Off the AP wire:
Trot Nixon called on commissioner Bud Selig to consider having fewer games between division rivals in order to lessen tensions between rivals.One day after Red Sox pitcher Julian Tavarez punched Tampa Bay's Joey Gathright, Nixon said having teams play division 19 times each season can build up stress.
"This is a prime example of why Bud Selig needs to take a look at teams playing each other 19 ... times a year," Nixon said Tuesday.
Yeah, I'm sure MLB will seriously consider any plan to have the Red Sox and the Yankees playing less often than they do now.
UPDATE: MLB Marketing is testing a number of new slogas to reflect Nixon's thinking:
Baseball Fever: You Gotta Dial It Back
I Need To Love This Game A Little Less
MyMLB Is Making Me Nervous
Feel free to add your own.
Yes Trot, that’s just what the doctor order.
Less meaningful games! Unbalance the schedule even more!
We’ll just ignore the fact that Tavarez would be a jackass even if he played every team just once year.
Also that almost all of these “incidents” are incited by Red Sox pitchers flinging fists and fastballs toward opposing players.
Maybe he was confusing Major League Baseball with the National Hockey League. I like Trot as a Red Sox fan.
But I don’t like his idea nor do I see how the familiarity from playing divisional rivals so often throughout the regular contributed in any way to Julian Tavares punching out a player from Tampa Bay when this season is his FIRST SEASON in Boston and in the AL East.
In other words, choose a better example, Trot.