This was the advice from the very popular beer guy at Dunedin Stadium where we witnessed the Blue Jays host the Tigers Sunday afternoon. As it turned out, it was a wise move to blow off the three-hour trip to see the Yankees embarrassed by the Twins in Ft. Myers. It was on this day in 1857 that baseball decided that a game would constitute nine innings, not nine runs. Reverse that rule and two of the last three Yankee losses would have ended early.

But it’s not like what we did had no interest to Yankee fans. We couldn’t have been more excited than when the public address announcer listed the Detroit lineup: “Leading off, in center field, no. 14, Austin Jackson. Batting second, designated hitter Johnny Damon…” Neither southpaw Phil Coke, who was in the same trade that sent “Ajax” to Detroit for Curtis Granderson, nor former Yankee lefty Sean Henn, who has latched on with Toronto, appeared, but when we purchased these tickets two months ago, and when Damon signed with Detroit several weeks back, this is what we were hoping for.

It was a very entertaining game, as the visiting Bengals immediately jumped on Brian Tallet for two home runs and three runs, making the numerous Tigers fans in attendance very happy. Jackson worked the Blue Jays lefthander for five pitches, then singled to left. Damon flied to center as we waited to see Jackson take off for second, but he ended up trotting around to home when Magglio Ordonez hit a first-pitch bomb to left that was not visible when it came down because it cleared some very tall trees 50 or so feet beyond the fence, some 30 feet further distant at that point than the measured 333 feet right at the foul pole. Big, strapping first baseman Ryan Strieby followed with a long home run to right center, then Tallet toughened and whiffed two straight to close the frame.

The Tigers fans had the opportunity to eat their boastful words following the three-run explosion, as the recovering from multiple injuries righty Jeremy Bonderman made Jonathan Albaladejo’s meltdown vs. the Rays yesterday look mild by comparison. Bonderman did get two outs from the nine batters he faced, the last a sac fly by Travis Snyder. This added a sixth run after Jose Bautista’s leadoff fence clearer to left and first baseman Randy Ruiz’s grand slam made the score 5-3 Jays before an out was recorded.

Given our interest, the second inning was even better, as Ajax followed a two-out Adam Everett single by working a seven-pitch walk, and Johnny D. delivered a patented just-enough short bloop base hit to right center to score a run. It thrilled us even more than the Tigers fans because Vernon Wells more than answered that tally with a two-run home run in the bottom half. That made it 8-4 with five home runs in two innings. Detroit catcher Gerald Laird, brother of young Yankee third baseman Brandon Laird, would homer in the fourth (sixth bomb of the day) to close it to 8-5, and that is how it would end five innings later.

Nate Robertson pitched well for Detroit, and Scott Downs, Shawn Camp, and a young righthander named Josh Roenicke looked good for the Jays. The ex-Yankee tabulation had Jackson at 1-for-2 with a walk and two runs scored; Damon went 1-for-3 with the one rbi. Jackson made all the plays in center, though he broke in before recovering to snag an Adam Lind drive to the warning track in the second. It’s early, but young Scott Sizemore, looked at as a likely replacement for Placido Polanco at second for Detroit, did not impress.

Dunedin Stadium, Knology Park a few years ago, bears no similarity to the state-of-the art facilities being erected for Spring games now, starting with Legends (GMS) Field and Philly’s Brighthouse Networks Field. It is old, seats no more than 5,000, and all the seating is made up of riveted rows of seats where the seat tops do not lift. Most of the parking is to be found at local businesses and homes that rent out five or 10 spaces apiece at $10, $5 is you’re willing to walk a couple of short blocks. The weather has improved so that our seats, directly behind home plate in the last row, baked beneath the sun early, but did not morph to frigid when the shade enveloped us after the almost-hour-long first inning. The sound system does not include a call for fans to yell “Charge!”, a good thing, as I may not have been able to resist letting loose, seated as we were directly beneath the crowd mic.

On the same day that the game Monopoly was invented in 1933, the Jays biggie was a rubber chicken toss, although it did come down to a “closest to the box” tiebreaker. The Jays fan beat the Tigers fan. Not a lot of bells and whistles in Dunedin. The impressively lunged Bud guy led the crowd in a no-microphone Take Me Out to the Ballgame at the seventh-inning stretch. But he made the biggest hit of the day much earlier with his signature plea to the crowd: “If you can’t catch a ball,

Catch a buzz!”