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New York Times
7 days ago
- Lifestyle
- New York Times
Shintaro Inoue's unorthodox journey from Japan to junior college to Kansas State
Shintaro Inoue left Japan and the seaside community of Yamaguchi, with its mountain views and hot springs, three years ago for the harsh plains of Western Nebraska. All for an opportunity to advance in baseball. Inoue's story is not akin to that of Rintaro Sasaki, the record-setting Japanese slugger whose father coached Shohei Ohtani in high school. The 20-year-old Sasaki bypassed a premier spot in Japan's NPB to sign with Stanford, where he's enjoyed modest success as a freshman this spring. Advertisement Some six inches shorter than Sasaki and 60 pounds lighter, Inoue left Japan for the first time in 2022, and arrived in Scottsbluff, Neb. on the windswept eastern edge of the Rocky Mountain foothills, population 14,000. With limited paths to progress in the sport he'd played since age 4, Inoue connected through a placement service with the coach at Western Nebraska Community College, Mike Jones. Inoue shattered the school's career record with 28 home runs in two seasons before landing at Kansas State last fall. In his first year of Division I play, Inoue, 21, has thrived as the Wildcats' leadoff hitter and shortstop. He's hitting .283 with nine home runs and 30 RBIs, and he's the only regular in the Kansas State lineup with more walks (41) than strikeouts (39). K-State enters the NCAA Tournament as a No. 3 seed in the Austin Regional. The Wildcats play UTSA on Friday at 7 p.m. (ET). 'He's a super talented defender,' Kansas State coach Pete Hughes said. 'He's got bat speed. And his baseball acumen is through the roof.' Hughes lauded Inoue for his ability to conquer communication challenges. Upon his arrival in Manhattan, Kan., Inoue used an earbud connected to a translator box during team meetings and instructional sessions. Within a few weeks, he set it aside. Teammates and coaches can communicate with Inoue via text message, which provides an instant translation. They rely on visual scouting reports. His English has improved dramatically. In a recent 20-minute interview with The Athletic, he spoke entirely in English. 'He's highly skilled at making you believe that he knows what you're saying,' Hughes said. Baseball has its own language, with few barriers. 'The rules of baseball don't change across languages much,' Wildcats associate head coach Austin Wates said. 'He's a smart baseball player.' Inoue said he's adept at 'thinking baseball.' The basics of the game translate well from Japan to the United States. But the style Kansas State employs required him to adjust. Advertisement The Wildcats play with an urgency that's new to Inoue, according to Hughes. The Kansas State coach demands aggressiveness from his players, but Inoue's nature is to avoid risks in the game. They've worked to find a comfortable middle ground. Inoue is deeply entrenched in a routine he established in his early years. He's talked at length with K-State teammate Maximus Martin, his best friend among the Wildcats, about the practice habits Inoue learned in his home country. He took hundreds of swings per day and worked his arm at a rate that would alarm American coaches. Aspects of his intricate routine remain. For example, at the same time on the clock before every game, Inoue places his thumbs on the horizon to help his eyes acclimate to the hitting background. 'He's probably the only guy on the team, the only person I've played with, who does the same thing every day,' Martin said. 'We all have our routines, but it's not every single day, every game. Some days you're just not feeling it.' Inoue said he always feels it. Without the routine, nothing clicks. 'That's not my thing,' Hughes said, 'but we allow him to be himself within our program.' Staying true to himself got Inoue here in the first place. 'The junior college road to Division I baseball is tough enough as it is for domestic kids, never mind someone from Japan,' Hughes said. 'I've never been to Western Nebraska Community College, but I've got to think it was an eye-opener for Shintaro. 'As a result, you've got a pretty resilient kid who can survive wherever you put him.' Wates, the K-State assistant, discovered Inoue at a junior college showcase in Lawrence, Kan., after the 2023 season. The Wildcats' roster lists Inoue at 5 feet 8, but he's an inch or two shy of that. Any concerns about his size disappeared when Wates watched the left-handed hitting Inoue drive a ball to left field off the wall at that first sighting. Advertisement 'He's short, but he's pretty well built,' Wates said. 'He has enough athleticism to do what he needs to do (to play middle infield). Not an elite athlete by any means, but he's got fast hands. So if you get away from the traditional wiry shortstop and you just evaluate the hands and the bat speed and the ability to barrel the ball, you get a really nice player. 'And that's what he's been.' Inoue played 34 games this season at second base. The Wildcats moved Martin, who has made tentative plans to visit Japan this summer with Inoue, from shortstop to center field in mid-April. Inoue took over at shortstop. Martin, a possible early-round pick in the 2025 MLB Draft in July, started his collegiate career at Rutgers. He transferred to Georgia State and then to K-State, where he's hitting .337 with 14 homers. Even Martin is wowed by Inoue's skill at adjusting. Before every inning, K-State shortstop Maximus Martin and Japanese second baseman Shintaro Inoue share a hug and bow together@caroline_soro asked Martin about the gesture: "I know in Japan, when they play baseball, they usually bow before they step on the field…I'm just… — Landon Reinhardt (@landonian87) April 5, 2025 Jones, the Western Nebraska coach, said Inoue 'gives off nothing but a positive vibe every day.' He hit a home run in an alumni exhibition game that traveled an estimated 485 feet. 'His time here was a joy,' Jones said. 'It was wonderful. It was a great experience for all of his teammates to have somebody give us a different perspective on the game.' Inoue doesn't drive in the United States. He doesn't have an American phone number. When Wates attempted to bring Inoue to Manhattan for an official recruiting visit, the logistics didn't work. So, Inoue conducted a virtual visit. 'I think it actually was a blessing in disguise,' Wates said. 'His mom was on the call.' Advertisement They used Google Translate to communicate on FaceTime. At Kansas State, Inoue connected with a group of 10 to 15 Japanese students. He meets them routinely for meals. Some of the students have watched him play for the Wildcats. 'That's very helpful to me,' Inoue said. Any little bit of home helps. He has communicated with former UC Irvine infielder Jo Oyama, a similarly statured Japanese player who took the juco-to-Division I route. When Inoue struggled early this season, he sought advice from Oyama. The 24-year-old Oyama, who has played this year for an independent team in Canada, encouraged Inoue to keep doing what he's doing. As always, stick with the routine. Inoue said he modeled his game as a kid after Ichiro Suzuki. Similarities exist in their swings. 'It's handsy and whippy,' Hughes said. 'He's little, but he's got a strong lower half. He gets the power from whipping his hands. He can hit everything.' Of late, Inoue has looked up to Masataka Yoshida, the 31-year-old Red Sox outfielder and designated hitter. He wants to play professionally — in the United States or at home in the NPB — after finishing up at Kansas State next season. 'I think I can do it,' Inoue said. So do nearly all who've encountered him over the past three seasons. (Top photo courtesy of Kansas State Athletics)
RNZ News
25-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Developers with properties in tough market turn to renters
Monday AM The number of available rental listings on Trade Me is 31 percent higher than in May last year. Photo: RNZ Developers who do not want to try to find buyers for properties in a tough market - or who have had no luck - appear to be choosing to rent them out instead. The rental market has shifted in favour of tenants, with large numbers of properties listed for rent and asking rents softening. The number of available rental listings on Trade Me is 31 percent higher than in May last year, which was 41 percent higher than the year before. BNZ chief economist Mike Jones said every part of the country had experienced a double-digit percentage increase in rental listings this year. Vacancy rates had also increased, particularly in Auckland and Wellington, where just under 4 percent and 5 percent of the rental stock is vacant, respectively. Jones said they also had some of the largest increases in vacancies in the past two years. He said there was anecdotal evidence of a new build "townhouse glut" in both areas . "Just under a quarter of all listings in Canterbury are townhouses. For Christchurch city the share is 28 percent. That compares to 15 percent for Auckland (11 percent for Auckland city) and an 8 percent average across all regions. New builds comprise 25 percent of Auckland listings and 20 percent of those in Canterbury, noticeably higher than elsewhere. This reflects the coming to market of the huge pipeline of construction work of the past five years." Jones said compared to the building work that had been consented over the past five years, there seemed to be a "bulge" of townhouses in Auckland and Christchurch coming through to both the for-sale and rental markets. "They're coming at a time when demand has clearly softened… it's hindered the absorption of those properties into the market. Whether it's high interest rates or budget under pressure, just generally those properties listed, it's taking some time to absorb them." He said demand should pick up as the economy improved but the inventory would have to be worked through. It could be that some of the properties listed as rental stock could shift back into the for-sale market as conditions improved, he said. "I would expect some of the rental stock that's out there at the moment is there because properties couldn't be sold at the price the vendors would like. As conditions warm up we could see some of that rental stock shift back to the real estate market for sale and that could slow the rate at which the inventory is worked through." There are 257 properties listed on Trade Me with the keyword "new build" including a Mangere development offering a $750 grocery voucher . Corelogic chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said there was an "overhang" of available listings and more new build properties were being rented than would normally be the case. "You'd assume some kind of reversion to normal over the long-term … whatever 'normal' is." Steve Goodey, a property investment coach and investor, said he had noticed developers putting properties on Airbnb that they couldn't sell. He said it was not like a build-to-rent model, where developers intended to rent the properties for the outset. "It's more of a 'oh s…, we couldn't sell it' thing." He said it should not affect the eventual resale. Many people were hoping the market picked up in the meantime and allowed them to sell, he said. "It's gotten worse than I expected it dip in values has been longer and deeper than I expected." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday
RNZ News
14-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Falling interest saving home loan borrowers $2.2b, bank says
Photo: fantasista/123RF BNZ says falling interest rates will put $2.2 billion dollars into the pockets of New Zealanders with mortgages over the six months to a year. Home loan rates have been steadily dropping since about this time last year. The official cash rate has fallen from a peak of 5.5 percent to 3.5 percent. The average two-year special home loan rate has dropped from just under 7 percent to 5 percent. But BNZ chief economist Mike Jones said the impact of that was not felt in household budgets immediately. People would get the benefit when it came time to refix their home loans, and that was likely to flow through over the coming months. "It takes a while for those lower rates we've been seeing over the past six months or so to flow through to householder or mortgage borrower pockets so most of the cashflow is still to come," he told RNZ's Nine to Noon. "That's partly why we are still in this relatively soggy economy. The cash flow ahead of us hasn't come through yet." He said where the money was spent would be an important question for the country. Keeping up with bills would soak up some of it, he said, but there could also be an increase in discretionary spending. "Households have been sacrificing in those areas to keep paying the bills. With that cashflow coming in, maybe a bit more of that goes into hospitality spending, travel, tourism, bits and pieces like that. Not a rush but more than we are seeing today," Jones said. He said there were also factors that could make people nervous and more likely to be conservative about spending, such as concerns about the labour market and worries about international disruption. "What we see is that any category that has some discretionary element to it has been one that people have pulled back on - durables, hospitality, travel. "We've seen spending on things like utilities, government charges, health and education much stronger. That's not something that we expect to see reverse very quickly but there may be a bit more going into discretionary areas." He said, while inflation had fallen, it still cast a "long shadow" over consumer behaviour. Even with the extra money for households and some strength in the rural economy, Jones said he expected economic growth to be "slow and low". But overall the positives would just outweigh the negatives. "It's quite a change from last year when we saw quite a nasty recession through the middle of the year." Jones said he still expected the official cash rate to drop to a low of 2.75 percent. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
14-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
BNZ says $2.2 billion coming into mortgage holders pockets
A percentage sign, in front of an urban scene. Photo: Unsplash/ Declan Sun Falling interest rates will deliver $2.2 billion into the pockets of mortgage holders in the next six months to a year, according to the BNZ's Chief Economist. The Reserve Bank will announce its next official cash rate decision later this month with most commentators expecting another quarter of a percent cut from 3.5 per cent. Mike Jones says the majority of the positive cash flow is yet to flow through to borrowers, and a good chunk of it may go on paying the bills. Meanwhile almost one in 10 residential property sales are happening for a price less than the seller paid, according to the latest Pain and Gain report from Cotality, formerly Corelogic, which shows the gains and losses being made by sellers around the much more can mortgage holders expect to see flowing through to them and when? As rates come down, when is it time to fix, and what is the outlook for the housing market? Mike Jones joins Kathryn.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Yahoo
Local Clifton man scammed out of over $180,000
A local man now in financial ruin. His alleged scammers still on the loose. It is all said to have taken place in a Clifton parking lot. The Mesa County Sheriff's Office tells us victims of financial fraud like Mike Jones are all too common. 64-year-old Mike Jones tells us in early April, he began to receive calls from someone pretending to be a government agent from the Federal Trade Commission, threatening to arrest him if he didn't pay up. The alleged scammer, we're told, met with him face to face three times in a local Clifton parking lot over the course of a month to exchange the money. The Mesa County Sheriff's Office has since launched an investigation. They tell us this kind of fraud can happen to people of varying ages, but senior citizens are at particular risk. With Mike's life savings gone and having recently suffered a stroke at the beginning of the year, his family set up a GoFundMe account to help rebuild. The Mesa County Sheriff's Office tells us Mike Jones' investigation is still ongoing, and there are no suspects in custody as of yet. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
