" Where have you gone, Martha Burk?"

The Orlando Sentinel's Mike Bianchi manages to turn some mildly oblivious responses from Annika and Nancy Lopez into a hysterical (in more ways than one) rant about the lack of photo-opportunistic feminist leadership in sports. 

Brace yourselves... 

Her response -- correction: her non-response -- is both shocking and disappointing.

Here's the exchange between Annika Sorenstam and me Wednesday during her pre-tournament news conference for the LPGA Ginn Open:

"Annika, some derogatory comments were made about the Rutgers women's basketball team the other day; obviously, you've heard about them . . ."

Before I can finish, Annika stops me cold with her response.

"No, I haven't."

You haven't?

"No," she says, shaking her head.

Uncomfortable pause.

All I can think of to say at this point is, "Never mind."

All she can think of to say is, "Sorry."

Yeah, I'm sorry, too.

Sorry because herein lies the colossal problem facing female athletes in their ongoing battle against sexism in the sports arena: Nobody cares enough to speak up or stand up for them.

Where have you gone, Martha Burk?

A gender turns its lonely eyes to you.

Oy. 

Comments

[the village idiot]

Surprise! A newspaper guy complaining about how people don't read the paper. The good news: Annika will never know he dissed her. (Unless Steiny tells her so.)

[Smolmania]

Is he talking about Annika or Nancy Lopez? I read the link as indicating it's Nancy Lopez, which in my view is even more egregious as (I think) she's the mother of young girls. Either way, the world is certainly filled with clueless people, and being a hall of fame golfer is not a bar to that.

[Chuck]

Although Annika's command of the English language is mostly flawless, this particular exchange might require some translation. When Annika said "No... Sorry...", what she meant in her native tongue was as follows; "Clearly, you want me to wade into that particular culture-war swamp with you for your own journalistic benefit. And I don't feel like doing that, if you don't mind. Don't read too much into it. If you think there was some kind of important gender-equity issue buried in the Don Imus celebrity food-fight, you go for it, boy. As for Martha Burk, I had a better year than she did."

[ford]

what a lousy column. "i asked a Annika a question about someting she knew nothing about"

Couldnt the guy have:

1-asked somebody else the same question

2-asked annika a different question

either would have made a better column

[littlechuckie]

Neither Annika or Nancy are living in a vacuum, which is the only condition under which they would have no knowledge of the Imus issue. So instead of saying, "I can't add anything to this that has not already been stated", they simply chose to plead ignorance. And by doing so they were subjected to momentary criticism by the author (which will soon be forgotten), but avoided having to answer further questions. It's not always easy to respond to unexpected controversial questions with precise carefully worded replies that leave no doubts. Disambiguation is central to the training of attorneys, not professional athletes.

[NRH]

Sorry Mike, never heard of Don Imus or Rutgers. You might want to ask Natalie, she's out back signing calendars.

[Eye On Golf]

Geoff, Sorry you're losing your touch. That stuff is about as funny as watching those stupid family sitcoms. Bianchi ought to stay with reporting on Junior Golf in Central Florida.

[Hawkeye]

Chuck, as a compatriot of Annika's I can assure you that her command of English is every bit as good as her command of Swedish. In other words, she really didn't mean anything but "Nej... Tyvärr" in her native tongue. She's just that kind of person, regardless of what language she speaks in.

[tjrenolds]

Leave it to a couple of professional women who have "theirs" and couldn't care more about the women behind them.

What? When read the Don Imus quote they still didn't have a response?

When viewed under the correct context, and by this no-responce, responce, maybe Don Imus has it right! When the Titanic was sinking what majority of gender got into those life boats? To see how little women have progressed since that tragic event is sad. Martha Burke was before her time, just like Dr. King and I have a dream.