Inoue Proving that Baseball is the Universal Language
Apr 15, 2026 | Baseball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Before he takes his at-bat, every time, without fail, Kansas State senior second baseman Shintaro Inoue tips his helmet to the home-plate umpire — a kind gesture of respect for authority, and for a man doing his job. And hours later, inside the coaches meeting room at Tointon Family Stadium where Inoue smiles and chuckles and tells stories following his two-run home run in a series-clinching 13-9 victory over Oklahoma State, the native of Yamaguchi, Japan, jumps from his chair and hurries to pull open the large glass door for a visitor following a 20-minute interview. Inoue nods, and he smiles, and he politely waves the man out the door.
"Thank you so much," Inoue says, smiling.
This is Inoue, the 22-year-old who's in his second season as a key member of the K-State baseball team, the only player last season to play in all 58 games, and who has steadily improved his English and has seen his performance take a jump since transferring from Western Nebraska Community College prior to the 2025 season.
He's tipping helmets to umpires before taking his at-bats, then holding doors and thanking reporters after games, and in between he wears the wide grin of a guy who's just hit his first-ever home run (he's actually hit 14 homers as a Wildcat) as the 5-foot-8, 195-pounder rounds second base, points to the sky, then rounds third base, turns his torso and jubilantly points and pumps both arms toward the K-State dugout at his teammates — "my friends," he wants you to know — on his way to reaching home plate, where he basks in the cheers of a sellout crowd at Tointon, and he hugs more teammates awaiting his arrival.
"He's always smiling and he has a consistent personality, which is always nice to have in your clubhouse," K-State head coach Pete Hughes says. "He's an absolute student of the game and his baseball acumen is through the roof. Even where there may be a language barrier and things that might get lost in communication, he's always on point with baseball. He's fun to coach. He's such a talented player. His hands are on a different level defensively and offensively."
Hughes pauses.
"He can do things with the bat," Hughes says, "that none of our guys can do."
The journey begins in Yamaguchi — 6,537 miles from Manhattan — where Shintaro is a 4-year-old who picks up his father's bat and ball for the first time. Shintaro's father was a baseball player in a semi-pro league in Japan, and his older brother played baseball as well. Both his father and brother were very fine pitchers.
"They were pitchers, and I'm an infielder," Inoue says. "It's interesting. My brother had good information for me for hitting and fielding. I've wanted to be a professional baseball player since I started baseball."
That professional dream will almost certainly become a reality in the near future for Inoue, who really has no preference between playing pro ball in the United States or Japan. At Western Nebraska Community College, he broke the school record with 28 career home runs in two seasons. At K-State, he has played in all 95 career games. Typically hitting third in the batting order this season, he finished the Oklahoma State series with five home runs this season, and he was second on the team with 141 at-bats and with 40 runs scored, and he was tied for third on the team with 44 hits and with 11 doubles, and he was fourth with 41 RBI and with 70 total bases, and he was seventh with a .312 batting average.
"I decided to come to the United States and looked forward to the experience," Inoue says. "It's been very good for me. I was just very excited and interested in U.S. culture and U.S. baseball. I'm so excited about everything."
Seemingly, the only challenge along the way has been an initial language barrier that has prompted some adjustment. For the first few weeks last season, Inoue used a translator application and an earbud in K-State team meetings. That turned into text-messaging communication with instant translation.
Now? K-State assistant coach Thomas Hughes and Inoue have formed a bond while knocking down any language bumps.
"Thomas is Shintaro's positional coach, and he has picked up Japanese every day from Shintaro," Hughes says. "Thomas learns a Japanese word every day from Shintaro. They can communicate in games. It's easier. Last year, we had a scouting report for everybody, and then we had a scouting report for Shintaro written in Japanese. This year, he said he was good without it. But the on-field communication from the dugout, Thomas has been doing that in bits and pieces in Japanese.
"In a game, Shintaro knows the situations, and you don't need too many words to describe what's going on because he knows it, man, he's on it."
Pete Hughes, K-State's eighth-year head coach who's nearing 900 career victories and currently ranks 12th in victories among active Power 4 head coaches, has produced 91 draftees in the Major League Baseball Draft. He could have a few more draftees after this season.
Arguably no former or soon-to-be draftee has been as unique as Inoue.
"It's just a pleasure," Hughes says. "I've learned a couple things from Shintaro about how they do things in Japan. We're all learning, and he's learning, and he has some more baseball to play in his lifetime.
"Hopefully, he's having the time of his life."
He is.
He shows it on his face each day.
"This is so fun, every day," Inoue says. "Everything is great about K-State. I love my teammates and coaches. They give me a lot of opportunities, a lot of experience, and they're my friends. I want to say I love everything."
Spend a little time with Inoue and it becomes apparent: Friendship is important to him. For as much fun as he has on the baseball field, he yearns for connection, for friendship, for relationships with anyone and everyone. A year ago, his best friend on the team was Maximus Martin. This year, in choosing a best friend on the team, Inoue points to superstar Dee Kennedy, his roommate on the road, who Inoue jokingly says, "teaches me a lot of things — bad things and good things."
If there's one friendship closest to Inoue's heart, it's with Calvin Johnson, who was a teammate at Western Nebraska Community College. Johnson, a native of Axtell, Nebraska, taught Inoue a lot of things, made Inoue a welcome brother as Inoue was halfway across the world from his home, and language barrier be damned, they became fast friends — and Johnson has even journeyed to K-State to watch Inoue play for the Wildcats.
"Make good friends," Inoue says. "That's a good thing. Most good things for studying abroad are making good connections with friends, teachers, coaches and staff. If I hadn't studied abroad, I wouldn't be speaking English, and I wouldn't have met friends like Calvin Johnson and my teammates. It's about making good friends.
"Calvin Johnson is so nice. Over winter break, he came to K-State, and we got to experience new things together. We're good friends and it was a very nice two years at Western Nebraska."
It didn't take long for Inoue to understand baseball culture in the United States.
"I have an interesting story," Inoue says. "I couldn't understand anything. In our first scrimmage at Western Nebraska, I hit a homer, and my teammates picked me up, and I thought, 'I love the United States.' If I was in Japan, it doesn't happen like that. It's like a normal day. But here I was, and I hit a homer, and I couldn't speak English, but I felt like a good teammate, and I felt the energy from my teammates. It was a super-good experience."
Inoue excelled at Western Nebraska and quickly caught the eye of K-State associate head coach Austin Wates at a junior college showcase in Lawrence, Kansas, after the 2023 season.
"It was batting practice, fielding ground balls, and we played a few innings," Inoue says. "Coach Wates watched me, then he texted me, and called me. He showed me everything at K-State on FaceTime — the baseball field, indoor facility, everything. Coach Wates was so kind. He gave me some information, too, which was very kind of him. That's why I wanted to pick K-State. It was so kind of Coach Wates. And they know baseball. That's why I picked K-State."
Inoue steadily progressed with the Wildcats last season. He blew up this March and garnered national recognition that he shared with his family in Japan. On March 17, Inoue was named to the Baseball America Week 5 National Team of the Week after he led the Wildcats with a .524 batting average, going 11-for-21 overall, while finishing second on the team with 10 RBI and posting 1.314 OPS in the Big 12 Conference-opening series win at Houston. Inoue's exploits included launching a three-run homer to help K-State score a school-record 20 runs — the most ever scored in a conference opener, breaking the previous record of 17 that stood since 1929.
Overall, Inoue produced a team-leading 10 hits (10-for-14) in the series with Houston, to go along with a 1.000 slugging percentage and .733 on-base percentage with eight RBI. He finished first overall in the Big 12 in total hits on the week and sixth nationally, while his 10 RBI ranked second.
"I just changed my swing a little bit," he says. "I was lucky. Weeks three and four, my batting average was .210 or something, but everything shifted in the conference opener. I felt so good. I just kept playing. Then after Houston, I got lucky and I got a couple more hits."
Inoue's national honor came one day after he was named Big 12 Player of the Week — the first weekly award of his college baseball career.
"I told my parents, but I don't think they knew what it meant to be Big 12 Player of the Week," Inoue says. "They were like, 'Oh, that's nice.' But it's a super-big thing."
Baseball, and the love for baseball, remains the universal language.
"I like Japanese baseball and I like United States baseball," Inoue says. "Sometimes with United States baseball, you swing hard and throw hard. In Japan, we have a lot of stolen bases and play small-ball. In the United States, the play is faster. I don't know. I just want to win, so I just pray for a win for K-State, and I pray for runs. It feels a little different, but there's not a lot of difference. There's just a little bit more high-power in United States baseball. I appreciate the coaches because I don't have much power, but I can hit it, and I can bunt, and I can get a base. Is that a good answer?"
Inoue smiles again.
He's living out a two-year career at K-State that Hughes appreciates.
"Just look at this day in age, he's on the other side of the planet, and he has been for a while, chasing his craft and his dream," Hughes says. "He went to a junior college to Nebraska and that's a long way away, and the language wasn't so strong when he went to the junior college. That's a kid that's going to grind and keep working even though things are uncomfortable with a different country and different language, and new teammates, and teammates who don't speak your language. That's a lot.
"This day in age, some of these kids can't fill up a gas tank by themselves. He's on the other side of the planet by himself, away from his family, playing at the highest level of college baseball and all that it entails. I have a heck of a lot of respect for Shintaro as a person, and he was an easy one to get involved with because I knew the character had to be through the roof for him to take that leap and be on his own.
"I knew he could grind through a lot of things. That's the Kansas State way."
Inoue's grind took a big-time lift in the bottom of the fifth inning against Oklahoma State last Saturday. With K-State trailing 4-2, Inoue belted a shot that caught the jet stream on a windy evening in Manhattan and the ball sailed over the left-center field wall to tie the score. It was his second home run in as many games — the first time he hit a home run in back-to-back games this season.
"Yeah, but I've hit more doubles this year (11) than last year (7) already," he says. "Last year I hit nine home runs and this year I've hit six or seven. It's baseball. Sometimes you're going well. I haven't changed anything. Yeah, back-to-back is good, but I'll settle for a line drive, and I'll pray for a win."
In some ways, as evidenced by Inoue's smile, some prayers have already been answered.
Before he takes his at-bat, every time, without fail, Kansas State senior second baseman Shintaro Inoue tips his helmet to the home-plate umpire — a kind gesture of respect for authority, and for a man doing his job. And hours later, inside the coaches meeting room at Tointon Family Stadium where Inoue smiles and chuckles and tells stories following his two-run home run in a series-clinching 13-9 victory over Oklahoma State, the native of Yamaguchi, Japan, jumps from his chair and hurries to pull open the large glass door for a visitor following a 20-minute interview. Inoue nods, and he smiles, and he politely waves the man out the door.
"Thank you so much," Inoue says, smiling.
This is Inoue, the 22-year-old who's in his second season as a key member of the K-State baseball team, the only player last season to play in all 58 games, and who has steadily improved his English and has seen his performance take a jump since transferring from Western Nebraska Community College prior to the 2025 season.
He's tipping helmets to umpires before taking his at-bats, then holding doors and thanking reporters after games, and in between he wears the wide grin of a guy who's just hit his first-ever home run (he's actually hit 14 homers as a Wildcat) as the 5-foot-8, 195-pounder rounds second base, points to the sky, then rounds third base, turns his torso and jubilantly points and pumps both arms toward the K-State dugout at his teammates — "my friends," he wants you to know — on his way to reaching home plate, where he basks in the cheers of a sellout crowd at Tointon, and he hugs more teammates awaiting his arrival.
"He's always smiling and he has a consistent personality, which is always nice to have in your clubhouse," K-State head coach Pete Hughes says. "He's an absolute student of the game and his baseball acumen is through the roof. Even where there may be a language barrier and things that might get lost in communication, he's always on point with baseball. He's fun to coach. He's such a talented player. His hands are on a different level defensively and offensively."
Hughes pauses.
"He can do things with the bat," Hughes says, "that none of our guys can do."
The journey begins in Yamaguchi — 6,537 miles from Manhattan — where Shintaro is a 4-year-old who picks up his father's bat and ball for the first time. Shintaro's father was a baseball player in a semi-pro league in Japan, and his older brother played baseball as well. Both his father and brother were very fine pitchers.
"They were pitchers, and I'm an infielder," Inoue says. "It's interesting. My brother had good information for me for hitting and fielding. I've wanted to be a professional baseball player since I started baseball."
That professional dream will almost certainly become a reality in the near future for Inoue, who really has no preference between playing pro ball in the United States or Japan. At Western Nebraska Community College, he broke the school record with 28 career home runs in two seasons. At K-State, he has played in all 95 career games. Typically hitting third in the batting order this season, he finished the Oklahoma State series with five home runs this season, and he was second on the team with 141 at-bats and with 40 runs scored, and he was tied for third on the team with 44 hits and with 11 doubles, and he was fourth with 41 RBI and with 70 total bases, and he was seventh with a .312 batting average.
"I decided to come to the United States and looked forward to the experience," Inoue says. "It's been very good for me. I was just very excited and interested in U.S. culture and U.S. baseball. I'm so excited about everything."
Seemingly, the only challenge along the way has been an initial language barrier that has prompted some adjustment. For the first few weeks last season, Inoue used a translator application and an earbud in K-State team meetings. That turned into text-messaging communication with instant translation.
Now? K-State assistant coach Thomas Hughes and Inoue have formed a bond while knocking down any language bumps.
"Thomas is Shintaro's positional coach, and he has picked up Japanese every day from Shintaro," Hughes says. "Thomas learns a Japanese word every day from Shintaro. They can communicate in games. It's easier. Last year, we had a scouting report for everybody, and then we had a scouting report for Shintaro written in Japanese. This year, he said he was good without it. But the on-field communication from the dugout, Thomas has been doing that in bits and pieces in Japanese.
"In a game, Shintaro knows the situations, and you don't need too many words to describe what's going on because he knows it, man, he's on it."
Pete Hughes, K-State's eighth-year head coach who's nearing 900 career victories and currently ranks 12th in victories among active Power 4 head coaches, has produced 91 draftees in the Major League Baseball Draft. He could have a few more draftees after this season.
Arguably no former or soon-to-be draftee has been as unique as Inoue.
"It's just a pleasure," Hughes says. "I've learned a couple things from Shintaro about how they do things in Japan. We're all learning, and he's learning, and he has some more baseball to play in his lifetime.
"Hopefully, he's having the time of his life."
He is.
He shows it on his face each day.
"This is so fun, every day," Inoue says. "Everything is great about K-State. I love my teammates and coaches. They give me a lot of opportunities, a lot of experience, and they're my friends. I want to say I love everything."
Spend a little time with Inoue and it becomes apparent: Friendship is important to him. For as much fun as he has on the baseball field, he yearns for connection, for friendship, for relationships with anyone and everyone. A year ago, his best friend on the team was Maximus Martin. This year, in choosing a best friend on the team, Inoue points to superstar Dee Kennedy, his roommate on the road, who Inoue jokingly says, "teaches me a lot of things — bad things and good things."
If there's one friendship closest to Inoue's heart, it's with Calvin Johnson, who was a teammate at Western Nebraska Community College. Johnson, a native of Axtell, Nebraska, taught Inoue a lot of things, made Inoue a welcome brother as Inoue was halfway across the world from his home, and language barrier be damned, they became fast friends — and Johnson has even journeyed to K-State to watch Inoue play for the Wildcats.
"Make good friends," Inoue says. "That's a good thing. Most good things for studying abroad are making good connections with friends, teachers, coaches and staff. If I hadn't studied abroad, I wouldn't be speaking English, and I wouldn't have met friends like Calvin Johnson and my teammates. It's about making good friends.
"Calvin Johnson is so nice. Over winter break, he came to K-State, and we got to experience new things together. We're good friends and it was a very nice two years at Western Nebraska."
It didn't take long for Inoue to understand baseball culture in the United States.
"I have an interesting story," Inoue says. "I couldn't understand anything. In our first scrimmage at Western Nebraska, I hit a homer, and my teammates picked me up, and I thought, 'I love the United States.' If I was in Japan, it doesn't happen like that. It's like a normal day. But here I was, and I hit a homer, and I couldn't speak English, but I felt like a good teammate, and I felt the energy from my teammates. It was a super-good experience."
Inoue excelled at Western Nebraska and quickly caught the eye of K-State associate head coach Austin Wates at a junior college showcase in Lawrence, Kansas, after the 2023 season.
"It was batting practice, fielding ground balls, and we played a few innings," Inoue says. "Coach Wates watched me, then he texted me, and called me. He showed me everything at K-State on FaceTime — the baseball field, indoor facility, everything. Coach Wates was so kind. He gave me some information, too, which was very kind of him. That's why I wanted to pick K-State. It was so kind of Coach Wates. And they know baseball. That's why I picked K-State."
Inoue steadily progressed with the Wildcats last season. He blew up this March and garnered national recognition that he shared with his family in Japan. On March 17, Inoue was named to the Baseball America Week 5 National Team of the Week after he led the Wildcats with a .524 batting average, going 11-for-21 overall, while finishing second on the team with 10 RBI and posting 1.314 OPS in the Big 12 Conference-opening series win at Houston. Inoue's exploits included launching a three-run homer to help K-State score a school-record 20 runs — the most ever scored in a conference opener, breaking the previous record of 17 that stood since 1929.
Overall, Inoue produced a team-leading 10 hits (10-for-14) in the series with Houston, to go along with a 1.000 slugging percentage and .733 on-base percentage with eight RBI. He finished first overall in the Big 12 in total hits on the week and sixth nationally, while his 10 RBI ranked second.
"I just changed my swing a little bit," he says. "I was lucky. Weeks three and four, my batting average was .210 or something, but everything shifted in the conference opener. I felt so good. I just kept playing. Then after Houston, I got lucky and I got a couple more hits."
Inoue's national honor came one day after he was named Big 12 Player of the Week — the first weekly award of his college baseball career.
"I told my parents, but I don't think they knew what it meant to be Big 12 Player of the Week," Inoue says. "They were like, 'Oh, that's nice.' But it's a super-big thing."
Baseball, and the love for baseball, remains the universal language.
"I like Japanese baseball and I like United States baseball," Inoue says. "Sometimes with United States baseball, you swing hard and throw hard. In Japan, we have a lot of stolen bases and play small-ball. In the United States, the play is faster. I don't know. I just want to win, so I just pray for a win for K-State, and I pray for runs. It feels a little different, but there's not a lot of difference. There's just a little bit more high-power in United States baseball. I appreciate the coaches because I don't have much power, but I can hit it, and I can bunt, and I can get a base. Is that a good answer?"
Inoue smiles again.
He's living out a two-year career at K-State that Hughes appreciates.
"Just look at this day in age, he's on the other side of the planet, and he has been for a while, chasing his craft and his dream," Hughes says. "He went to a junior college to Nebraska and that's a long way away, and the language wasn't so strong when he went to the junior college. That's a kid that's going to grind and keep working even though things are uncomfortable with a different country and different language, and new teammates, and teammates who don't speak your language. That's a lot.
"This day in age, some of these kids can't fill up a gas tank by themselves. He's on the other side of the planet by himself, away from his family, playing at the highest level of college baseball and all that it entails. I have a heck of a lot of respect for Shintaro as a person, and he was an easy one to get involved with because I knew the character had to be through the roof for him to take that leap and be on his own.
"I knew he could grind through a lot of things. That's the Kansas State way."
Inoue's grind took a big-time lift in the bottom of the fifth inning against Oklahoma State last Saturday. With K-State trailing 4-2, Inoue belted a shot that caught the jet stream on a windy evening in Manhattan and the ball sailed over the left-center field wall to tie the score. It was his second home run in as many games — the first time he hit a home run in back-to-back games this season.
"Yeah, but I've hit more doubles this year (11) than last year (7) already," he says. "Last year I hit nine home runs and this year I've hit six or seven. It's baseball. Sometimes you're going well. I haven't changed anything. Yeah, back-to-back is good, but I'll settle for a line drive, and I'll pray for a win."
In some ways, as evidenced by Inoue's smile, some prayers have already been answered.
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