Other attractions

Add to the Tampa to-do list its beaches and dozens of golf courses, Busch Gardens and numerous other tourist attractions, and it's easy to see why Tampa was once labeled "America's Next Great City."

For sports fans, there's more than baseball. Tampa's hockey franchise, the Tampa Bay Lightning, plays in the new Ice Palace. The terminally up-and-coming Buccaneers, Tampa's football team, will get a new stadium in 1998 directly across from Legends Field, perhaps in hopes that some of the Yankee aura will rub off.

But for folks living in or visiting the area during the spring, baseball is king. It keeps fans like Gourmant busy -- and happy.

"We've got tickets to games every day, sometimes two games a day," Gourmant says. "Spring training only comes along once a year, so we like to take advantage of it."

And the city of Tampa is taking advantage of being in the center of it all.

Jamie Allen, a staff writer for CNN Interactive, is a Tampa native and former baseball great.