I’ve been thinking about the match-ups we’ll see on our trip, and which teams we’ll be rooting for. I think Jim would agree that the default, absent other reasons to root for (Say, that they’re the Cardinals) or against (Say, that they’re the Braves) a team, would be to root for the home team.

But mitigating factors do affect several games on this trip. So here’s my first pass at the rooting plan:

Game 1: Swing
Game 2: Cardinals
Game 3: White Sox (over the Tigers. Sorry, Detroit, but local interest comes first.)
Game 4: Red Sox (over the Blue Jays. Sorry, Toronto, but toppling the Yankees comes first.)
Game 5: Expos
Game 6: Red Sox
Game 7: Phillies
Game 8: Cardinals (over the Pirates. Sorry, Pittsburgh, but you guys had to see this one coming.)
Game 9: White Sox (over the Indians. Sorry, Cleveland, but that team name’s got to go. And take that offensive logo with it, why don’t you?).
Game 10: Ooh. This is a tough one. I want to root for the Brewers over the Pirates, because they’re the home team and I love Wisconsin. But I just don’t know that I can root for a team owned by Bud Selig. I may have to root for the Pirates, despite their being owned by Kevin McClatchy.