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Baseball player has place on reality TV

His perseverance after an injury that required three brain surgeries gets him noticed by the producers.

By MIKE READLING
Published October 13, 2006

It was one of the last ways Brandon McArthur expected to spend his summer vacation.

Cowboy hat? Boots? Roping cattle and riding horses?

McArthur may have been raised in Seffner but he was always more of a weightlifting, baseball playing kind of guy. At least he was until the producers of a reality television show called Ultimate Choice tracked him down at a University of Florida-University of North Florida baseball game last season.

They had heard McArthur's courageous story and thought he would fit in perfectly with their show, which they bill as "MTV with a conscience." The premise: Eight young adults are placed in unfamiliar situations, performing challenges that have lifelong implications and then discussing how those challenges relate to real life.

This season's episodes were filmed in the mountains of Arizona and on the Double E Ranch in Gila, N.M. The show airs at 10 p.m. Saturdays on Family Net, Channel 202 on the Verizon FIOS system.

McArthur will be heavily featured in this week's episode. He'll be joined by Paul Morales, a former Bloomingdale High School baseball star who now plays at North Florida.

It was a whirlwind nine days for McArthur, who said the hardest part of the experience was, ironically, one of the most athletic challenges - mountain climbing.

"Climbing up a real mountain. I can definitely say I finished last on that one," McArthur said. "It's not like at the YMCA where you can grab on to stuff. I couldn't find anything to grab on to."

That's exactly what Ultimate Choice producer-director and creator John Laurence was hoping for.

"They experience a lot of crazy things," Laurence said. "They talk about all kinds of serious issues that young people face. Peer pressure, body image. The theme the next couple weeks is perseverance."

Which is where McArthur comes in. If ever there was a story of perseverance it is the 21-year old former Armwood High star, Minnesota Twins draft pick and 2003 countywide player of the year winner.

In October 2003, the then-freshman McArthur was the victim of an unprovoked punch outside the Grog House Bar and Grill just off the UF campus. He hit his head on the pavement and suffered an injury that required three brain surgeries and left him comatose for almost a week. Doctors quietly wondered if he would ever regain full function of his body, much less play baseball.

McArthur returned to the field before the end of the 2004 season and was a member of the 2005 Gator team that finished third at the College World Series. He will enter his senior season this spring, though he still has two years of eligibility remaining.

"He's just such an impressive guy," Laurence said. "He was just awesome on the show. He's very personable. He kind of ended up being everybody's big brother. It's very compelling where he's gone and he just continues to add to that story as he gets older and experiences more things."

[Last modified October 12, 2006, 07:14:22]