Kevin Youkilis

Kevin Edmund Youkilis (born March 15, 1979, in Cincinnati, Ohio), nicknamed "Youk" and "The Greek God of Walks," is a Jewish-American All Star Major League Baseball player for the Boston Red Sox.

A Gold Glove award winning fielder, Youkilis holds baseball's all-time record for most consecutive errorless games at first base. He is also the team's players' representative.

The Youkilis family name has an unusual history. His Jewish great-great-great-grandfather, a native of 19th-century Romania, moved to Greece at the age of 16 to avoid conscription at the hands of the notoriously anti-Semitic Cossacks. He became homesick, however, and returned to Romania after a couple of years, although he changed his surname from "Weiner" to the Greek name, "Youkilis", to avoid army and jail.

Youkilis is the son of a Jewish jewelry wholesaler of Romanian ancestry, whom Youkilis has described as a "well-known third baseman in the Jewish Community Center fast-pitch softball league." At the age of 14, Youkilis had an uncredited one-line speaking role in the romantic comedy film, Milk Money. He attended Sycamore High School in the north-eastern suburbs of Cincinnati, where he played third, short, first, and the outfield for the school team which won the AAU National Championship in 1994, and he was the only player to homer off of current Rockies pitcher Aaron Cook in high school.

College Career

When he graduated from high school in 1997, Youkilis weighed about 227 pounds and was 6' 1". He was recruited by two Division I schools: Butler University, and his ultimate choice, the University of Cincinnati (UC)-an institution that was the alma mater of both his father and Youkilis' longtime idol, Sandy Koufax, although it had just finished a dismal 12-46 season. UC coach Brian Cleary spotted Youkilis at a winter camp. "I looked at him and said, Well, we need somebody," said Cleary. "I'd love to tell you I saw something no one else did, but he was just better than what we had."

Nevertheless, while majoring in finance, Youkilis excelled as a player for the Cincinnati Bearcats from 1998 to 2001. "I take no credit," said Cleary. "He coaches himself. He knows his swing. Any time we said anything to him, he was already a step ahead. He made the adjustments he had to make. I just think he's a really smart guy who had a great feel for what he had to do." In his junior year in 2000, he was a second-team All-American and first-team All-Conference USA, as he set school records by hitting three home runs in one game and 19 for the season; still, he went undrafted. "He was kind of a square-shaped body, a guy who in a uniform didn't look all that athletic," Cleary said. "He wasn't a tall, prospect-y looking guy. He looked chubby in a uniform.... It wasn't fat. He was strong. But I think the body did scare some people away."

During the period between his junior and senior years, he played in the Cape Cod League, finishing sixth in batting; and in his senior year in 2001, he repeated as second-team All-American. He set UC career records for home runs (56), walks (206), slugging percentage (.627), and on base percentage (.499) while batting .366. "He had a great eye ... he hardly ever struck out looking," said Brad Meador, UC's associate head coach. "When he did, you knew the ump missed the call." Cleary, noting how driven Youklis was to succeed, told his father: "Your son's going to be a millionaire some day. I don't know if it's in baseball, but he's going to make some money one of these days." Youkilis was later inducted into UC's James Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame.

Yet, when asked what he liked about Youkilis, former Boston scout Matt Haas said: "At first glance, not a lot. He was unorthodox. He had an extreme crouch-his thighs were almost parallel to the ground. And he was heavier than he is now. But the more I watched him, the more I just thought, 'Throw the tools out the window. This guy can play baseball.'"

In 2001, at Haas's urging, the Boston Red Sox drafted Youkilis in the eighth round (243rd overall), to the chagrin of Billy Beane, who had hoped that he would be able to draft him in a later round. ESPN reported that: "questions about his defense and power with wood kept him out of the top part of the draft." He signed for a mere $12,000 signing bonus. "Kevin would have played for a six-pack of beer," his father said.

"Teams didn't appreciate performance as much then as they do now," observed Red Sox VP of Player Personnel Ben Cherington eight years later. "His college performance was off the charts. If he were in the draft this year, he'd be at least a sandwich pick, if not a first rounder. His performance was that good, in college and on the Cape. Now, teams appreciate what that means. There's no way he'd last that long now."