Tyson Draws Upon Past in Talk With Teen Inmates

Mike Tyson, who served time for a rape conviction, drew upon his past Wednesday to tell teenagers in a tent prison outside Phoenix to get their lives together.

“You’re not here because somebody framed you, even though we all say we are,” the former heavyweight boxing champion told a group of about 15 prisoners. “Even though I didn’t take anything from that girl, I put myself in that position.”

Tyson visited the Maricopa County facility, a series of tents set up in the desert where youths convicted of crime serve sentences in a boot camp atmosphere.

He was followed by several television cameras, but said he was sincere in his belief that he could make a difference in the lives of the prisoners.

“To all the people who complain about me being here, those people should come and talk to them,” Tyson said later. “They’re scared to even look at those kids. They’re afraid that they’ll rob them.”

Tyson, who has been training in Phoenix for his Jan. 16 comeback fight against Francois Botha, drove to the prison camp in a purple Rolls-Royce after finishing five rounds of sparring in a downtown gym.

He stood inside one of the tents and spoke for about 20 minutes without stopping, telling the youths that he had been in their situations, and urged them to straighten out their lives before they’re sentenced to a real prison.

“This is a horrible place to be, but this is great if you compare it to other places,” said Tyson, who served more than three years in an Indiana prison after his 1991 conviction. “I just left prison a little while ago, and you don’t want to go there. They’ll kill you there because they don’t like the way you walk.”

Hockey

The 1998 gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic women’s ice hockey team and Hockey Hall of Famer Harry Sinden were honored with the 34th annual Lester Patrick Award, given for outstanding service to hockey in the United States.

The women’s team is only the second squad to be honored with the award, joining the 1980 U.S. men’s team, which shocked the world by winning Olympic gold at Lake Placid, N.Y.

The Americans made history in Nagano, Japan, last February, winning the first Olympic women’s hockey tournament. Coached by Ben Smith, the U.S. women went 6-0 with a 3-1 victory over defending world champion Canada in the gold-medal game.

Sinden was honored for his 36 years of service to the Boston Bruins and continuing involvement with NHL and international hockey.

A former Bruin player-coach at the minor league level, Sinden has been a part of 28 winning seasons, including 10 division championships, six conference titles and a Stanley Cup title as coach in 1970.

Sinden, 66, has been the club’s president for the last 10 years and his 27-year stint as general manager is the longest tenure of any NHL general manager.

Baseball

Outfielder Mike Kelly, who batted .240 with 10 homers and 32 runs batted in for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays last season, avoided salary arbitration by agreeing to a $500,000, one-year contract with the team. Kelly, 28, started 52 games in right field and 37 in left field, setting career highs in homers, RBIs, hits, at-bats and stolen bases. He made $235,000.

Infielder Denny Hocking and the Minnesota Twins agreed to a $775,000, two-year contract. Hocking, 28, batted .202 in 110 games for the Twins last season and made $185,000. . . . Free agent left-hander Mike Munoz agreed to a minor league contract with Oklahoma City and has been invited by the Texas Rangers to spring training as a nonroster player. Munoz, 33, was 2-2 with three saves and a 5.66 earned-run average in 40 appearances last season with the Colorado Rockies. . . . Backup catcher Mike Matheny, let go by Milwaukee earlier in the week, agreed to a one-year contract with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Miscellany

Fox Sports and Fox Sports Net will televise nine of the 11 Pep Boys Indy Racing League events in 1999. Neither Fox nor the IRL revealed exact terms of the agreement. It will be Fox Sports’ entrance into telecasting American motorsports events as the network adds to its sports portfolio, which already includes the NFL, the NHL and major league baseball.

Jesus Rojas of Venezuela won the World Boxing Assn. super-flyweight title with a unanimous decision over defending champion Satoshi Iida of Japan at Nagoya, Japan. Rojas, a former world flyweight champion, was in control after Iida suffered a shoulder injury in the fifth round. There were no knockdowns in the 12-round fight.

A women’s World Cup super-G wiped out by fog last week in Megeve, France, was rescheduled for Jan. 22 in the Italian resort of Cortina, the International Ski Federation said.

Randy Harvey is on vacation.