Baseball season is here! The action starts on Sunday, April 3 with three matchups, including ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball game, and then really kicks into gear with 12 games on Opening Day, which also happens to be Square Root Day, April 4.

When I was a girl, I loved baseball because I loved watching the boys — on the field and off. But now, when the "boys of summer" return, I'm in it mostly for the game. Mostly.

Real baseball fans know that the game isn't the only reason to head out to the ballpark. Ballparks have dozens of attractions and amenities now, including our own Tropicana Field which has a 10,000 gallon fish tank where you can see and touch cownose stingrays. Fans like me care about a great ballpark almost as much as whether our team is winning. And "The Trop" as we call it around here, gives Rays fans a truly great place to go on game day.

But it's still the universal experience of a day at the park that keep fans going back to games. Things like like tailgating with friends, the smells of greasy food, doing "the wave" and singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at the top of our lungs in the seventh-inning stretch...that's the stuff summer days are made for!

And getting an eyeful of the boys of summer, well, that doesn't hurt either.

Your "Batter Up" Gift Guru,
Linda