Last week, millions of households witnessed the Winchester, MA native and Olympian gymnast, Alicia Sacramone, and her struggles in Beijing.

After a horrific fall on the balance beam (which might have cost the U.S. a gold medal), she was inevitably robbed of a medal by the Olympic judges during the vault competition. Sacramone completed two clean attempts while China’s Cheng Fei made a costly(?) error by landing on her knees while attempting her second vault jump.

Apparently a gymnast can now earn a bronze medal even with a fall, as Cheng Fei captured the bronze medal due to the “difficulty of her vaults.”

Alicia, you were robbed, and that sucks.

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So why am I writing about Sacramone and women’s gymnastics? Well, for one, I was one who was caught up in the drama that is the Olympic judging. Also, Alicia is not your ordinary gymnast. What makes her different?

• She’s a Bostonian — got to love that.
• She can knock you out — check out this video.
• She’s not your typical China-doll, 4′5″, 80lb gymnast.
• She’s an Ivy-league college student (lots of gymnasts are barely 18).
• Let’s face it: she’s easy on the eyes.

Sacramone earned a silver medal with her U.S. teammates and was robbed of a bronze. Not too shabby at all.

So how do I tie this in with the Red Sox?

I’m not sure if Jed Lowrie is single, but he’s just a few years older and also attended a sort of prestige school (Stanford), so the two of them have something in common.

Jed, you might want to take a look into that.

Clay Buchholz almost managed to throw a quality start for the first time since the end of April, but a shaky third inning that lead to 3 runs was all that Gil Meche and the Kansas City Royals needed, as they defeated the Red Sox in a close-knit contest, 4-3.

Buchholz didn’t help his own cause in the third inning, allowing 2 walks and a hit batsman with the bases loaded. Clay didn’t have close to his best stuff, once again. The same reason he was sent to the minors (tinkering with the control of his fastball) was his ultimate downfall, as his fastball was erratic. He even surrendered a walk to Jose Guillen. Guillen has a grand total of 14 walks in 406 at bats in 2008. After the walk of Guillen, Buchholz grazed the jersey of catcher John Buck, the same John Buck who hits at .244 in 2008 with a robust .238 lifetime average. Buck’s HBP scored Alex Gordon and that’s all the scoring the Royals needed to suffice.

The Sox tried to make it close in the 9th, but fell short, allowing Joakim Soria to notch his 32nd save of the season. The Red Sox managed to get the bases loaded with two-out, but David Dejesus tracked down a scorching line drive off the bat of Sean Casey to end the game. When Casey ripped it I thought for sure it was going to be a double down the line.

Analysis: Clay Buchholz is looking more like the fireballer straight out of the California Penal League, Ricky Vaughn. Buchholz doesn’t have the same zip on the #1, but the wild ways with his heater isn’t complementing his plus breaking stuff including a 12-6 curveball and nasty changeup. The kid has the stuff, he just needs to put it all together. It’s a waiting game with the rookie, and we are all aboard for the ride.

Do you think he’s been tampering too much with the off-speed stuff? Is he in love with his breaking stuff? Let’s see what Harry Doyle has to say:

“As you know, Buchholz been working on a couple of new pitches, the Eliminator and the Humilator, to complement his fastball, the Terminator.

Alex Gordon hit’s a HR.

…that looked like the Terminator, only slower. Maybe it was his out-of-stater, or it could have been the Hibernator–that baby is definitely going away for the winter. Whatever for Clay, it might be see-ya-later. He’s probably gonna become a spectator”

Maybe he needs to don a pair or thick, black-skulled glasses in order to be effective. It would be quite a show to see.

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Although losing to the Royals can be considered somewhat embarrasing, no team in the AL East gained any ground. The Rays and the Yankees lost 5-2 and 9-6, respectively. We have some good news for the Red Sox & their fans tonight, as Yankee SP Joba Chamberlain left the game with what is considered to be a right shoulder injury.

Without Joba, the Yankees will be in way too deep, which by October we’ll be seeing A-Rod, Jeter, Pettitte, and Mussina on the golf course in Florida.

Long time Boston Globe Sox beat writer, Gordon Edes, has officially left the Boston Globe to be a national baseball writer for Yahoo Sports out in sunny California. Edes spent close to 12 years at the Globe and is better known for, in former Sox outfielder Carl Everett’s words, as “CHB’s(curly-haired boy’s) boyfriend”, referring to the mop-top of Globe columnist, Dan Shaughnessy.

In Edes’ last piece at the Globe, he broke the news that former outfielder Manny Ramirez and his agent, Scott Boras, were ready to play fair in Boston and drop all the antics if Boston agreed to not pick up Ramirez’ option at the end of the year. The piece forshadowed that all of Manny’s antics during the last few months of his stay in Boston was all a stage. Ramirez and Boras weren’t in control of Manny’s contract, therefore, they took measures to make sure he get out.

If you’re an Edes fan, don’t feel worried. I’m sure he’ll be covering more of the Sox, just for YahooSports . He also has a chance to deliver on the national stage, covering all of baseball.

For the past couple nights Kevin Youkilis has donned a sweet pair of goggles to help cover that nasty swollen eye after being hit with a throw from Mike Lowell. That thing looked more damaged than Brett Myers’ girlfriend in the middle of the Boston streets. Let’s hope Youk can make a full recovery and beat this swollen eye. If not, at least we can check out some really cool pair of goggles.

To help renown Youk’s new pair of eye wear I’ve come up with a list of the top 5 athletes who deserve to be recognized for their superior representation that is……The Goggled Athlete. Four of these guys just happen to play basketball, but of course, the guy who tops our list comes from the great sport of America’s past time.

Just to make things more clear, each player can make their case for claiming the top spot…but the final 2 was an absolute toss-up.

(h/t to Center Field for providing the Youk pic.) (more…)

When you think about bad drafts of the past 10 years, two teams come to mind. The Celtics and the Clippers. Now that the Green are basking in all kinds of championship glory and the Clips are back in the lottery, slotted at number 7 of tomorrow’s draft, let’s take a look at how each team could field a team of stiffs over the past 10 to 15 years.

Center: Eric Montross vs. Michael Olowokandi

The Red Flags were up on both of these guys coming into draft night. Montross, a big, plodding white guy came out of UNC with very limited athleticism. Olowokandi was a young man who played against inferior competition at Pacific, and had only played basketball for a few years before he was drafted. The Kandi Man’s 8+ points per game takes it to Montross in this game: Advantage Clippers.

Power Forward: Jerome Moiso vs. Melvin Ely

Pitino loved Moiso’s athletic ability, only problem was that ability blinded the fact that Moiso had no basketball skills or intelligence. Moiso, the 11th pick of the 2000 draft never made a mark on the NBA, finishing his ho-hum career with the Sixers in 2005. Melvin Ely, the 12th pick in 2002, is still a serviceable backup in the league. He has averaged only 6 points and 3 rebounds in a forgettable stint with the Clips, Bobcats, Spurs, and Hornets. Ely would pound Moiso’s fragile frame on the block: Advantage Clippers.

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