, “It’s a beautiful night for baseball”, as the flurries were floating around. We lost to Hagerstown which was a Baltimore affiliate while walking 20 batters that night. I went back to my hotel shaking my head thinking this is what professional baseball is, huh?” Selby said.

His second job was in Durham, N.C.

“I was in Durham when they made the movie “Bull Durham”. I wasn’t there for the filming because the job was seasonal. When I came back they had the premier and all the players were there. It was funny because that ballpark is always full. Durham Athletic Park, the old stadium there is the Wrigley Field of minor league baseball to me. It was always crowded. As soon as the movie came out the souvenir orders went through the roof. All of the tourists came out and it was just a circus there.”

According to Selby, some people think that is what put the Durham Bulls on the map. It wasn’t. The owner at the time created an atmosphere where people went for a night out-on-the-town. It was a great place.

“I had more fun there than I think anywhere else I have worked over the years,” he said.

A couple of other stops later, Steve ended up in Nashville. After the 1999 season, the team was sold and everyone was fired. He was good friends with the guy who was the voice of the Redbirds at the time. They were getting ready to move into Auto Zone Park and started a heavy TV package. He would come do radio while they did the TV games. Near the end of the 2001 season, they asked if he would like to stay year-round. Selby said ‘yes’ and has been in Memphis since then.

“I really wasn’t going to go into the whole sports thing but I ran into an old girlfriend right before I graduated. I have a degree in sociology. She asked, “What are you going to do with your life?” I said that I would probably do that social work thing. She said you always thought you would be good at the sports thing. Why don’t you do it?”

Selby learned how to be a disc-jockey and did some local sports before finally landing a job with Kinston in the Carolina League in 1986 but it was a co-op team. It was sort of a rag-tag type team.

“So to accept the job I had to agree to drive the bus as well. That was an adventure in itself. I had an ulcer by the first of June. The bus was a piece of junk,” he said.

He played a little Division II baseball and knew he wasn’t going anywhere with that. Broadcasting was a way he could stay connected in baseball because he has a huge passion and respect for the game.

“I survived in Division II ball because I was a little guy who could run and I thought I was pretty smart. Two weeks into my first job in professional ball I realized I didn’t know anything about this game. It was a rude awakening but also made me really pay attention and ask and ask and learn and learn,” Selby said.