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On Aug. 19, one baseball fan would become the 50 millionth person to enter Camden Yards since its opening in 1992 and would receive a prize worth more than $50,000. That fan was Kevin Gracie, a second-year law student at the University of Baltimore.
Never thinking he had a chance at the prize, Gracie, along with three of his friends, grabbed a beer at a local pub and waited until the lines died down before heading in to watch the Baltimore Orioles take on the Boston Red Sox. A lifelong O's fan, Gracie walked through the turnstile ahead of his friends but was puzzled when the ticket-taker asked him to step to the side.
"I thought I was in trouble or something," Gracie said. "It took me about 15 seconds to realize that she was stalling for time. Next thing I know, the Orioles bird shows up and there's confetti and balloons everywhere."
At the game, Gracie was presented with an oversized check representing a $50,000 cash prize from the Orioles and the Maryland Lottery; he also received season tickets for five years, a number 50 Orioles jersey, and VIP treatment for him and his friends that day.
Although a diehard O's fan, Gracie has never been a season-ticket holder.
"My aunt had season tickets for Sunday games, and I started going with her when I was four or five," said Gracie, who remembers both the last game at Memorial Stadium in 1991 and the first at Camden Yards in 1992.
"Once I could drive, I started going on my own, but I've never been a season-ticket holder," he said. "At most, I go to 15 or 16 games a year, but I listen to every game, every time."
Overwhelmed by the number of tickets—two for each of 81 games per year—Gracie has already given away about 20 tickets to friends.
"I'll definitely be giving away more. I'll probably give about half of them to Big Brothers Big Sisters or something similar to that," he said. "I'll still get about 41 games in."
Gracie is excited to bring publicity to UB's School of Law.
"It's very cool that every article about this says 'University of Baltimore Law School,'" he said. "I think it's cool that people from Baltimore go to Baltimore schools. I didn't know much about UB when I was in high school, so it's great that something like this will draw more attention to the school."
So, what is Gracie planning to do with his cash prize? He's not going to Disneyland.
"I'm going to invest it," he said. "I've already met with one of the UB professors—I know him through my softball team at UB—to talk about the best way to invest it."
After he finishes school, he hopes to have made a solid investment that will take care of his student loans in a few years.
Gracie said that once he receives his check from the Maryland Lottery, he will "play around with a couple hundred of it. Then I'm going to buy my last textbook because my federal loan was maxed out."
Cruz, editor emeritus, can be reached at nedra.cruz@ubalt.edu.
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