Benson: Not Your Average Oriole

[ThomasTomasz]

His early childhood years were spent in a small, lake-shore city in Wisconsin, a peaceful place that reminds Kris Benson of a landscape painting. He then moved on to the Deep South, where a diverse environment shaped the youngster's easygoing demeanor.

Benson's professional life took him to blue-collar Pittsburgh, the bright lights of New York and now Baltimore, where his new digs offer him a great view of the Inner Harbor and a short drive to Camden Yards.

Benson has adapted seamlessly everywhere he has been, except, perhaps, to the one place that he has spent the most time over the past eight years - a major league clubhouse.

"I'd be the first one to tell you that I am not the typical ballplayer," said Benson, a 31-year-old starting pitcher for the Orioles. "I don't play cards. I am just now playing video games with the guys. I don't chew. I don't like staying at the ball field any longer than I have to. I've always been that way. I really haven't been in that all-baseball type of world.

"I don't have a lot of friends within baseball. I have acquaintances and teammates, but away from the field, I spend a lot of time with the family and just doing stuff on my own. There's a good group of guys here, and I enjoy this team, but I spend enough time in the clubhouse."

Before most games, Benson, the Orioles' best pitcher through the first 12 weeks of the season with an 8-5 record and a 4.06 ERA, sits quietly at his locker, poring over a binder of notes and scouting reports on opponents or communicating with family and friends on his cell phone. He makes small talk with his teammates and is always accommodating to reporters' interview requests.

To talk to Benson and then to watch him go to work is to witness an athlete seemingly always on an even keel. His tone of voice hardly ever changes, no matter the topic or the question, nor does his expression on the mound.

"I am sure Kris' personality is a little bit of a mystery to some," said his father, Paul Benson. "He's probably a little different than some of his teammates. He's not a real, real outgoing personality. He can relax and have a good time, but I don't think he's going to be the life of the party."

Pitcher Erik Bedard knew very little about his new teammate, who was acquired from the New York Mets in a January trade for reliever Jorge Julio and pitching prospect John Maine.

"You knew that he played for the Mets and there is all this controversy with his wife," said Bedard, also an introvert, who developed a friendship with his teammate, started when Benson organized a spring training fishing trip for the Orioles' rotation. "I realized that he's a great guy. You really have to talk to him to know what he is all about. A lot of people judge what they see."

His wife, Anna, an ex-stripper whom the pitcher married eight years ago (she filed for divorce in late March but withdrew the request not long after), is outspoken and controversial. She has talked openly about the couple's sex life and fired verbal arrows at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, filmmaker Michael Moore and New York Mets general manager Omar Minaya.

Benson seems amused by the national fixation on him and his wife, who is practicing to participate in the World Series of Poker.

"Her personality is different than mine, but we still have the same likes, dislikes," Benson said. "She's an entertainer. I am a little bit more reserved, just like to concentrate on baseball and then sit back and relax. I think people have a hard time separating what I do and her career. They don't really relate to her."

Anna Benson, who said their relationship works because they balance each other out, cautioned that the pitcher is different from his public persona.

"He is not as quiet and shy as he seems," she said. "It definitely takes a pretty strong person to be married to me. He's just a good Southern boy from Atlanta, Ga."


Wide interests
The pitcher's interests are wide-ranging. He is a regular visitor to shooting ranges and equates the focus and concentration needed in target practice to spotting a fastball.

Each offseason, Benson, the oldest of four kids born to parents who were both educators, gets together with his father and other guests, including his younger brother, Kraig, 19, a pitcher for Young Harris Junior College (Ga.), for "Benson Boys' Weekend."

"We shoot our guns and then talk politics in the evening," said Paul Benson, the dean of Chattahoochee Technical College, Paulding campus, in Georgia. "Kris doesn't say a whole lot, but when he talks, it is usually worth listening to."

Benson collects guns - all different makes and models - and is extremely active in the stock market. His wife described him as a wine and food connoisseur, and he said his nights out usually revolve around a quiet dinner.

On the road, Benson visits museums, and is particularly fond of natural history and art. P.J., 9, the middle of the Bensons' three children (oldest daughter Alyssa is from Anna's previous marriage), is an amateur abstract artist.

Aside from his baseball career, sports has never been a focus. Kris Benson doesn't watch sports on television, acknowledging that he viewed "a little" of the World Series and the Super Bowl, only because he'll host a party for his buddies.

"Sports really don't rule my world at all," he said. "I play it and then I step away."


Community support
Benson uses his high-profile job to make an impact in the community. He remembers being on the deck of his Pittsburgh home on Sept. 11, 2001, when he heard the engine of a fighter jet overhead. Benson said it was probably one of the planes that was trying to intercept the hijacked United Flight 93, which wound up crashing in a field near Shanksville, Pa., about 45 minutes from his home.

In response, Benson and his wife founded Benson's Battalion, which provides financial and educational support to police and fire departments. The Bensons have also donated considerable money to children who lost a parent in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

When he signed his three-year, $22.5 million deal with the Mets in 2004, Benson made sure that his contract allotted $250,000 each season to charity.

"He's a clean-living guy," said Orioles vice president Jim Duquette, who was Mets general manager when they acquired Benson from the Pittsburgh Pirates. "Kris and Anna are very generous with their money and even more so their time."

Benson said that a professional career that started with so much hype - the right-hander out of Clemson was the No. 1 pick overall by Pittsburgh in the 1996 draft - is going in the right direction.

Neil Garner, Benson's strength trainer and one of his best friends, has worked with many professional athletes, but said nobody works any harder than Benson.

"When he first started working out, he would crawl out of the leg machines," Garner said. "We had a little saying, 'If you're not burping, you are not working.'"

As a player traded in the middle of his contract, Benson has the right to ask for a trade this offseason. As of now, he has no plans to exercise that right. He is happy in Baltimore and in the Orioles' clubhouse, even if the life of a major leaguer doesn't entirely suit him.

"He's a very bright guy, very cerebral, but more than anything else, he's a guy that is content with who he is," said Gregg Clifton, Benson's agent. "He's not trying to impress people. He does things because that's who he is. He is true to himself. That steadiness really bodes well in the crazy world of pro baseball."
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THE KRIS BENSON FILE

Age: 31

Birthplace: Duluth, Minn.

Full-time residence: Atlanta

Personal: Kris and wife, Anna Benson (above), have three kids, Alyssa, 13 (Anna's daughter from first marriage); P.J, 9; and Haylee, 5. Family also has seven dogs.

College: Clemson University

Career highlights/honors:

• Was No. 1 overall pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1996 draft.

• Ranks third all time at Clemson with 330 regular-season strikeouts.

• Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball's College Player of the Year in 1996.

• Member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team.

• Named the Sports Humanitarian of the Year in 2006 by the New Jersey Sports Writers Association.

• Won Thurman Munson Award in 2006, in recognition of his athletic and community achievements.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/b...ports-baseball

[ThomasTomasz]

Benson is a great human being, and a good ballplayer. It is such a shame that such a talented ballplayer was befelled by injury after injury early in his career, but that may be what tempered Benson's attitude. Sometimes, all it takes is an injury to knock a player from a high pedestal to change their attitude.

Benson has been a good player since coming to the Orioles. For the most part, he's been a consistant starter, and taken over the leadership role for the starters, taking many out to dinner. Lately, he's been teaching Erik Bedard the circle change, that Tom Glavine taught to him. I'm very happy to have him on the Orioles staff, and so are the Orioles.