A long-shot letter asking Gov. William Donald Schaefer for his tickets to Monday's Opening Day game at the new Camden Yards stadium paid off for a 10-year-old Annapolis boy.

"I feel like I've won the lottery," Ben Harrington said as he clutched a folder containing two coveted Oriole tickets at a news conference with the governor yesterday.

Ben wrote a letter to the governor last Friday after he heard that Mr. Schaefer was feeling blue and might not go to Opening Day. Mr. Schaefer decided to attend, but he got such a kick out of Ben's letter that he managed to procure a couple of extra tickets for the youngster.

Ben said he will take his mother, Maureen Harrington, to the game with him because she "won the coin flip" with his father.