Meet Ben

This is Ben. Seemingly, Ben is your traditional American man. He goes to school, works, and loves a good beer. He’s working toward his dream job. His loves baseball – the traditional pastime of this nation. But Ben is anything but the traditional fan.

Ben Christensen is sporting his latest tattoo work here at Max's Tavern on Feb. 15. Photo by Victoria Davila

Some people are calling him overly dedicated, eccentric, crazy even.  Ben and his numerous baseball tattoos have gotten local, national, and now international media attention. Ben Christensen, 29, has “blown up,” as his friends are commenting online since he became one of 50 finalists in the MLB Fan Cave competition.

Ben tweets, “I’m 20% #BrianWilson 20% #MachoMan 60% #Awesome and 110% #MLBFanCave. I’m also 74% sure #ISuckatMath Vote for me anyway http://t.co/AbS3xu4a,” aiming to gain publicity and votes.

Writer

I met Ben in my favorite journalism class in ever: Reporting 1 Spring 2009. The class bonded through group assignments in the community and social media. At the time Ben more resembled Jason Lee circa the Clerks II premier. I call Ben compassionate, strong, and driven. Although the class has gone our separate ways, we share more than memories by staying connected via Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, and other blog sites.

“I love combining comedy with history and truth and spreading the word to everyone I know. With social media I’ve been able to expand my following and range,” says the Fan Cave finalist. This is how I know Ben.

Ben studies journalism at the University of Oregon, a path he started on in high school with the advice from a counselor. “I realized quickly that I was probably never going to amount to anything as a player in professional sports, but I loved to talk and write about it,” he says.

Sports isn’t my favorite thing to read about. I’m not the girl that won’t watch a game, I’d usually love to catch a good game and beer. Maybe I don’t read or watch enough, but the sports commentary is usually lacking. But Ben’s knowledge of history combined with his comedic remarks actually get me laughing and wanting to know more about a sport that is, I’ll admit, one of my own least favorites.

If, no when, Ben finally lands his dream job as a sports writer he plans to keep doing just what he’s doing now: communicating his love and knowledge of sports with the world. He explains, “I’m not saying my word is the ‘way’ but I do love to share what’s on my brain. In most cases it gives people something to think about outside of their normal routines.” He continues, “And if I can give the reader a smile just once, I’ve done my job.”

Bartender

Other University of Oregon students may know him from Max’s Tavern, where he has worked since January 6, 2010, at 4:00 PM to be specific. “I’m very precise with dates and times,” says Ben who is a bit of a sports history buff to say the least. He is not your average bartender. For awhile Ben wrote the trivia for trivia night, a now-posthumous weekly game of popcorn and cheap but fun prizes.

Among the tattoos and framed pictures Ben also collects hats, major and minor league. Each major league hat has numbers signifying batting averages and other statistics specific to the hat in some way. To someone who doesn’t know baseball, hearing him talk about baseball sounds like rocket science speak with the specific details that he spouts without a second thought, especially if you’re a couple beer into the night at Max’s.

Sports Enthusiast

Many people have probably seen Ben’s signs at Ducks football games without even realizing it was him. They usually steal some attention in the stands and on the big screens. His family has always been “big on sports” Ben says. It started out as a means to an end to wear out him and his hyper brothers but developed into a genuine love of most all sports.

You can find Ben’s video on the MLB Fan Cave website listed with the Bakersfield, California hometown and the Oakland Athletics listed as his favorite team. Although Ben spent most of his life in Bakersfield he now calls Eugene, Oregon his home. During his last five years here, Ben has grown into the person that he is today. And he’s ready to win. He wanted to apply for the MLB Fan Cave last year but ran out of time. In hindsight, he knows that he is in a much better position to make the cut with his stand out tattoos, something he didn’t have a year ago.

Sure, his tattoos and overwhelming knowledge of baseball trivia might catch some people off guard. They want to call it fanatic. But fanatic is marked by extreme unreasoning enthusiasm whereas a fan is simply an enthusiast. Therefore Ben, although not your traditional fan, is just a fan.

So vote for Ben for the MLB Fan Cave and help make a dream come true.