Thomas, Tyson Spar a Bit Outside Ring

Pinklon Thomas and Mike Tyson won’t fight for the heavyweight title until next month, but they got together recently in New York to quarrel, as only boxers can.

“I made a mistake and lost my title (to Trevor Berbick in March 1986), but I’ve got the opportunity to win it back again,” Thomas said. “I respect Mike to the utmost, but he’s going to get whupped on May 30.”

“Like you whupped Berbick, right?” taunted Tyson, who won the World Boxing Council title by demolishing Berbick in two rounds last November. “This could be a very short fight. It will end as soon as he gets hit.”

“You got a squeaky little voice,” Thomas came back, pointing a finger in Tyson’s face. “Is your name Mike Tyson or Michael Jackson?”

“Come on, be a hero in front of your woman,” Tyson replied, thrusting his chin out. “Take your best shot.”

Said Thomas later: “He’s a good kid, but he’s just that--a kid in his mind. He doesn’t know what it means to be hit or to lose. I’ll show him how to lose.”

Trivia Time: Todd Worrell of the St. Louis Cardinals set the National League record for saves by a rookie last year with 36. Who holds the American League mark? (Answer below).

From the Denver Post, on the August exhibition game between the Rams and the Denver Broncos in London:

“An English publication called First Down, which deals with American football, recently ran a poll of its readers about the National Football League. The readers ranked their favorite team, and the Broncos finished fourth in the league behind the New York Giants, the Washington Redskins and the Miami Dolphins.

“The poor Rams were rated 14th. The poor Rams, in fact, won a booby prize of sorts. The English fans voted them as the most boring team in the league.”

What a difference a continent makes.

Triple jumper Willie Banks, the UCLA law graduate, knows all about the reaction track stars get in Europe. And he knows all about what they don’t get closer to home, sometimes in their own backyard.

“When I got to a meet in Finland, there were all these press people and flashing lights, as if I was a rock star,” he said. “If I walked off the track, I’d just be mugged.”

Quite a difference from UCLA, where he is preparing to open his 1987 season next month.

“A few friends say hello,” he said.

He won’t threaten Bobby Orr’s records, but Brad Marsh of the Philadelphia Flyers has earned another distinction as an NHL defenseman. He may go down in history for inspiring the only G-rated chant at Madison Square Garden in recent memory.

During the warm-ups for each of the recent playoff games between the Flyers and the New York Rangers, won by Philadelphia, Marsh skated into the crease to fish pucks out of his net and pass them to teammates at the blue line. On cue, the fans chanted, “Who does your hair? Who does your hair?”

Marsh, whose coiffure is a cross between a brush cut and a bad dream, laughed each time.

“I just stop at any barber shop, not a hair salon,” he told Helene Elliott of Newsday. “I wanted it this short. It makes me go faster.”

Trivia Answer: Doug Corbett, with 23 for the Minnesota Twins in 1980.

Quotebook

Larry Sheets of the Baltimore Orioles, on Juan Nieves’ recent no-hitter: “No big deal. I’ve been no-hit plenty of nights.”