The Toronto Blue Jays opened up a four game series this past Friday at Comerica Park in Detroit and I was personally in attendance in the Motor City for the weekend.

I will start off by saying that Comerica Park is not only a ballpark, but a full on extravaganza. The ballpark includes everything from a Merry Go Round to a Ferris Wheel to Tigers sculptures surrounding the entire park.

In comparison to Comerica Park I personally have the Rogers Centre (Skydome if you’re an actual Blue Jays fan, only tourists and business suits call the stadium by its new name). The only way I could compare the Rogers Centre to Comerica was by calling my home park an airplane hanger. The Rogers Centre is cold, with a steel roof that is barely ever open and the air resembles that of a stall bathroom. The artificial nature of not only the structure but the playing field gives the building a very cold, bleak feel.

Comerica Park felt and smelled like a true baseball field. You could smell the grass, you could smell the clay lining the home run track and finally you could smell this unique but salivating odor in the air that drew you to the origin.

That smell was represented by Sugar Coated Roasted Almonds. This was my first and hopefully not last experience with this amazing baseball treat. Obviously we do not have these in Toronto, but the Rogers Centre should certainly invest. The almonds were made fresh at the stadium and were still warm upon the opening of the package. The sugar coating with a hint of cinnamon were drool inducing.

The Tigers fans are passionate about their team and every Detroit native I passed the entire weekend, whether inside the ballpark or not, made sure to let me know they were fans via a “Blue Jays Suck” or “Tigers Rule” statement. That’s not to say the Tigers fans physically at the ball game were not hospitable, they were more than that. I just appreciate true fans of professional teams supporting their team in every way shape or form.

This is not something that I am accustomed to here in Toronto as the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees seem to outweigh the hometown Blue Jays here in Toronto.

Comerica featured more fan friendly features than I have ever witnessed before with features such as “Paws” the Tigers mascot roaming the stadium before game time taking photos with fans.

I do not see “Ace” the Blue Jays mascot wandering the Rogers Centre ever.

“Ace” likes to spend time on the field swaying during the seventh inning stretch and running into the outfield fence in a buffoon-like manner while the “Home Hardware” clean up crew cleans up the base paths in the middle innings of a Jays game.

Comerica also features a very tiny, but very useful feature in that of drink holders attached to seats. It that boggles my mind that Rogers Centre does not have this feature as it makes for quite the difficult task to enjoy a cold beer while trying to flail incoherently for a foul ball coming your way.

Finally, in my opinionated bashing comparison of the Rogers Centre to Comerica Park the Tigers put on a full ten minute fireworks display after ball games (whether they win or lose) that outdoes Victoria Day fireworks displays here in Toronto (if case you don’t know, Victoria Day is a Canadian holiday normally celebrated at our local waterfront with a fireworks display).

I could not believe that Comerica does something like this, just for the fun of it all.

Not only did I watch this once at the game I attended, I also got to see it from my hotel room in downtown Detroit the next night.

It was quite the sight and provided yet another great entertainment feature that only made me want to return to this ball park again and again, even though I’m not a Tigers fan.

Perhaps if the Rogers Centre did something along these lines more fans and families would come out to the ball park and Rogers Communications could avoid record setting attendance lows, like the two they experienced last week when the Minnesota Twins were in town.

Now, speaking of the Blue Jays in Detroit the Jays split the four game series with the Tigers.

I must be a good luck charm as they won both games on both nights I was in town, 6-4 on Friday evening, 8-6 on Saturday night, but managed to lose the afternoon game Sunday 7-2 while I was on the bus back to Toronto and blew a three run lead in the ninth last night to lose 6-5 in extra innings.

Positives for the Jays from the series include the home run distribution, eight home runs across the four game series.

Vernon Wells finally making things happen with his bat after a terrible season. Wells went 8-13 in the series with one home run, three batted in, walking three times and scoring twice.

Adam Lind recording his 100th run batted in on the season and holding onto his extra base hits lead in the American League.

The Jays let a possible series win slip out of their grasps in Detroit by only winning two out of four games when the possible third win was easily in their graps.

The Jays move onto the Big Apple in New York to battle the Yankees tonight in a short two games series.

Toronto will send ace Roy Halladay to the mound in the series opener to do battle with the Yankees sinkerballer Sergio Mitre.

For all of you football fans do not forget that I am now covering the New Orleans Saints for Gear Up for Sports @ http://saints.gearupforsports.com/blog/