I have a rule when it comes to sports: family first. So I didn't watch any of the Red Sox-Angels game today, and only listened to bits and pieces of it. And when the Angels made their great comeback today against Billy Wagner and Jonathan Paplebon -- well, I was in an antique store with my son, Danny. (By the way, six-year-olds and antique stores don't mix well, especially when you don't allow him to touch anything. However, that ensures no breakage.)

This was a series I didn't want to see either team lose. I like teams with a plan, with a history of success and humility, and able to treat their players past and present well, and the Angels and Red Sox have done very well using those measuring rods the last decade. The Angels have had a difficult time of it this year with the death of their young pitcher, Nick Adenhart, in a drunk-driving accident (he was not driving; he was plowed into by a drunk driver -- the case hasn't gone to trial yet). I'd certainly root for them to beat the Yankees -- of course, I can't think of a team I wouldn't root for against the Yankees.

*****

Well, here's one, maybe. Now that the Cardinals are out, Tony LaRussa and Dave Duncan are being a little coy about their plans for next year. (CBS Sports has more: http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/12347467). I understand Duncan's ticked off that his son was traded, but that's the way things go in sports (talk to Felipe Alou about Moises getting dealt away sometime). Phil Rogers of The Chicago Tribune was floating the idea that Dusty Baker is going to get fired and LaRussa and Duncan would be brought in to take their place. I can see Baker getting canned, but I can't see LaRussa (who's now 65) and Duncan (64) moving to Cincinnati at this point, even if their pal Walt Jocketty is now the GM. The franchise doesn't have the backing of the city like St. Louis does (several players have taken smaller contracts for the chance to play in such a supportive environment), and Cincinnati doesn't have the talent in place yet. I don't care for LaRussa (who I find monumentally eogtistical) and Duncan (who has had a reasonable amount of success in finding talent in veterans where there was none, but has never been good at bringing up pitchers through the system without messing up their arms in the process), so that may be clouding my opinion.