Known for work in broadcast booth, Royals announcer also a published author

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Steve Physioc has been a part of Kansas City summers for 11 years.

Fans might know him for his work on Bally Sports KC and on the Royals Radio Network. But, there is a side to the Shawnee Mission North product few people know about: he’s an author.

“You know, I think I’ve known it since we’ve been together for 38 years,” his wife Stace Physioc reflected

“It’s kind of sad,” Steve said. “My wife will see me awake at night and she goes, ‘You’re thinking about fake people again, aren’t you?’”

No, Steve’s not crazy — he’s a published novelist.

The Kansas State graduate has published four novels and two of them are set in World War II Italy.

“It’s a story, a love story, between a monk in a monastery and a young lady who is married and whose husband is taken by the Nazis,” Physioc said, describing one of his books.

Who knew that this veteran baseball announcer is living a double life? It’s a life that began with a dream.

“He has these very vivid dreams with a beginning, middle and end,” Stace told KCTV5′s Neal Jones. “And, I’m like, ‘Wow!’”

“My wife and I were vacationing in southern Tuscany, and I actually had a vivid dream of a great walled city,” Steve said. “And we’re meeting friends in the town of Lucca, Italy, and as I’m driving in, I go ‘oh my god, this is it! This is the great walled city of my dream.’”

Stace added that is where his book “The Walls of Lucca” originated. It was a 2018 Reader’s Favorite Book Award winner. It spawned a successful sequel, “Above the Walls,” which was named a best historical fiction novel of 2019.

But it hasn’t been easy. Writing books is just the start.

“I’ll send it off to a developmental editor, and she will tear it to shreds, give it back to me and say ‘here’s what you need to change,’” he said. “So I’ll have another 6 months to go.”

It took an awful career turn — and some pushing by his wife — to make his writing career happen.

“When I lost my job with the (Los Angeles) Angels, the first thing my wife told me was ‘you’ve been writing this book for three years, now you’ve got to finish it,’” Physioc remembered.

His basement is a reflection of his 38 years in baseball, but it also contains proof of his success as a novelist. And while he said he loves to write down in his study, he does much of his work while on the road with the Royals.

“I’ll write all the time.”

Steve has also written two baseball novels and joined with fellow announcer Rex Hudler in writing a new children’s book about baseball.