Since he was selected as one of the finalists for the MLB Fan Cave experience earlier this month, University of Oregon senior Ben Christensen has gone viral. Christensen has been the subject of numerous articles from a variety of national publications, including Deadspin.com, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports and the Register-Guard. @@http://mlb.mlb.com/fancave/index.jsp?content=vote#fbid=Vzm0p76Unfx@@
Most of the articles have focused on the elaborate baseball tattoos that adorn Christensen’s torso. There’s the Pittsburgh Pirate mascot who’s drugged up on LSD, an homage to former Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis who famously threw a no-hitter while on acid. There’s the image of “Sesame Street” character Big Bird which pays tribute to former Detroit Tigers pitcher Mark “The Bird” Fidrych. The Red Sox are represented by Wally the Green Monster, who’s portrayed with his legs spread apart in memory of Bill Buckner in the 1986 World Series.
In all, Christensen has 37 colorful tattoos, each telling a unique story.
But while Christensen doesn’t shy away from his tattoos, he doesn’t want them to define him. If he has it his way, Christensen will start to get more ink for his journalistic skills — and success in the MLB Fan Cave competition — than his body art.
“That is definitely the overall goal that I want out of this,” Christensen says. “Win or lose, I want to be recognized for my skills rather than my appearance.”
In a sense, Christensen already has been. Earlier this month, the 29-year-old Bakersfield, Calif., native was selected from among 22,000 applicants to be one of 50 finalists for the MLB Fan Cave experience — a season-long baseball immersion camp, of sorts. Later this week, the pool of 50 finalists will be slashed to 30, each of whom will travel to Arizona to cover baseball’s spring training for a week. There, the candidates will be put through a gauntlet of baseball and journalism-related tests to further pare down the list.
If he makes the final cut, Christensen will move to a 15,000-square-foot space in Greenwich Village, Conn., where he will live alongside the other finalists and participate in a reality TV show that will determine the winner of the Fan Cave competition.
The show will last for the entire baseball season and eliminate contestants one-by-one until the winner is announced during the 2012 World Series. Think “Real World” meets “Pros vs. Joes” with a splash of “Survivor” mixed in.
Despite their nasty reputation, Christensen doesn’t think being on a reality show will be too much to handle.
“Based on the amount of exposure with my shirt off I’ve gotten across the country (for pictures of my tattoos) I don’t really see how being in front of a camera for a TV show will really be any worse,” Christensen says.
Not that he minds the celebrity.
“It’s been surreal,” Christensen says.
And time-consuming. Since the 50 finalists were announced last week, he’s been besieged by interview requests. He’s been forced to juggle classes, work (he’s a part-time bartender at Max’s Tavern in Eugene), and media. During a recent interview, the lifelong Oakland A’s fan was so fatigued that he even momentarily forgot one of the years in which the A’s were World Champs, before quickly correcting himself, and proceeding to name the 2001 AL MVP and the 1996 NL MVP without much trouble.
While Christensen’s encyclopedic baseball knowledge might suggest otherwise, he’s actually as a much journalist as he is fan. Christensen started writing for his high school paper when he was 15 and scored interviews with basketball stars Grant Hill and Christian Laettner for his first assignment.
At Clark College in Vancouver, Wash., Christensen worked for the school paper. He wrote about sports and entertainment and was also a columnist and a features writer. He landed interviews with Tommy Chong, MxPx, Good Charlotte and Dr. Drew, among others for various assignments.
After taking several years off to focus on work, Christensen enrolled at the University of Oregon in 2007. He’s on track to graduate after this term with degrees in news-editorial and magazine journalism.
Christensen thinks his journalism skills have drastically improved since he first started writing more than a decade ago.
“I have evolved tremendously,” Christensen says. “I’ve always known that I’m a solid writer but my ability to use words correctly has definitely (improved). I’m definitely more articulate, I write more calmly, I pace myself a little bit better.”
If he’s fortunate, those skills will be put to the test, both during the Fan Cave experience and for years to come.
“The ultimate dream is definitely to be a baseball writer,” Christensen says. “I hope I advance pretty deep in this contest and whether I win or lose, I hope there is a job that I could move into as soon as it’s over.”
Voting for MLB Fan Cave finalists runs through tomorrow and is currently being held online.