Catwalk Fallout: Day 2

There are people who periodically argue that the Trop is just fine. They just lost the argument. The Trop is not fine. The Trop needs to be bulldozed, replaced by a stadium where the players – not flawed engineers – determine who wins and loses.

The Tampa Tribune's Joe Henderson makes a fair point following yesterday's catwalk catastrophe for the Rays.

And even though I've written in the past that The Trop isn't as bad as the team makes it sound, I admit: it's a less-than-ideal home for a baseball team. Local leaders need to start the process of planning a new park now.

The problem is, those same leaders have their hands full with more pressing issues. Are two catwalk accidents in 13 years enough reason to force the $500+ million issue immediately?

The St. Pete Times' John Romano writes that the timing of Joe Maddon's complaints are "off."

The stadium situation is too important and too volatile to be politicized at this moment. It would sort of be like Mayor Bill Foster saying the Rays don't deserve a new stadium when Carl Crawford leaves as a free agent.

As I said yesterday, the catwalk plays the same for both teams just like a small strike zone, the wind blowing out at Wrigley, or Fenway Park's monsterously-tall-but-monsterously-shallow left field wall.

After all, I don't remember hearing stories of Don Zimmer calling for a new Fenway in 1978 after a Bucky Dent pop-up cost the Red Sox the division...