Mike Tyson

Sympathy is for Susan Smith's two little boys. Sympathy is for your neighbor who lost her husband. Sympathy is even for your friend who has a really bad day.Sympathy is not for Richie Parker.Parker is the high school basketball star who got a slap on the wrist from the New York City court system. He and a friend had lured a 15-year-old classmate under a school stairwell and forced her to perform a sexual act. Plea bargaining reduced the rape charge to sexual abuse, and Parker got off with a five-year probation.

All morning long, on every sports and news show on TV, they've been showing the clip. You know the one . The one that shows Los Angeles Lakers forward Metta World Peace viciously throwing the elbow that floored Oklahoma City Thunder guard James Hardenin the Lakers' 114-10 double overtime win Sunday. I've seen it at least 30 times. It's an absolutely brutal blow. And a classic cheap shot. It wasn't in the same league as the infamous haymaker Kermit Washington delivered to the face of Rudy Tomjanovich 35 years ago, but it was gutless and sneaky, behavior we've come to expect to expect from the hilariously-named World Peace.

"Thank you for this opportunity."Saturday night was the worst night of my professional career as a boxer, and I am here today to apologize, to ask the people who expected more from Mike Tyson to forgive me for snapping in that ring and doing something that I have never done before and will never do again."I apologize to the world, to my family and to the Nevada State Athletic Commission that has always treated me fairly, to Judge Patricia Gifford, who knows that I am proud to be living up to the terms of my probation.

I do my best web surfing during lunch, and as I chowed down on a tasty turkey, cheddar and avocado sandwich, I stumbled across a segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live where Mike Tyson analyzed the tattoos of NBA players Kobe Bryant, Kenyon Martin and DeShawn Stevenson. He also danced. Enjoy the video while I finish my lunch.

Free at last after serving three years in prison for rape, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson returned to his native Harlem Tuesday acting like a martyred hero."

ON A SCALE of 1 to 10, women appear to be the angriest people in America. They're even angrier than New York Mets fans.Not all women, of course. There are those who have a sense of mirth and seldom gnash their teeth or let their nostrils quiver.The angry women are the many who seem to believe that all men are cruel, sexist beasts, constantly looking for ways to do them physical or mental harm. They see enemies in trousers everywhere.I've been hearing from them lately. They are fuming over a column I wrote about boxer Mike Tyson being sued for $100 million because he placed a hand on the buttock of a beauty queen while posing for a picture.

The only thing Mike Tyson has done really well in his life is to punch people until they fall down.For this, he became a hero.OK, we're all agreed that the concept of heroism can be confusing. When we talk about sports heroes, for example, we certainly don't mean they're real heroes. A real-life hero is somebody who runs inside a burning building to pull out the baby left inside.Sports heroes are heroes in the sense that they're bigger than life. So, sure, Cal Ripken is a hero, even if the most heroic thing he's done is to show up to work every day. I'm here most days myself, but I'm not expecting a parade.

LAS VEGAS -- Mike Tyson, once the enfant terrible of the heavyweight class, turns 25 today, but his future never has been so uncertain. He is all dressed up, but with no place to go.Tyson also finds himself minus a championship belt.Since losing his title 16 months ago in an upset by James "Buster" Douglas, he has won four straight fights, including Friday night's overwhelming, 12-round decision over Donovan "Razor" Ruddock, who was hospitalized with a fractured jaw after his drubbing at The Mirage.

Kevin Rooney acknowledges that when he was growing up, trouble always seemed to be right around the corner. Rooney said he considered himself a ringleader during those days in Staten Island, N.Y. - his fists earning him the respect of teenage peers on the streets as well as an occasional night in jail. Rooney later turned to fighting as a career, first as a boxer and then as the trainer who guided Mike Tyson to the heavyweight championship. That relationship ended in acrimony, but Rooney, 49, is still training fighters.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - When Mike Tyson talks, the media listen. Then they write, film and broadcast to a world that can scarcely await his next move. "The public's interest in Mike Tyson is prurient fascination. He's a guy that's pure hate, that doesn't care who he offends, that flaunts his savagery and his sexuality and his craziness," said Lou DiBella, a former HBO executive who was involved in four of Tyson's bouts, including his loss to Buster Douglas. "It's the same thinking that made O.J. a bigger story than what was going on in Afghanistan and the Middle East," he said.

Horse racing Jockey 'not likely to walk' after accident, agent says Jockey Rene Douglas may be paralyzed after being thrown from his mount during a race at Arlington Park, his agent said. Dennis Cooper said Douglas spent seven hours in surgery on Sunday at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital and afterward doctors told him his client could not feel his lower limbs. Cooper said doctors won't know Douglas' status for certain until swelling reduces in about two weeks. "They said he might not walk again ... he'll probably have use of his upper body, but they gave it to me straight that he's not likely to walk," Cooper told Bloodhorse.

1 MIAA soccer clash: The No. 4 McDonogh boys get back on the field after falling to Perry Hall and losing their top ranking. The Dons travel to No. 2 Mount St. Joseph for a 4 p.m. match. 2 No snap : Football coach Ralph Friedgen has his weekly news conference today, when he'll try to explain how he'll keep his Terps up for Eastern Michigan after their upset of California. 3 Same old September: Stumbling toward the finish again, the Orioles start their last road trip of the season tonight in Toronto (7:07 p.m., MASN2)

Dear Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick: So, it's a black thing? Not a sleaze thing, not a betrayal-of-the-public-trust thing, not a breaking-the-law thing? Just a black thing? This would seem to be the message of the recent rally thrown for you at a black church in Detroit. It was, to judge from media reports, quite the shindig. Standing room only; gospel choirs doing that gospel choir thing; posters in red, black and green; chants of "I can make it through the storm!" The church's Cardinal Ronald Hewitt seems to have caught the spirit of the event when he declared, "Kwame Kilpatrick just happens to be the symbol of bold, uncompromising black power in this city.

Don King trailed his latest contender into a crowd yesterday, ready to pump up his fans for the big fight. Only this time he wasn't entering a boxing ring, but into some of Baltimore's rundown neighborhoods and a gathering of potential city voters. An American flag in each hand and a grapefruit-sized diamond cross hanging around his neck, King - the renowned promoter who is better known than many of the pugilists he represents - turned on the charm he usually reserves for selling the most buzz-worthy prizefights.

ATLANTA -- Glen "Big Baby" Davis pounded his chest, screamed to the heavens and saluted LSU's fans. In turn, they'll be talking about Davis and Tyrus Thomas for years. They carried LSU back to the Final Four. LSU's extra-large and extra-thin inside duo combined for 47 points, 22 rebounds and four blocked shots yesterday, and Davis' unlikely three-pointer in overtime sealed a 70-60 triumph over Texas in the Atlanta Regional final. The Tigers, a No. 4 seed, advanced to the Final Four for the first time in 20 years.

Hasim Rahman "won" the World Boxing Council heavyweight championship when his title bout with Vitali Klitschko fell through. But Rahman also lost the $4.2 million purse. The title belt might be nice, but it won't pay his bills - and Rahman has plenty of them. The Baltimore native filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Oct. 4, disclosing a debt of nearly $5 million to as many as 20 creditors, including $2.1 million in unpaid taxes and another $2 million to promoter Don King. How did it come to this for a boxer whose purses for two bouts with Lennox Lewis totaled nearly $5 million?

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Mike Tyson's opponent, Lennox Lewis, has called him "a cartoon character." To HBO boxing commentator Larry Merchant, Tyson is "a psychopath." Tyson has the world wondering what to truly make of him. Tyson, 35, even has confused doctors, who have diagnosed and undiagnosed him with mental disorders and prescribed and unprescribed antidepressants and other drugs. "I'm no psychologist, just concerned for the brother," said one of his former trainers, Tommy Brooks. "Mike is a cat with nine lives, and he's on 8 1/2 right now."

LAS VEGAS -- Trying to understand what makes Mike Tyson tick can be a ride on a runaway carousel.The former heavyweight champion inspires awe, shock, fear and loathing. As boxing's albatross, he is treated like a freak-show exhibit, with his mounting problems only adding to the public's fascination.Tyson's bizarre ear-chomping affair with Evander Holyfield in fall 1997 prompted the Hollywood Wax Museum in Los Angeles to move his likeness from the Sports Hall of Fame wing to the House of Horrors, alongside the cannibal Hannibal Lechter from "Silence of the Lambs."

There may have been other champions who entered their kingdoms through the back door, but not lately. Nevertheless, Hasim Rahman is not about to get picky about how he became heavyweight champion of the world for the second time. His hometown shouldn't be picky, either. Not with a baseball franchise that yesterday, on the same day Rahman inherited his crown from Vitali "Quit-schko," got to revisit the biggest nightmare of its wretched season. And not with an NFL franchise that's off to its worst start since 1998, the last time it fired its coach.

Kevin Rooney acknowledges that when he was growing up, trouble always seemed to be right around the corner. Rooney said he considered himself a ringleader during those days in Staten Island, N.Y. - his fists earning him the respect of teenage peers on the streets as well as an occasional night in jail. Rooney later turned to fighting as a career, first as a boxer and then as the trainer who guided Mike Tyson to the heavyweight championship. That relationship ended in acrimony, but Rooney, 49, is still training fighters.