During his high school years and on the American Legion junior team, he played alongside future Major League Baseball stars Vern Stephens, Bob Lemon, and Bobby Sturgeon.

In 1937, Stevens graduated from Long Beach Polytechnic High School and entered the University of California, Berkeley, where he briefly studied as a dentist.

After the end of the 1942 season, Stevens was called up for military service and posted to the United States Air Force.

Stevens refused and left for Long Beach, and later asked the club to sell him to the Hollywood Stars.

Stevens was one of the team's most consistent hitters, playing well on defense and being a leader on the field and in the locker room.

He spent the next season and a half with the San Francisco Seals before buying out his contract and becoming the player-coach of the Amarillo Gold Sox.

Under him, the team reached the final series of the Western League, and Stevens himself received the Manager of the Year award.

After that, he was considered as a contender for the position of head coach of the St. Louis Browns, but he did not want to leave his family for a long time.

He first worked for an oil well service company, and in 1960 accepted an offer to be secretary of the Professional Baseball Players Association of America.

Stevens took part in the modernization of the structure of the Association, improvement of its work, bringing documentation in line with the law.