By Erica Solvig
The Cincinnati Enquirer

FORT THOMAS - It was a routine trip for gas for Lynda Myers of Fort Thomas. But this time, it paid off big with 10 free tickets to the World Series.

Lynda and John Myers will be taking their children Kristina, 19 months, and Ian, 4, and six other family members to the World Series. (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

The tickets were part of the grand prize package in MasterCard's Major League Baseball memorable moments sweepstakes.

"I've never won anything like this before - not even close," said the 38-year-old mother of two.

Mrs. Myers won a four-day, three-night trip that includes airfare, hotel, and tickets to the fourth World Series game. It will be played Wednesday in San Francisco between the Giants and Anaheim Angels.

"I never even enter sweepstakes and I don't really play the lottery," she said.

She and her nine guests - her husband, two children, parents, her brother, sister-in-law and their two children - who are all from Fort Thomas, leave today. "Being from the Cincinnati area, you have to root for the Reds," Mrs. Myers said. "But since winning this, San Francisco has become my second-favorite team."

Mrs. Myers almost threw away the FedEx package that announced she was a winner, thinking it was a sales gimmick. The package arrived while she and her husband John were packing up their Edgewood home for the move to Fort Thomas earlier this month. So she had set it aside.

It wasn't until MasterCard representatives called her later that night that she realized that swiping her Shell MasterCard had really won her the trip.

All she had to do was decide whom to take.

"(Lynda) called and she said, `Do you like baseball,' " said Debbie Wilshire, Mrs. Myers' sister-in-law. "My husband said, `Yeah.' And then she said, `Do you want to go to the World Series? I just won 10 free tickets.' "

The family will get limo rides to the hotel, ballpark and other sponsored activities, including dinner in the city. On Wednesday, they'll even get to meet some of the ball players. But whom they'll meet and where the family will sit, remain a surprise.

The family decided to extend the trip into a full week's vacation, complete with lots of California sightseeing.

"Its overwhelming," she said. "All I did was buy a tank of gas."

E-mail esolvig@enquirer.com