STOP THE PRESSES! ICHIRO'S HERE.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH Media

As they have during every stop in the Seattle Mariners' magical first half, the TV, radio and print reporters will pack shoulder to shoulder in the Dodger Stadium press box this weekend.

And then there are those media members with intense interest only in every fist bump, glove thump and Gatorade gulp from Ichiro Suzuki.

More than three dozen Japanese reporters, home and away, make it their current obsession to document the Mariners' imported outfielder. The public, it seems, demands it.

Because of Ichiro - whom the media and public has accepted on a first- name basis - the Mariners have become Japan's favorite team, embraced far more than when the Dodgers were the darlings for signing Hideo Nomo in 1995.

Nomo threw every fifth day. All-Star-bound Suzuki's Godzilla-like destruction of major-league pitchers is a daily dose of stats, stories and other assorted stimulation for the Japanese.

Because of him, the Japanese TV network, NHK, shows every Seattle home game in high-definition - without commercials. All home games and most road contests also make it back to Japan on JOLF radio.

With the 17-hour time change, most Mariners games reach Japan live when it is about lunchtime the next day.

``By the time the Japanese League games come on at night, the baseball fans have gotten their fill from lunch and aren't so interested,'' said Hirokazu Higuchi, an L.A.-based writer for the Tokyo Shimbun who was at Dodger Stadium the other day working on a Suzuki arrival story.

Higuchi is one of nearly 100 Japanese media members here for this series, says Dodgers publicity director John Olguin, who will have to have many of them sit in the stadium seats. The Angels had to make special accommodations for about the same number last week when the Mariners made their first stop in Anaheim.

``He's by far the most popular of any of the Japanese League players, and the Mariners have become the most popular team in Japan - bigger than the Tokyo Giants,'' said Higuchi of Suzuki, whose surname is one of the most common in Japan, making his agent insist he go by his first name whenever possible.

``The Japanese fans are waiting for our reports, but it's almost impossible to find something new every day, and he doesn't like to talk to the media.''

And not everyone gets to talk to him. One reporter is picked out of the group to get Ichiro comments before and after each game to share them with the rest of the Japanese corps. That means they usually talk to Ichiro's teammates, coaches and opposing players to document their take on what it was like sharing the field with him.

Kinda silly to have to do that every day?

``Kind of,'' Higuchi said, ``but I'm here.''

--For comparison's sake: Angels pitcher Shigetosi Hasegawa, a teammate of Suzuki's with the Orix Blue Wave in Japan, said, ``Madonna and Michael Jackson have more privacy in this country than Ichiro has in Japan.''

With Nomo gone, the only Dodger who can somewhat relate is starter Chan Ho Park, who has four Korean newspaper reporters, a TV and radio crew that has been covering him since he arrived as the country's first big-leaguer in 1994.

Yet Park says he has no idea what kind of madness Suzuki must have to endure.

``I think Japan is a much bigger media center and their players get so much more exposure, but he (Suzuki) knows what he has to do for that,'' said Park, whose games go back to Korea sometimes at 4 a.m.

``It doesn't bother me. The only thing that bothers me is when they ask personal things. But now that I've been here five years, there are a couple of writers who I am close with and feel like they're friends who help me, go out to dinner with me, give me news from back home.''

Maybe that media relationship is the result of a cultural difference between Japan and Korea.

``It is much less combative,'' said Hoonki Min, who covers Park for the Daily Sports Chosun. ``He came over as a 20-year-old who couldn't speak English. I knew this culture and how it worked, so I could assist him somewhat.

``He is still a big story in Korea and they want to know everything about him. After each story I do on him, I get anywhere from 50 to 100 e-mails with opinions and questions about him. He's a front-page story two or three times a week, and with him a free agent, everyone's wondering what will happen.''

But even in Korea, Suzuki is a headliner.

``I had to do a magazine story on him recently for our sister magazine,'' Min admitted. ``He's news there, too.''

--More Ichi-ness: Steve Lyons and Thom Brenneman will have no problem with press-box seat selection when they do Saturday afternoon's Dodgers-Mariners game as one of three regional Fox network telecasts.

Lyons said he'd enjoy doing an interview with Suzuki, but because of his struggle with English - Suzuki's, not necessarily Lyons' - it might not come off.

``I understand he has a pretty good sense of humor and none of this media attention really fazes him, even thought the demands must be ridiculous,'' Lyons said. ``And if any visiting team can handle the added media, it's the Dodgers based on their history going back to Fernando Valenzuela.

``I thought this (Suzuki) signing really could have blown up in the Mariners' faces. I saw him play in the Japanese All-Star Series and when he came here, I thought he'd be a good No. 2 hitter, bat .320 with no pop and no speed. But he's much faster than anyone gave him credit for, and he's doing a lot more than expected at the highest level of play in the world. He deserves the attention.''

As for Tuesday's All-Star Game on Fox, the network won't put a mike on Suzuki throughout the game (just on the catchers, first basemen and managers). But coverage will include a live camera at Tokyo's version of Grand Central Station for local reaction to anything he does during the exhibition.

All the while, fans watch it on a high-definition TV set.

SOUND BYTES 

WHAT SMOKES

--The buzz on Fox Sports Net's yet-to-be-formally-announced production of something called ``The Best Damn Sports Show Period,'' a weeknight free-for-all slated for later this month, is it'll make a media monster out of former big-leaguer John Kruk, who could end up as the Charles Barkley of baseball. Designed loosely after ``Fox NFL Sunday,'' the hour show will include Lisa Guerrero, the Southern California regional reporter.

WHAT CHOKES

--The cross-promotion of Clear Channel's radio stronghold in Los Angeles works well for bored-out-of-their-mind listeners of KXTA-AM (1150), the all-sports franchise. Because you'll often hear spots for sister station KFI-AM (640) that offers ``more stimulating talk radio.'' Hey, thanks for the heads up.

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SOUND BYTES (see text)