Sports Briefs

Annika Sorenstam ignored her notes and spoke from the heart. One of golf’s greatest players was leaving the game, and she handled her retirement announcement the way she would a 10-foot birdie putt with a tournament on the line.
With command and composure.
Calling her decision one she’d “been thinking about for a while,” Sorenstam said Tuesday she will retire after the season. The 37-year-old Swede ends an LPGA Tour career in which she has won 72 tournaments to date and delivered a defining moment when she teed it up against the men on the PGA Tour.
“I have made a decision to step away from competitive golf after this season,” she said at the Sybase Classic. “Obviously this was a very difficult decision for me to make because I love this game so much. But it’s the right one.”
Her final event will be the Dubai Ladies Masters after the LPGA Tour season ends.
“I’m leaving the game on my terms,” she said.
“I respect Annika for wanting to go out on top,” LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens said. “I’m surprised with the timing, but it’s the way she wants to do it. In the long run, she’ll have just as much of an impact outside the game of golf, if not more.”
Spygate continues
NEW YORK (AP) — Former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh disclosed no new rules violations in the Spygate scandal during his meeting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell or in the tapes that the league released Tuesday.
The clips, shown after Walsh’s nearly 3 1/2-hour meeting with Goodell, cut between shots of opposing coaches sending in signals and the play that followed.
“The fundamental information that Matt provided was consistent with what we disciplined the Patriots for last fall,” said Goodell, who didn’t anticipate punishing the team any further.
The most scandalous part of the tapes shown before Goodell’s news conference had nothing to do with stealing signals — it was several minutes of close-ups of San Diego Chargers cheerleaders performing during a 2002 game.
Walsh did not comment after leaving the NFL offices and left through a different exit to avoid the media following his afternoon meeting with Sen. Arlen Specter in Washington. Specter, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been critical of the NFL’s handling of the investigation.
Specter postponed his news conference to Wednesday when his meeting with Walsh ran long.
The Spygate investigation began after the NFL confiscated tapes from a Patriots employee who recorded the New York Jets’ defensive signals from the sideline during the 2007 opener. New England coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000, while the team was fined $250,000 and forced to forfeit its 2008 first-round draft choice.
Pro tennis twins rescue two from hotel blaze
BORDEAUX, France (AP) — Twin brothers who play professional tennis as a doubles team helped the wife and son of another doubles player escape from a hotel fire.
Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana of Thailand were making their way through thick, black smoke to exit their hotel when they heard someone calling for them.
It was the wife of Lucas Arnold Ker, who like the twins is in town for a Challenger Series tournament.
“After we got out of the room, we made some noise: ‘Is somebody still here?”’ Sanchai said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “She called, ’This way! this way!”’
The twins, who have won two titles on the ATP tour and expect to play at the French Open later this month, entered the room and found Arnold Ker’s wife and son.
“First, she wanted to use the blanket to go out the window,” Sanchai said. “But I said, ’We can find the exit.”’
Sanchai said they left the room and re-entered the smoke-filled hallway with wet towels wrapped around the heads of the woman and boy. They then saw someone open the fire exit door, and the four got out safely.
“OK, maybe we helped her, but she helped us,” Sanchai said. “If she didn’t call us, maybe we wouldn’t have found the exit. She saved our lives also.”
The brothers later learned that the fire started in another room on the third floor. No one was hurt, Sanchai said.
New pitcher for Pirates
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The Pittsburgh Pirates purchased the contract of right-handed reliever Marino Salas from Triple-A Indianapolis on Tuesday.
Salas replaced righty John Van Benschoten, demoted to the minors Monday after losing to Atlanta in the second game of a doubleheader. Van Benschoten, a first-round draft pick in 2001, was 0-2 with a 9.39 ERA in four games this season.
Salas was acquired from the Brewers for Salomon Torres in December and is in the majors for the first time. He was 2-0 with two saves and an 0.77 ERA in 14 appearances at Indianapolis.
In, out of the Indy 500
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Like a yo-yo on a string, Graham Rahal was in the Indianapolis 500, then out, then in, then out again, then in ... well, you get the picture.
The 19-year-old son of former Indy winner Bobby Rahal has the distinction of being the only driver ever bumped from the lineup three times on the first day of qualifying. And the crazy thing about Indy’s new format is that he can still get a spot as high as 12th in the starting lineup for the May 25 race.
“I feel pretty comfortable that we can solidly be in the field, so we’ll take a little wing out Saturday morning and go for it,” Rahal said.
The top 11 spots were determined the first day of qualifying on Saturday, but rain Sunday washed out the second day, leaving next weekend as the final opportunity for Rahal and some two dozen other drivers to make the 33-car field. The track was closed Monday and Tuesday, and practice is scheduled to resume Wednesday.
“We’re going to focus this week, I would imagine, on race setup,” Rahal said, confident he’ll be in the lineup somewhere. “I think we really need to focus on having a good race car here. Of course, qualifying is important, but the race is what it really comes down to.”
Seahawk arrested
KIRKLAND, Wash. (AP) — Seattle Seahawks linebacker Lofa Tatupu was arrested during the weekend for investigation of drunken driving.
The three-time Pro Bowler was stopped early Saturday, Kirkland police said. An arrest report said Tatupu had breath tests of .155 and .158 — the legal limit is .08.
The arresting officer wrote he saw a car driven by Tatupu speeding and changing lanes without signaling. The officer said he smelled alcohol, and Tatupu said he had not been drinking.
Tatupu’s car was impounded and he was taken to the police station for a breath test.
The Seahawks signed Tatupu to a $42 million contract extension in March.