Young and Rich ... So Why Not Retire?

The sudden retirement of Ricky Williams has left fans of the Miami Dolphins feeling angry and cheated. Dan Le Batard of the Miami Herald offers some perspective:

“If a man in any other line of work gets rich, gets happy and retires from a job he no longer enjoys, we either salute him for his good fortune or envy him for removing shackles we can’t. There are many people booing Williams right now who would leap at the opportunity to quit their jobs with millions at 27 to go roam.”

Truth seeker: Williams was reached in Asia via cellphone by Le Batard on Sunday night and said his motive was simple: “I’m going in search of the truth. Everything I’m doing in my life now is about finding the truth. Football isn’t part of the truth for me anymore.”

Trivia time: Lindsay Davenport defeated Venus Williams in the semifinals and Serena Williams in the final of the JPMorgan Chase Open, which concluded Sunday at the Home Depot Center. Who was the last person to have beaten both Williams sisters in the same tournament?

Bush league: John Kerry has nothing on George Bush when it comes to throwing first pitches. Whereas Bush fired a strike from the mound before Game 3 of the 2001 World Series, Kerry threw wildly from the grass in front of the mound before Sunday’s Red Sox-Yankee game.

Wrote Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe: “Still, Kerry had better stuff than Yankee starter Jose Contreras, who yielded six runs in the first two innings” of a game in which the Red Sox prevailed, 9-6.

Thrift kick: From Tom FitzGerald of the San Francisco Chronicle: “English soccer star David Beckham’s wife, Victoria, is a real bargain hunter. According to the British press, she took sons Romeo and Brooklyn and a couple of women friends to the south of France to buy discount furniture. She reportedly spent about $460,000. But we don’t know how much she saved, considering she chartered a private Lear jet to do it.”

Xtreme danger: Freestyle BMX rider Mat “the Condor” Hoffman, who has assembled a team that will compete in the X Games next week in Los Angeles, was asked recently about the sport’s inherent danger.

“All I can say is, thank God for medical science,” said Hoffman, who has endured 15 major surgeries and once flat-lined in the emergency room after rupturing his spleen in a crash.

Looking back: On this day in 1996, Canada’s Donovan Bailey set a world record at the Atlanta Olympics when he won the 100 meters in 9.84 seconds. His triumph was overshadowed by a pre-dawn pipe-bomb explosion in Centennial Park, which left one dead and more than 100 injured.

Trivia answer: Kim Clijsters of Belgium defeated Venus Williams in the semifinals of the 2002 WTA Tour Championships and Serena Williams in the final. Venus retired with an injury during the semifinal, as she did Saturday against Davenport.

And finally: The Late Show’s David Letterman last week offered his “Top 10 Signs Lance Armstrong Is Getting Cocky.” Atop the list: “Has started selling ad space on his” backside.