STANFORD, Calif. — Rintaro Sasaki zooms up to the ballpark on an electric bike with a brown bag of food in hand, ready to grab a quick bite of lunch then get right to work in the batting cage.
When the Japanese slugger kept getting flat tires traveling around Stanford’s expansive campus on his old bicycle, his teammates assured him he had to get some new wheels. Sasaki is loving the bike, just as he is loving everything about his unprecedented start in NCAA baseball.
Sasaki likely would have been the top overall pick in the Nippon Professional Baseball Draft. But he made the surprising jump from playing high school ball in Japan to attending an American college, forgoing Japan’s professional pipeline in a way that could accelerate his path toward Major League Baseball.
The 19-year-old first baseman didn’t disappoint in his opening weekend with the Cardinal.
Batting third in the Stanford lineup, the Baseball American preseason freshman of the year went 7 for 18 with two doubles and along with Brady Reynolds had a team-best eight RBIs in a four-game sweep at Cal State Fullerton.
Seemingly the only thing missing was a home run. Sasaki set the Japanese high school record with 140 career home runs for Hanamaki Higashi High, the alma mater of superstar Shohei Ohtani and where Sasaki’s father, Hiroshi, is head baseball coach.
There’s a great chance Sasaki’s first college home run will happen at Sunken Diamond. The Cardinal (4-0) play its next eight games at home, beginning with a weekend series against Washington that starts Friday night.
Sasaki was already fitting in beautifully at Stanford and handling all that comes with being a busy student-athlete.
“I’m very proud to be a Stanford baseball player, but also kind of nervous. It should be fun,” Sasaki said last week before his Cardinal debut. “We have baseball, we have academics every single day. It’s kind of a tough schedule. Classes are going well, I’m enjoying school, I’m enjoying baseball. It’s a long day every day. … But I’m enjoying every day of American life and Stanford life.”
Every couple of weeks, senior catcher Charlie Saum counts on hearing from Sasaki with an invite to In-N-Out Burger, the freshman having learned long ago the hip items to order — a double-double burger and animal-style fries, of course.
He has settled into the rhythm of his daunting routine, making time for plenty of fun, too.
Sasaki had a blast tossing T-shirts with his teammates during a recent Stanford men’s basketball game. He pointed up into the stands, let the rolled red shirt fly with a perfect follow-through then pointed once more that direction before smiling and waving. Beforehand as they waited, he gave a thumbs-up and posed for photos alongside Saum.
Yes, Sasaki has completely embraced everything about being a college student. He so enjoys speaking English that it’s his first choice these days over Japanese.
“That’s sick,” Sasaki said to describe one experience, an expression he uses these days to Saum’s amusement.
“He’s an incredible kid, he’s unbelievable,” Saum said. “That was kind of my big thing for him showing up was how is he going to deal with playing baseball in a new culture. Getting into college and playing baseball is hard enough for somebody who grows up in America and he’s coming over, he’s the first person to do this.
“The first thing that kind of blew me away was they were like, ‘Hey, we’ll get you a translator for all your classes,’ he said, ‘absolutely not,’ he’s like, ‘I want to do this on my own.’ He’s so determined to learn English.”
From Day 1, Sasaki has been determined to do as much as he can himself, asking for help only if and when he truly needs an assist.
“That’s for me the most impressive part,” Saum added.
The pair roomed together on road trips late last season after Sasaki arrived from Japan in March for the spring quarter and acclimated to his new life by traveling with the team without playing. Once the 2023-24 season ended, he went straight to the MLB Draft League to play for the Trenton Thunder before spending the remainder of the summer in the Appalachian League with the Greeneville Flyboys, showing off his mighty left-handed swing.
Sasaki also speaks like someone beyond his years, specifically mentioning how he expects to face his share of struggles along the way and part of his growth is getting through the trying times and finding ways to overcome — whether in the classroom or on the diamond.
His parents always stressed the importance of having a back-up plan and receiving an education, something Sasaki has taken to heart. Even if he isn’t taking the traditional Japanese baseball route.
He hopes youth back home might realize, “you can come here and you can make it.”
Father Hiroshi coached Dodgers two-way star Ohtani and Angels pitcher Yusei Kikuchi in high school. Most Japanese players — including Ohtani — first become professionals at home, often with goals of coming to the United States already having years of experience.
“I don’t know how I will influence Japanese high school baseball players, but I’m just going on my path, my way,” Sasaki said in near-perfect English. “Even if baseball is not going well, I’m going to go with my way, because why did I come here? I just wanted to come to Stanford. It’s my reason, it’s my life.”
Then, Sasaki paused to think and added, speaking through longtime family friend Junpei Tomonaga, who serves as an interpreter when necessary: “If my journey can inspire the young people, that’s great. I’m not even sure I can be successful, but at least those young people can see how I’m challenging myself in life doing something no one’s done before.”
Veteran coach David Esquer can’t quite believe it, either. He never had to go to Japan to scout and recruit Sasaki, who had already targeted Stanford as a top program to consider in his search for schools. Sasaki also considered Cal, Vanderbilt and UCLA before choosing Stanford.
And if his journey can inspire a few young athletes back home — girls or boys — Sasaki is all for it. He is indeed doing things his way, a trailblazer of sorts considering top Japanese prospects typically play professionally first at home before moving to the U.S. to enter the major leagues.
“He’s willing to do that, and he talks about that,” said Esquer, Stanford’s eighth-year coach who also spent 18 seasons at rival California in Berkeley. “That’s kind of how you knew he was kind of a Stanford guy in the sense that you know those people who are trying to change the world maybe. Some people who come here, they’re going to make a difference in the world. It’s not just about their own journey. Whether it’s trying to take care of his future after baseball, but he had some foresight to say, ‘If I’m able to do it, others may be able to do it, too.’”
Sasaki will be eligible for MLB’s amateur draft following his sophomore season because he will turn 21 on April 18, 2026. A player must have completed his junior year or be 21.
Not that you’ll hear Sasaki getting ahead of himself, not even close. He wants to gain everything he can from the college training ground.
“The one word to describe him, it would be just courageous,” Esquer said. “He had courage to do what he’s done, two weeks after high school to move over here and plant yourself in America, in a dorm, with a new team. He has courage that not many people have.”