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Lately, Ichiro Suzuki has been as hot as a Burger King jalapeno popper. After his batting average fell from a season-high .357 on June 10 to .324 on July 21, the Mariners’ All-Star right fielder is on another roll. Just when critics thought he would be slowing down (he has missed only two games this year), Suzuki got his second wind. In his last 16 games, Suzuki is hitting .411 (30-for-73) to raise his average to .337. In his previous 33 games, he batted .268 (40-for-149) and went hitless in 11 games. “I don’t know if I’m stronger than before, but I know that I’m not worn out,” he said. Currently, Suzuki leads the majors with 174 hits, 53 multi-hit games and a .470 batting average with runners in scoring position. With 44 games left, Suzuki needs a little less than two hits per game, or 84 to be exact, to break George Sisler’s single season mark of 257 in 1920. That’s roughly 1.9 hits per game … What happens when you bench Suzuki? You lose, even if your team is up 12-0. After the Mariners jumped on the Indians with a 12-0 lead after three innings, manager Lou Pinella decided to give Suzuki a rest. The result: a 15-14 extra-inning loss. It was only the third time in major league history a team had overcome a 12-run deficit to win … When you’re the heavyweight champion of the world, you call your own shots. And when you have Don King in your corner, you can just sit back and relax — surely, you’ll roll in the money. Hasim “The Rock” Rahman will defend his WBC-IBF heavyweight titles for a minimum of $10 million in a November rematch with Lennox Lewis. On April 22, Rahman made $1.5 million and became the champion when he surprised the boxing world by knocking out Lewis in the fifth round. The fight is tentatively set for Nov. 10 or 17 in Las Vegas. Rahman will also get a percentage of the pay-per-view sales above a certain figure and share in other revenues … Look for Apolo Ohno, 19, to make a splash in the upcoming 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Ohno, the son of a Japanese hair stylist in Seattle, has become the country’s best short-track speed skater after a dominating career as an in-line skater. Ohno claimed his first national title at 14 in 1996, and won the overall world cup title last season, making him a medal favorite in Salt Lake City.
Reach Ethen Lieser at elieser@asianweek.com.
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