Background
Staats was born in Advance, Missouri and moved at some point in his youth to Wood River, Illinois, near Saint Louis.
Staats was born in Advance, Missouri and moved at some point in his youth to Wood River, Illinois, near Saint Louis.
He graduated from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) in 1975 with a degree in Mass Communications.
He is currently teamed with color commentator Brian Anderson and announcer Todd Kalas. Staats has been a broadcaster for several teams over his 30+ year career. Staats regularly listened to the Saint Louis Cardinals baseball broadcasts, featuring Harry Caray and Jack Buck.
He began his broadcasting career reporting sports on WSIE, the SIUE radio station.
As an announcer for high school sports on several of the nearby small town radio stations. And as an intern at KMOX in Saint Staats began announcing professional baseball with the Oklahoma City 89ers (1973-1974) while still a student at SIUE. After graduation, he was sports director at KPLR-television in Street.Louis (1975-1976), then he worked for the Houston Astros (1977-1984), Chicago Cubs (1985-1989), New York Yankees (1990-1994), and Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (1995-1997) before joining the Rays in their 1998 inaugural season.
Staats" first wife, Dee, died in 2005 after a long battle with cancer. He has since remarried to the former Carla Berry.
Stephanie is married to former MLB relief pitcher Dan Wheeler.
Staats has three grandchildren, Gabriel, Zachary, and little Evie.
He became a member of the SIUE Alumni Hall of Fame in 2006 and of the SIUE Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012.