It’s Not All Hugs and Body Slams

Being a 350-pound sumo wrestling hero in Japan has its benefits, according to Fiamulu Penitanti, an American from Hawaii. But there is a downside. Hate mail, anonymous phone callers wishing you an early death and swarms of people.

“Last week I got an invitation from the embassy to have dinner with Michael Jackson,” he said. “Last year I got invited to see President Bush. So it’s cool.”

To millions of Japanese, Penitanti, 21, is known as Musashimaru, the third-highest ranked wrestler in Japan’s ancient and tradition-conscious national sport.

“When I go out shopping, people want to touch me all the time or get an autograph,” he said. “I don’t like that.”

Trivia time: What NFL player has been a Super Bowl winner with three different franchises?

Precedent: Alabama fans, take heart.

Sure, Miami is No. 1, has a 29-game winning streak and is gunning for its second consecutive national championship, third in four years and fifth in the last decade.

But remember this: The last four times No. 1 has played No. 2 in a bowl game, No. 2 has won. And the trend started when No. 2 Alabama beat No. 1 Penn State, 14-7, in the 1979 Sugar Bowl--the same Sugar Bowl and same Superdome where No. 2 Alabama (12-0) will play No. 1 Miami (11-0) on New Year’s night.

New math: Terry Bowden, 36, who begins his new job as football coach at Auburn with 65 victories behind him, said: “I can see myself being here until I’m 68 years old. If I win eight games a year, that would give me 324 wins.”

Fly, the Sporting News pundit, points out that totes up to 321 victories.

Most admired: Magic Johnson was recently voted most admired man in America by a group of students in Santa Clara, Calif., to which Bill Benner of the Indianapolis Star responded:

“We (millions of fathers across America) finished second to a guy who contracted HIV through unprotected partners. We finished second to a guy who felt obliged to describe to a national television audience his sexual liaison with six women at the same time.”

Add Benner: “My first response is to say, ‘Consider the source,’ ” he continued. “If there is any place in America where values and morality are out of whack, it’s California.”

Prize winner: One of the prizes at the Amy Alcott Pro-Am, a charity golf tournament presented by Lexus to benefit multiple sclerosis, was an SC 400 for a hole in one at Riviera’s 140-yard sixth hole, which has a sand trap in the middle of the green.

After the first foursome teed off, Alcott pulled out a six-iron and knocked the ball in the hole. At day’s end, when no one else had accomplished the feat, the LPGA veteran drove home in her new car.

Different look: Kenya is visited annually by thousands of foreigners who go to see the East African nation’s vast game reserves.

Bob Keino, son of Kenya’s legendary Kip Keino, doesn’t have to travel far from home to see the exotic animals.

So where did Bob go after finishing fourth in the Kinney National High School cross country championships in San Diego? The San Diego Zoo.

Maybe he was homesick.

Mistaken identity: Producer Larry Thompson wasn’t surprised when he got a call from his mother in Mississippi after losing out to Robert Redford in the Gloria Lintermans Looking Great Awards.

He was surprised, however, when he found she was complaining not that her son had not won, but that Joe DiMaggio was not the winner.

Trivia answer: Matt Millen, one with the Washington Redskins, two with the Raiders--one in Oakland and one in Los Angeles--and one with the San Francisco 49ers.

Quotebook: Former football star Kyle Rote, after soccer player Kyle Rote Jr. had won a Superstars competition: “It’s not easy to follow in the footsteps of a famous son.”