Annika: Don't Let The Drug Testing Trailer Door Hit You On The Way To Retirement
Beth Ann Baldry sums up Annika Sorenstam's surreal LPGA farewell:
It will be impossible for those in attendance Friday to forget how one of the LPGA’s greatest players ended her career. It was disappointing that several seats behind the 18th green were empty when she doffed her cap. It was emotional when she talked about how the urge to cry sat in her throat all week long. It was both comical and crazy to hear her spend several minutes of her final interview talking about an upcoming drug test.
Steve Elling explains what happened and offers this on the need to test the retiree two weeks after another test.
"I have no idea, but they're not going to let me go," she said, forcing a laugh. "Yeah, I guess you get tested every other week now."
Another 20 minutes later, she hadn't cooled off. As she packed up her SUV for the drive home, she pointed at the portable testing center and said with a dismissing wave, "I sat in that beautiful trailer."
Jill Pilgrim, the LPGA administrator who handles the testing, said the organization has no choice but to screen any player whose number comes up -- otherwise the whole process becomes tainted if exceptions are granted.
"At the end of the day, if the LPGA does not follow the protocol, and we are brought into litigation or arbitration, we will be liable for not following the protocol," she said. "We follow the protocol because we want to keep everything fair for every player."That's the way you keep it fair. The procedures don't vary because of any particular set of circumstances."
Even for an organization known for making head-shaking decisions over the years, this ranks at the bottom of the latrine in terms of asinine, idiotic developments. After 15 memorable seasons in which she often carried the tour on her capable back, Sorenstam isn't playing next year, making the whole testing issue decidedly moot.
Ron Sirak writes:
Still, it's hard to imagine any LPGA player would have complained if Sorenstam had been allowed to slide in her last event. What were they going to do is she failed? Suspend her retirement?
And if you choose to remember her career in a more positive light, Larry Dorman files a lovely career send off for the New York Times. And GolfDigest.com offers this shrine to the great one's epic career.
Friday, November 21, 2008 at 07:53 PM
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Reader Comments (20)
the timing is a little strange, but the notion that she shouldn't have to give a test because she's annika sorenstam, or because she has supposedly 'retired' (count me among those who don't believe she'll stay gone) is nonsense.
either you have a random testing policy or you don't. and if your number comes up, shut up and give the sample. if you don't like it then work to rescind the policy.
Raymond
The reality is the process is tainting the sport.
Trust but verify implies a lack of it.
I'm sorry she helped the press make an issue out of this, but I still regard her as one of the classiest and most accomplished athletes of all time.
Are you saying that you would prefer no testing? (That is my preference).
However, if there is a testing program then, IMO, it has to have no exceptions.
As Geoff so eloquently and relentlessly points out, the captains of these ships are not navigating this complex sport very well.
The whole issue smacks of "I was only following orders."
Everyone believes they are deadly, and point to the large number of pro wrestlers who have died at an early age supposedly due to steroid abuse.
The thing is, if steroids were as rampant in baseball over the past 15 years as has been suggested by many, why haven't we seen baseball players dying at an early age?
The real problem with the wrestlers that likely caused their deaths is the abuse of painkillers and sleeping aids, not steroids.
HGH may be illegal, but there's no reliable test for it. Does anyone honestly believe that no one in golf, particularly older players, is using this?
I honestly don't have a problem with it. My only wish is that they were more affordable and available so I could use them.
This is one of the greatest women athletes of all time, and wants to go home and have babies, and all you can post is that "she can't break the rules" or if its "her turn" even if she was tested two weeks ago, the so be it.
What the hell is going on, is the LPGA hoping that a surprise drug test will have a posotive result and they can therefore gain a lot of "press" by having one of their star players forever disgraced?
Give me a f*****g break.
Are you suggesting that AS should have been exempt from testing because she has the best record or was on the verge of retirement?
"Turns" in a random system don't work such that a player who was tested two weeks ago is safe from being tested again this week. If players knew when they were going to be tested then the system would be easy to elude.
Let's say that in one of those highly publicized DEA sweeps of crooked phamacists, credit card receipts from paula, boo, suzann and sergio are found for steroids and HGH. That would be calamitous for the players (of course) but if there was no organized testing, the Tours would have much explaining to do. It could be a catasptrophe for the LPGA.
FWIW, if John Daly falls over dead one day, the tour would be percieved to have "allowed" it to happen due to inaction because of the box office. Not saying it's fair, just saying.
Put another way, membership in the LPGA is not a "right," so any argument about "erosion of freedom" is baseless. The women of the LPGA have the freedom to CHOOSE to join the LPGA or not. If they don't like the terms of membership, they don't have to join.
My country club doesn't let me play on Mondays. I'm free to pay the monthly dues and remain a member or not.
To the person who brought up the point that if anyone was suspected of doing drugs it was Annika, and thus this system stood to provide HER with more benefit than perhaps anyone else (as individuals), kudos. That's a good point and one I find relevant and valid.
Raymond
If Golf says anything goes (steroids, HGH etc) it would basically oblige EVERYONE who plays that sport to get juiced. So if your child wants a collge scholarship, they would have to juice in 9th grade to keep up.
That is not good.
being the suspissious old bastard that i am i think the LPGA was looking for a scoop
frankD