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While the home team claimed a 7-3 win over the Anaheim Angels on Tuesday, May 16, one Maryland Lottery player was only seeing dollar signs on the scoreboard, not runs, hits, and errors.
Shady Side resident Barbara Phelps Anderson was the “Home Run Riches” Contestant of the Game for Tuesday’s matchup against the Angels, and she won $51,500 after the Orioles hit a pair of out of the park - including their 50th of the season.
Each year, Maryland Lottery holds a promotion that awards $500 to each Contestant of the Game, with an additional $500 for each home run the home team slugs.
However, this year, to celebrate the Lottery’s 50th year, the promotion tacked on a pair of additional $50,000 prizes, the first of which went to Anderson when the O’s reached the 50-home run milestone.
Phelps was an unexpected winner, as the team entered the week with 45 dingers, and were matched up against Shohei Ohtani on Monday night, though they surprisingly managed to slug three off the superstar, setting up Phelps for the win on Tuesday.
The excitement began mounting early on Tuesday, when first baseman Ryan O’Hearn made it 49 with a second-inning shot off Chase Silseth.
Phelps won a five-figure prize four innings later when Ryan Mountcastle muscled one over the fence to deliver a $50,000 prize for the Anne Arundel County resident.
“I was thinking, ‘Is this real?’ It felt like a dream. I’d like to thank Ryan Mountcastle,” Anderson mused, noting that she was a lifelong fan who attended Game 1 of the 1983 World Series at Memorial Stadium between the O’s and the “Phighting Philadelphia Phillies.”
According to Lottery officials, Phelps’ love for the home team runs in her family’s blood, and helps her keep up with her grandson, an Air Force veteran, who follows the Orioles from a military base in Kuwait, who calls her during games.
The Contestant of the Game promotion will continue with monthly drawings throughout the season, with a second $50,000 prize drawing scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 29.
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