U.S. Women Slip, Fall Towards Silver

One night after we witnessed overwhelming elation from the U.S. men's gymnastics team while celebrating its bronze-medal-winning performance, Alicia Sacramone represented the other side of the Games: heartbreak. After falling off the beam and falling to the mat on the floor, Sacramone handed the Chinese a runaway victory for the country's first gold medal in the women's team gymnastics competition. They join the men's squad in sweeping team gymnastics gold. Now it's pretty evident that the Chinese are using little girls for this event--and every other gymnastics competition. There is apparently evidence that a few of the young "women" are actually 14 and 15, and not the requisite 16. But this practice occurs most every Olympics by many other countries other than China. We hear the whispers every four years. It's a similar, but less prevalent, problem to doping. But rather than talk about either issue, I choose to focus strictly on the competition because I don't see either problem really going away anytime soon.

On the baseball beat, even in a winnable AL Central, the Tigers bullpen just wouldn't allow the club to get back in the race. All season it has been an issue, and it continues to be even with the additions of Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney off of the disabled list recently. I wonder if Zumaya will ever be able to close out games consistently...I know the game was the exception to the norm, so no pitcher was very effective, but Manny Delcarmen's struggles this year have really hurt the Red Sox. With the trade of Craig Hansen, the Sawx better hope Justin Masterson and Michael Bowden pan out. I think Masterson definitely will, especially because he is a ground ball pitcher...Chris Volstad has been very steady in his short time in the Marlins rotation...Is that Randy Johnson really giving the D-Backs quality starts?...The once-stingy Phillies bullpen is showing signs of fragility...Finally, Damaso Marte gave up two more earned runs in a third of an inning last night. His Yankees ERA stands at 11.05.