We want our athletes to finish out their careers in blazes of stunning, championship-winning, record-shattering glory. We want them to reach the mountaintop and then declare, Alexander the Great-style, that there are no more worlds left to conquer.

A few manage that feat. Ted Williams homered in his final at-bat. John Elway won his second straight Super Bowl. And Michael Jordan drove a dagger into the hearts of the Utah Jazz just before retiring.

But sports rarely work out the way we'd like. Jordan didn't stay retired, and came back to play unspectacular ball for the Washington Wizards. Willie Mays and Joe Namath hung around just a bit too long, playing in unfamiliar uniforms and doing little to burnish their Hall of Fame legacies. You can't keep a boxer retired even if you chain him up in a basement somewhere. So many players end their careers on losses, on shattered hopes, on if-onlys and shoulda-beens.

And right now it's happening in golf. Annika Sorenstam is closing out a legendary career this weekend at the ADT Championship, and unfortunately, it's going to end two days earlier than it should have. Annika carded a 3-over 75 at the course on Friday to put her at 5 over for the first two days of the tournament. And with the cut projected at +1, it's likely her days playing on the LPGA Tour are at a close.

It's not the way she should have gone out. But sometimes things just happen that way.