(This picture is not from last night)

In case you missed it, Winchester’s Alicia Sacramone stunk up the joint in the Women’s Gymnastics competition last night.    And being the humanitarian that he is Pete Manzo was on the blog 10 seconds after it was over comparing her performance to Bill Buckner in the 86 World Series.   Now I’m not here to discuss whether Alicia blew the competition for the US or whether she choked.  Because that’s not even open for debate.   The announcer even said that “the reason the girls feel so bad for her is because they’ve seen her do the routine a million times with no problem”  That is the definition of a choke.  Now would the US have won gold if Alicia didn’t keep falling down?   Maybe, maybe not.   But there is no doubt that she single handedly ruined any chance they had to win.  And don’t give me this crap about the final score either because by the time Sacramone was done with her hatchet job she had totally deflated the rest of the team and nobody cared anymore.  

But that’s not the point of this blog.  The point is whether it is out of bounds to attack Alicia Sacramone just like you would any other athlete who fucks up on such a big stage?    Clearly Manzo had no problem with it, but his heart is black and cold like a winter night.   Personally I felt terrible for Alicia.  Especially when NBC wouldn’t stop following her around and doing close ups on her face.   I think they even put an onion in front of her to try and get her to break down.    I just didn’t have the heart to rip her.   Clearly Manzo felt differently and I’m not so sure he’s out of bounds for it either.  I mean she is 20 years old.  And if the US won she’d be a hero and probably get all sorts of endorsement deals.    So isn’t that just part of the deal nowadays?    I don’t know.  It’s a tough one.   I’m curious what the Stoolies think considering they tend to be the most miserable people on earth. Personally I think it's totally fair game to rip her. I just couldn't do it because my heart is too big.

Vote 1 for Alicia should get a free pass and 10 for she should be raked over the coals