Kristin James Benson (born November 7, 1974) is a former Major League Baseball starting pitcher who played for several teams between 1999 and 2010. A highly touted prospect, Benson was drafted first overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1996. He followed a strong rookie season in 1999 with an even stronger season in 2000, but those would prove to be the two best seasons of his career, as he underwent Tommy John surgery after the 2000 season. He posted three more good seasons from 2004 to 2006 with the Pirates, the New York Mets, and the Baltimore Orioles, but then underwent rotator cuff surgery, after which he was never again an effective Major League pitcher. Benson is also known for his marriage to Anna Benson. Now married to Misty Blalock, ex-wife of his former teammate of Hank Blalock. High school Benson was born in Superior, Wisconsin. His parents were baseball fans who chose names for each of their children that began with "K," a nod to the letter used as the scorecard designation for a strikeout. Benson attended Sprayberry High School in Marietta, Georgia with future MLB All-Star Marlon Byrd. College Benson attended Clemson University from 1993 to 1996. His teammates included fellow future major-leaguers Billy Koch and Matthew LeCroy both of whom played with him in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. (Koch reported teammates referred to Benson as "The Messiah".) In 1994, he played collegiate summer baseball for the Hyannis Mets of the Cape Cod Baseball League. Benson went undefeated during the regular season of his junior year (14–0 with a 1.40 ERA) with 178 strikeouts in 142 innings pitched. Following this strong regular season, Benson led the Tigers to the NCAA postseason. Though he pitched only one game in the Atlantic regional playoffs, the Tigers' ace earned all-tournament recognition with an outing in which he allowed only one hit, struck out eight, and walked but one batter. The victorious Tigers, starring Benson, Koch, outfielder and Regional MVP Jerome Robinson, and all-tournament outfielder Gary Burnham, entered the 1996 College World Series on a three-year streak of number-one regional seeds. The presence of Benson, the expected number one selection in the 1996 MLB amateur draft (held that year on the same week as the CWS) helped draw additional attention to the spring series, transforming it into what one then-Clemson sports information official remembered as the "Media World