Kevin Youkilis

You’ve seen him on television and in movies. You’ve perhaps enjoyed his beer or seen him on his web series.

Oh yeah, he was a pretty good baseball player too.

Kevin Edmund Youkilis was born on Thursday, March 15, 1979, in Cincinnati to Carolyn (Weekley) and Mike “Bear” Youkilis, who was himself a “well known third baseman in the Jewish Community Center fast-pitch softball league.”1 Mike came from a Jewish family, while Carolyn converted to Judaism upon marriage, and they owned Midwest Diamond Distributors, where Kevin and his older brother, Scott, worked during their childhood.2

A right-handed-hitting and -throwing third baseman, Kevin began playing baseball at Cincinnati’s Sycamore High School. According to his coach, Chris Shrimpton, the freshman Youkilis needed time to develop his body, but had “raw talent with a lot of potential.”3

Kevin found quick success, winning the varsity starting third-base job his sophomore year, as well as an AAU championship, in 1994.

He was elected team captain both his junior and senior years, and he led the Sycamore Aviators to a pair of sectional championships, and one district championship while also being named team MVP his senior year.4

Despite this dominance, Kevin was not getting attention from scouts. Knowing what he had, Coach Shrimpton took the initiative. He began talking to college coaches regarding Kevin playing at the next level and found a coach, Brian Cleary, who was interested.

Cleary had been hired recently as the head coach at the University of Cincinnati, which had cleaned house after a 5-34 season in 1996.5 Cleary had been interested in Kevin since he spotted him at a University of Cincinnati baseball camp that Youkilis had been attending every year from childhood through his senior year of high school.6

Youkilis had an affinity for the school because his father, Mike, was a 1971 graduate. After Youkilis went undrafted in the 1997 major-league draft, he accepted a baseball scholarship to the University of Cincinnati beginning in the 1998 season.

He had some big shoes to fill. The university already touted a pair of Baseball Hall of Famers among its alumni: New York Yankees manager Miller Huggins and Los Angeles Dodgers pitching great Sandy Koufax.

Once at the university it emerged quickly that Youkilis was going to be a special player and the coaches started noticing his batting eye. “It was really readily apparent, he had the best feel for the strike zone of anybody that I had ever coached,” Cleary said.7

Youkilis’s fielding also went under the radar of scouts, which Coach Cleary attributed to style. “He wasn’t a flashy defender. But when you got to see him play defense every day … he was capable of both highlight plays and was incredibly consistent.”8

Between his junior and senior years, Youkilis played in the Cape Cod Baseball League, the premier collegiate summer league based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Just getting into the league in the first place took some work.

Mike Rikard, coach of the Bourne Braves in the summer of 2000, kept getting voice messages from the unrecruited Youkilis. As Youkilis kept calling and calling, more players began dropping off Cape League rosters to join the US Olympic team that summer. “I offered him an opportunity to come on as a temporary player,” Rikard said. “And he tore it up from day one.”9

Youkilis started his Cape Cod League career in dramatic fashion on June 12, 2000, by hitting a home run  in his first at-bat, a feat also achieved by former Red Sox great Carlton Fisk for the Orleans Firebirds in the summer of 1966.10

According to Matt Haas, a Red Sox scout who signed Youkilis in 2001, during his time on Cape Cod, Youkilis “got his name on the map and made the rest of us pay a little more attention to him the next year.”11

Youkilis had been again passed over in the 2000 draft. Back for his senior year at Cincinnati, he had what the university record book called “the top offensive career in school history,” and finished his collegiate career “owning or sharing 10 school records.”12

But Youkilis was still not garnering a lot of interest from major-league scouts, and Cleary pushed hard for Haas to draft him.13 Haas sent Youkilis’s name to Red Sox scouting director Wayne Britton. The team selected him with the 17th pick (243rd overall) in the eighth round of the 2001 draft, which made A’s general manager Billy Beane livid to the point that he fired his entire scouting department afterward14 and led to Youkilis’s later being a featured character in one of the most important sports books of the twenty-first century, Michael Lewis’s seminal book Moneyball.15

The Red Sox offered to sign Youkilis for a mere $12,000.16 According to his father, Mike, “Kevin would have played for a six-pack of beer.”17

Beginning his professional baseball career with the Lowell Spinners, the Red Sox’ affiliate in the short-season Class-A New York Penn League, Youkilis put up an astonishing league-leading .512 on-base percentage.

He was named the Spinners’ Player of the Year and earned a late-season five-game call-up to the low Class-A Augusta GreenJackets. His combined on-base percentage mark of .504 for the 2001 season was second only to San Francisco Giant Barry Bonds’ .515 in Organized Baseball.

Youkilis started the 2002 season with the GreenJackets but was only there for 15 games,18 and spent the bulk of the season with the Sarasota Red Sox of the high Class-A Florida State League. There he earned another late-season call-up, this time to the Double-A Trenton Thunder, and for his performance with the three teams, Youkilis was named the Red Sox 2002 Minor League Player of the Year.19

While the Red Sox were sold at this point on his plate discipline and fielding, they wanted to see a more athletic and explosive version of Youkilis. Assistant GM Theo Epstein recommended that Youkilis attend the Athletes Performance Institute in Arizona over the offseason with the goal of transforming his body and unlocking his power and agility.20 

Youkilis began the 2003 season with the Portland Sea Dogs of the Double-A Eastern League, and was selected to both the midseason and postseason all-star squads (the postseason honor despite that fact that he was promoted out of the league at the end of July.21

When Youkilis was called up to the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox, he was on a franchise-record run of reaching base in 62 straight games. He extended that streak by reaching base in each of his first nine games in Pawtucket, tying the minor-league record of 71 held by future teammate Kevin Millar.22

In the offseason Youkilis returned to the Athletes Performance Institute and played south of the border for Mayos de Navojoa in the Mexican Pacific League. He began the 2004 season back in Pawtucket.

He was having a perfectly respectable season there through 38 games when he got that dream call. It was in Charlotte, North Carolina, when Pawtucket manager Buddy Bailey asked Youkilis, “Do you have a passport?”23 Youkilis was on his way to becoming a member of one of the seminal teams in Boston Red Sox history.

The Red Sox were in Toronto to face the Toronto Blue Jays. After it was determined that starting third baseman Bill Mueller would be unable to play because of an injury, Youkilis was in.24

On May 15, 2004, at SkyDome, his parents, Mike and Carolyn, were seated two rows behind the Red Sox dugout.25 On the mound was 1996 AL Cy Young winner Pat Hentgen. In his second big-league at-bat, Youkilis deposited a 2-and-1 Hentgen changeup into the left-field bleachers.26

He was just the seventh Red Sox player to hit a homer in his first major-league game, but once he rounded the bases and got to the dugout … nothing. Crickets. Nobody congratulated him. It was a “silent treatment” prank organized by teammate Pedro Martínez. Youkilis was left to mime some high fives with imaginary teammates while his parents celebrated joyfully in the stands. It wasn’t until Red Sox manager Terry Francona hugged Youkilis that they pulled the plug on the rookie’s silent treatment.27

Playing third base almost every day in May, Youkilis was named AL Rookie of the Month. He continued to play regularly through June, but was mostly used as a late-game replacement for Mueller the rest of the season.

When he put the Division Series roster together, Francona, impressed with Youkilis’s performance, chose the rookie for the last available spot rather than add another pitcher.28 His only postseason appearance in 2004 was in Game Two of the ALDS. He was 0-for-2 at the plate. He was on the roster for the World Series as well, though he did not appear.

While Youkilis didn’t make an impact in the playoffs, playing in 72 regular-season games he finished eighth on the team in bWAR, better than Bill Mueller, the player he was backing up.

On March 3, 2005, Youkilis agreed to a one-year contract for $323,125 with the Red Sox and began the season on the Opening Day roster. As is the lot of a young ballplayer, he was optioned and recalled four times over the course of the 2005 season.

Playing for the Red Sox, Youkilis entered a game on August 8 in the ninth inning and took the field along with teammates Adam Stern and Gabe Kapler. This set a record for the most Jewish players on the field at one time in an American League game.29

When veteran third baseman Mike Lowell arrived in Boston as part of a trade for Marlins starting pitcher Josh Beckett, plans for Youkilis to succeed Mueller at third base were altered.30 Moved across the diamond, Youkilis establish himself as the Red Sox’ everyday first baseman.

The third-place 2006 Red Sox fell one short of tying the 2003 Seattle Mariners’ major-league record for the fewest team errors in a season , 65. An innocuous error by Youkilis on a pickoff throw to first base on July 4 preceded a record-breaking streak of defensive consistency as a first baseman, and he finished the 2006 season, and all of 2007, without another error. In doing so,he broke Stuffy McInnis’s team record of 119 errorless games at first base and bested Mike Hegan’s American League mark of 178 games.31

At the end of 2007 Youkilis had achieved the only errorless season for a major-league first baseman32 and received his first American League Gold Glove Award.

In 14 postseason games, Youkilis homered four times and drove in 10 runs, seven against Cleveland in the American League Championship Series as Boston came back from a 3-1 deficit to win the Series. If not for the brilliant Series pitching of Beckett, Youkilis might have been named MVP.

Youkilis’s bat cooled off a bit in the World Series but Boston still made tidy work of the Colorado Rockies. Winning in a four-game sweep, the Red Sox captured their seventh championship overall and second in four years, placing Youkilis in the rare group of living Red Sox players with multiple championship rings alongside David Ortiz, Manny Ramírez, and Curt Schilling.

After avoiding arbitration and agreeing to a one-year contract, Youkilis entered the 2008 season a two-time champion and on an unprecedented unblemished defensive streak at first base, having not committed an error at the position since July of 2006.

On April 2, 2008, he scooped up a groundball by Jack Cust of the Oakland A’s and recorded an unassisted out at first base to wrap up a 5-0 Red Sox victory. With this, Youkilis completed his 194th straight errorless game at first base and passed the bar set by Steve Garvey for the San Diego Padres from 1983 to 1985.33

Youkilis played another 44 games at first base without a fielding miscue. His streak ended during a Fenway Park game in which he started at third base and moved to first in the eighth inning. On June 7, 2008, against the Seattle Mariners, he had trouble handling a throw from second baseman (and later Red Sox manager) Alex Cora in the ninth and the streak was over.34 He had fielded a record 2,379 consecutive chances in 238 games without an error.35

Baseball and its fans took notice. Youkilis was voted the starting American League first baseman in the 2008 All-Star Game, his first of three selections.

The Baseball Writers Association of America also took notice. Youkilis finished third in the 2008 MVP voting (behind teammate Dustin Pedroia and former MVP Justin Morneau), garnering two first-place votes. He also received the Hank Aaron Award, given annually to the best hitter in each league.

With career bests of 29 homers and 115 RBIs (both tops on the team), Youkilis helped the Red Sox to a second-place finish in the AL East in 2008, two games behind Tampa Bay, and made his third playoff appearance, with the Red Sox ultimately falling to the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS.

Team goals may not have been met but things were looking up for Youkilis. In the offseason he and the Red Sox hammered out a contract befitting a Gold Glover, All-Star, team leader, and fan favorite, agreeing to a four-year, $41.25 million contract with a fifth-year option.36 Before the regular season, Youkilis joined the US team in the World Baseball Classic.

His WBC journey ended in the second round when he was sidelined by Achilles tendinitis. Youkilis returned to Red Sox spring training, but a string of injuries limited him to 136 games for the 2009 season and hampered him the rest of his career.

Youkilis gritted out his second All-Star nod in 2009, this time as a reserve, and set career marks in on-base percentage (.413) and OPS (.961), both of which were second in the American League behind Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer. He finished sixth in the MVP voting.

The offseason brought some more accolades for Youkilis. An organization called the Jewish Major Leaguers held an online vote to determine the “Best Jewish Player of the Decade.” Competing against fellow Jewish players Shawn Green and Ryan Braun, Youkilis won the honor.37

In December 2009, Youkilis was given the Dick Berardino Distinguished Alumni Award by his former minor-league team, the Lowell Spinners. A few weeks later, at the Boston Baseball Writers Dinner, he was honored with the Thomas A. Yawkey Award as the 2009 team’s most valuable player.38

Battling nagging injuries early in the 2010 season, Youkilis was actually having his best year at the plate through early August. After being removed from a game with a torn thumb muscle, he required season-ending surgery.39 In 2011 he was limited to 120 games with a litany of injuries but still managed to be a highly effective middle-of-the-order bat and was selected as a reserve to his third and final All-Star team.

Youkilis had founded a charity, Youk’s Kids, in 2007. In August 2011 it sponsored a baseball camp for about 200 youngsters at Northeastern University.40

The 2011 Red Sox finished third in the AL East and saw significant managerial upheaval. Manager Francona was fired in September. GM Epstein followed him out the door and agreed to a five-year, $18.5 million deal to be president of the Chicago Cubs.41

The 2012 season brought a number of transitions into Youkilis’s life as well, both personally and professionally. There was a new manager, Bobby Valentine, who had a dearth of popularity in the clubhouse.42 And now on the downhill side of age 30 and with injuries piling up, he was perhaps starting to feel that his time with the Red Sox might be short.

In the midst of this diamond drama, Youkilis and his fiancée Julie Brady, sister of legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady, were married in April of 2012 in a private ceremony.43

“It was definitely the greatest offday of my life. It was a lot of fun, good times,” Youkilis said of the wedding.44

Julie brought Jordan, her daughter from a previous marriage, into the family, and the couple went on to have two other children, Zachary and Jeremy.45

Back on the diamond, being hampered by injuries the past few years and feuding with the manager on a second-division team led to trade whispers. Add an emerging third-base prospect (Will Middlebrooks), and Youkilis was on the trade block. And on June 24, 2012, Youkilis was traded to the Chicago White Sox.46

Suiting up in the Fenway Park clubhouse to face the Atlanta Braves that evening, he didn’t know it would be his last game in a Red Sox uniform. He strode to the plate and proceeded to stroke a triple to deep right-center.47

Removed for a pinch-runner, Youkilis blew a kiss to the crowd. They serenaded him with a long standing ovation and a shower of appreciation in recognition of what he had given them: a Gold Glove, three All-Star appearances and two World Series rings. The move left David Ortiz as the last remaining player on the roster who was a member of the 2004 Red Sox.

On the eve of his homecoming to Fenway 22 days later, Youkilis posted a letter online thanking the Boston fans, coaching staff, and his family for the support and great times he had over his 8½ years in a Red Sox uniform.48 

Youkilis agreed to play for Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic if the squad made it past the qualifying round. It was personally important for him to contribute to baseball-building efforts in Israel. But the team was eliminated in the opening round.49

In the offseason the White Sox declined the $13 million option on his contract for the 2013 season and he became a free agent.50 Boston fans were a bit aghast at where he wound up next: On December 14, 2012, Youkilis signed a one-year, $12 million contract with the New York Yankees.51

Opening the 2013 season at Yankee Stadium, Youkilis’s first game with the Yankees would be, fittingly, against the Red Sox. In the three-game series (the Red Sox won two), he was 4-for-12 with two doubles. His early season was compounded by a return of his back issues, and he sat out all but one day of May.

While on the injured list, Youkilis went to Hollywood. He played a bit part as Chuck in the film Once Upon a Time in Brooklyn. The film, in which his former Red Sox teammate Bronson Arroyo acted alongside him, was actually the second movie Youkilis had appeared in; he had a brief part in the 1994 film Milk Money.52

Youkilis’s back issues persisted. He was removed from the lineup in mid-June and had season-ending back surgery after playing in only 28 games. His playing career was over. Youkilis’s last big-league game, at Oakland on June 13, went 18 innings, all of which he played. He didn’t have any hits in eight plate appearances; his last hit being a single off 2005 AL Cy Young winner Bartolo Colon two days earlier.

Youkilis had opportunities to remain in the majors but felt the best move for him and his family was to agree to a one-year, $4 million contract with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Nippon Professional Baseball League in Japan.53

The injury bug followed Youkilis across the Pacific and he opted out of his contract with the Golden Eagles after 21 games due to his struggles with plantar fasciitis.54 When the malady did not respond to treatment, on October 30, 2014, Youkilis announced his retirement as a player.55

In February 2015 Youkilis took a consulting job with the Chicago Cubs under his old boss Theo Epstein.56 And the floodgates opened to allow accolades to rush in over the next few years.

In May 2015 Youkilis’s number 36 was retired by the University of Cincinnati.57  

In March of 2017 Sycamore High School retired his number 13. (He was already a member of their Hall of Fame.) The ceremony was held alongside the inaugural Kevin Youkilis Youth Baseball Camp.58

Later the Red Sox announced that Youkilis was part of their 2018 Hall of Fame class alongside former teammates Derek Lowe and Mike Lowell, as well as former player Buck Freeman and nonuniformed inductee Al Green.59

Throughout his baseball career while traversing the nation, Youkilis had taken advantage of the opportunity to visit as many breweries as he could. “I was researching and studying and saying, Hey, when I finally take off the jersey and the spikes, I’m gonna look into owning my own,” he said in 2019.60  

Within two years of the end of his baseball career Youkilis had opened Loma Brewing Company, a gastropub in Los Gatos, California, with the help of his brother Scott, a restaurateur.61

Located in Los Gatos, California, the restaurant serves food and Youkilis’ own sudsy concoctions, such as the Greek God of Hops.62 With these creations he won California Commercial Beer Brewery of the Year at the 2017 state fair.63

Like many businesses, the coronavirus pandemic hit Loma Brewing Company hard and there was fear about its future,64 but as of 2023 it continued to thrive and has expanded into merchandise.65 Youkilis’s Happy Hour with Youk is an internet series that takes place live at Loma and focuses on craft beer discussions.66 

Having a successful restaurant on top of a successful baseball career might satisfy some men, but Youkilis looked to get back into the game and in 2021 he joined the studio analyst rotation for New England Sports Network (NESN) broadcasts of Red Sox games.67 Subsequently the network slotted him to be in the broadcast booth as an analyst for 50 games in 2022.68

When full-time analyst Dennis Eckersley retired after the 2022 season, Youkilis was bumped up to the primary in-game color commentary role and was slated to do about half of all Red Sox games.69

When he was not in the booth for the Red Sox, he would be back in Los Gatos, focusing on family and work. He took time out from running Loma to, as he put it, take Little League coaching “to another level.” He also had his eye on opening a second brewpub, as well as a production facility in nearby Manteca, California.70

Sidebar

Like many Jewish families across the world, the Youkilis family has a proud and complicated history. The most commonly accepted version of their journey begins in modern-day Romania with a great-great-great-great grandfather named Weiner who fled south to Greece to escape persecution at the hands of the Cossacks.71

In Greece Weiner had a family friend who had the last name Youkilis. Looking to conceal himself upon his return to Romania years later, he assumed the Youkilis moniker for himself. Weiner/Youkilis eventually married in Romania and eventually moved with his wife and 10 children, including Kevin’s grandfather, to America, where the family settled in Cincinnati.72 

Kevin’s familial roots came back into play regarding the University of Cincinnati’s new baseball facility, which opened in 2004. In 2006, after a $2 million donation to the athletic department from the Schott Foundation, it was renamed Marge Schott Stadium, and the school approached Youkilis about having his name on the facility as well.73

Having been asked to provide a donation to the school that would have resulted in the name being Kevin Youkilis Field at Marge Schott Stadium, he declined due to the antisemitism expressed by Schott consistently over the course of her life.

“Kevin, that is a tremendous honor that they would think of doing this,” his father said to him. “The only problem is that … I will never let our family name be next to someone that was filled with such hatred of our Jewish community.”74

Youkilis stayed connected to this cause, supporting UC pitcher Nathan Moore in 2020 when he called for the school to change the name of the stadium.75

Notes

1 Mark Bechtel, “Making a Name for Himself: Kevin Youkilis Has Become a Folk Hero in Boston,” SI.com, October 19, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20121026072304/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/the_bonus/10/19/bonus.youkilis/, accessed September 9, 2023.

2 Dave Clark, “Mike Youkilis, Former Knothole Coach and Father of Sycamore HS/UC star Kevin, Dies at 71,” Cincinnati.com, July23, 2020. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/college/university-of-cincinnati/2020/07/14/mike-youkilis-obituary-scholarship-help-future-uc-bearcats-player/5433156002/, accessed September 9, 2023.

3 Chris Shrimpton, email correspondence with author, November 22, 2022.

4 Mike Dyer, “Sycamore High School to Retire Jersey Number of Former MLB Star Kevin Youkilis,” WCPO.com, March 31, 2017. https://www.wcpo.com/sports/high-school-sports/ohio-high-school-sports/sycamore-to-retire-high-school-jersey-number-of-former-mlb-star-kevin-youkilis, accessed September 9, 2023.

5 Chaz Scoggins, “Youkilis Didn’t Take the Easy Way to the Top,” LowellSun.com, December 27, 2009, updated July 13, 2019. https://www.lowellsun.com/2009/12/27/youkilis-didnt-take-the-easy-way-to-the-top/, accessed September 9, 2023. For Bearcats statistics, see https://www.thebaseballcube.com/content/college_history/20357/ . Accessed December 6, 2023.

6 Keith Jenkins, “UC Alum Kevin Youkilis Wins 2007 World Series Ring,” Magazine.UC.edu, https://magazine.uc.edu/issues/0408/sports.html, accessed September 9, 2023.

7 Brian Cleary, telephone interview with author, August 22, 2022.

8 Cleary.

9 Jen McCaffrey, “Talent and Promise in ‘Baseball Heaven’: Behind the Scenes With a Scout at the Cape Cod League,” TheAthletic.com, August 9, 2021. https://theathletic.com/2750669/2021/08/09/talent-and-promise-in-baseball-heaven-behind-the-scenes-with-a-cape-league-scout/, accessed September 9, 2023.

10 CCBL Public Relations Office. “Kevin Youkilis Joins Cubs as a Special Assistant,” CapeCodBaseball.org, February 20, 2015. https://www.capecodbaseball.org/news/league-news/index.html?article_id=2010, accessed September 9, 2023.

11 Matt Haas, telephone interview with author, September 9, 2022. Upon his return to UC, Coach Cleary noticed a difference. “I think most guys head to the Cape, and think, ‘Oh geez, I hope I can belong,’ and I think Youkilis went there knowing that … this was his chance to let everybody know he belonged. And he came back … more confident.” Cleary interview.

12 University of Cincinnati 2022-23 Baseball Record Book GoBearcats.com, https://gobearcats.com/documents/2022/9/22/2022-23_Baseball_Record_Book.pdf, accessed September 9, 2023. Youkilis was honored for his collegiate career in 2004 when he was elected to the University of Cincinnati Hall of Fame, and again in 2015 when the school retired his number 36. Youkilis was similarly honored by Conference-USA, as he was named to their All-Decade team in 2007, and inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2019. See WKRC. “Huggins, Martin, Youkilis Named to First Conference USA Hall of Fame Class,” Local12.com, July 8, 2019. https://local12.com/sports/uc-bearcats/huggins-martin-youkilis-named-to-first-conference-usa-hall-of-fame-class-cincinnati-bearcats-bob-kenyon-kevin-college-basketball-baseball-boston-red-sox-new-jersey-nets-nba, accessed September 9, 2023.

13 Cleary.

14 Scoggins. Beane thought the A’s should have drafted Youkilis themselves, much higher in thedraft.

15 Michael Lewis, Moneyball (New York: W.W. Norton), 2004.

16 Alex Speier, “The Transformation of Kevin Youkilis,” WEEI.com, March 18, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20110716024440/http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/red-sox/alex-speier/transformation-kevin-youkilis, accessed September 9, 2023.

17 Scoggins.

18 Combined with his five from the previous season, he played in only 20 games for the GreenJackets. However, due to the remarkable nature of his baseball career in general, Youkilis was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2018. Larry Taylor, “Greenjackets Induct Youkilis Into Hall of Fame,” AugustaChronicle.com, August 10, 2018. https://www.augustachronicle.com/story/sports/2018/08/11/former-red-sox-great-kevin-youkilis-inducted-into-augusta-greenjackets-hall-of-fame/6499792007/, accessed September 9, 2023.

19 Jenkins, “UC Alum Kevin Youkilis Wins 2007 World Series Ring.”

20 Speier.

21 MILB.com, “Kevin Youkilis Inducted Into Sea Dogs Hall of Fame,” MILB.com, August 30, 2013. https://www.milb.com/news/gcs-59012604, accessed September 9, 2023.

22 He was later rewarded for his accomplishments he was elected to the Unum Portland Sea Dogs Hall of Fame in 2013 and was named as the third baseman on the 20th Season All-Time Team. “Kevin Youkilis Inducted into Sea Dogs Hall of Fame.”

23 Bob Hohler, “Youkilis Was Flying Before – And After – Game,” Boston.com, May 16, 2004. http://archive.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2004/05/16/youkilis_was_flying_before____and_after____game/, accessed September 9, 2023.

24 Hohler.

25 Hohler. See also Brian MacPherson, “Remembering The Beginning of the Kevin Youkilis Era,” ProvidenceJournal.com, June 25, 2012. https://www.providencejournal.com/story/sports/mlb/2012/06/25/20120625-remembering-the-beginning-of-the-kevin-youkilis-era-ece/35427067007/, accessed September 9, 2023.

26 MacPherson.

27 Dan Shaughnessy, “He Walks Away With a Dreamlike Debut,” Boston.com, May 16, 2004. http://archive.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2004/05/16/he_walks_away_with_a_dreamlike_debut/, accessed September 9, 2023. One can see the home run and aftermath on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri5XpTaLEOs.

28 “We thought having the position player may come in handy,” Francona said. “It will allow us to use Dave Roberts in a pinch-running situation a little bit more aggressively and gives us a couple of more options.” Allan Wood and Bill Nowlin, Don’t Let Us Win Tonight: An Oral History of the 2004 Boston Red Sox’s Impossible Playoff Run (Chicago: Triumph Books, 2014), 29.

29 Four Jewish players had taken the field for the New York Giants in 1941. Jewish Virtual Library, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/kevin-youkilis, accessed September 9, 2023.

30 Lowell was a three-time All-Star, Gold Glove, and World Series-winning third baseman.

31 Fenway Fanatics, “Youkilis Sets New Consecutive Error-Free Games Record,” FenwayFanatics.com, April 2, 2008. https://www.fenwayfanatics.com/content/2008/04/02/youkilis-sets-new-consecutive-error-free-games-record/, accessed September 9, 2023.

32 Gordon Edes, “Youkilis: ‘I’ll play anywhere,’” ESPN.com, September 13, 2010. https://www.espn.com/blog/boston/red-sox/post/_/id/6008/youkilis-ill-play-anywhere, accessed September 9, 2023.

33 Fenway Fanatics. “Youkilis Sets New Consecutive Error-Free Games Record.”

34 Gordon Edes, “Youk Muffs Throw, Errorless Streak Ends,” Boston.com, June 7, 2008. https://www.boston.com/sports/extra-bases/2008/06/07/youk_muffs_thro/, accessed September 10, 2023.

35 2023 Boston Red Sox Media Guide, 318.

36 Ian Browne, “Youkilis, Sox Agree to Four-Year Deal,” MLB.com, January 16, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090121175636/http://mlb.mlb.com:80/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090115&content_id=3745442&vkey=hotstove2008&fext=.jsp, accessed September 10, 2023.

37 Jewish Virtual Library.

38 Scoggins.

39 Associated Press, “Youkilis to Miss Remainder Of Season,” NYTimes.com, August 5, 2010. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/sports/baseball/06bats.html, accessed September 10, 2023.

40 Evan Drellich, “Youkilis Lends His Time, Expertise to Clinic,” MLB.com, https://www.mlb.com/news/youkilis-lends-his-time-expertise-to-clinic-c22738144, accessed September 10, 2023.

41 Eric Bowman, “Theo Epstein Agrees to Join Chicago Cubs, Leaving Boston Red Sox in a Bind,” BleacherReport.com, October 12, 2011. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/890464-theo-epstein-agrees-to-join-chicago-cubs-leaving-boston-red-sox-in-a-bind#:~:text=Chicago%20Cubs-,Theo%20Epstein%20Agrees%20to%20Join%20Chicago%20Cubs%2C%20Leaving,Red%20Sox%20in%20a%20Bind&text=Former%20Boston%20Red%20Sox%20general,to%20John%20Dennis%20of%20WEEI., accessed September 10, 2023.

42 Sean McAdam, “Red Sox a House Divided?” NBCSportsBoston.com, June 21, 2012, updated January 15, 2013. https://www.nbcsportsboston.com/mlb/boston-red-sox/mcadam-red-sox-a-house-divided/321842/?blockID=728034&feedID=3352, accessed September 10, 2023.

43 Gabe Zaldivar, “Kevin Youkilis and Julie Brady Get Married at Private Wedding Ceremony,” BleacherReport.com, April 24, 2012. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1157978-kevin-youkilis-and-julie-brady-get-married-at-private-wedding-ceremony, accessed September 10, 2023. Youkilis first met Julie in 2004 when he bumped into the Super Bowl-winning quarterback and his three sisters at Boston’s Avalon nightclub. While interested, Kevin was wary. He was merely a Red Sox backup while Brady had already cemented his status as a Boston sports legend with three Super Bowl victories under his belt. According to Julie, “[Kevin] was intimidated to ask for my phone number because he didn’t want to step on any toes with Tommy.” Kirsten Fleming, “Pulse,” New York Post, June 14, 2013. Julie reminded Kevin of this when they ran into each other again in 2010 and the road to marriage was paved.

44 “Report: Youkilis Marries Brady’s Sister,” FoxSports.com, April 24, 2012. https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/report-youkilis-marries-bradys-sister, accessed September 10, 2023.

45 Karl Rasmussen, “Julie Brady, Tom Brady’s Sister, Is Married to Another New England Sports Legend,” FanBuzz.com, February 24, 2023. https://fanbuzz.com/nfl/kevin-youkilis-wife/, accessed September 10, 2023.

46 Tony Lee, “Kevin Youkilis Sent to White Sox,” ESPN.com, June 24, 2012. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/8091584/kevin-youkilis-traded-boston-red-sox-chicago-white-sox, accessed September 10, 2023.

47 Lee.

48 Scott Boeck, “Youkilis’ Letter to Red Sox Fans: ‘I Am Forever Grateful.’” USA Today, July 15, 2012.

49 JTA and Steve Klein, “Baseball World Classic, Youkilis Says He Will Play for Israel, if It Qualifies for Tournament,” Haaretz.com, August 24, 2012. https://www.haaretz.com/2012-08-24/ty-article/mlb-star-youkilis-ready-to-play-for-israel/0000017f-dbb3-db22-a17f-ffb3ec8b0000?v=1694363172880, accessed September 10, 2023.

50 Legacy User, “White Sox Decline $13m option on Kevin Youkilis, Sign Jake Peavy for Two Years,” Boston.com, October 31, 2012. https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-red-sox/2012/10/31/white-sox-decline-13m-option-on-kevin-youkilis-sign-jake-peavy-for-two-years/, accessed September 10, 2023.

51 Andrew Marchand, “Sources: Kevin Youkilis to Yankees,” ESPN.com, December 11, 2012. https://www.espn.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/8737974/kevin-youkilis-agrees-deal-new-york-yankees-sources, accessed September 10, 2023.

52 See the Kevin Youkilis IMBD page: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1753938/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_1_q_Kevin%2520Youkilis.

53 Jerry Crasnick, “Japan Champs to Sign Kevin Youkilis,” ESPN.com, December 20, 2013. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/10172824/kevin-youkilis-play-japan-tohoku-rakuten-golden-eagles, accessed September 10, 2023.

54 Jen McCaffrey, “Kevin Youkilis Back From Japan Recovering From Plantar Fasciitis, Hoping to Still Play,” MassLive.com, May 29, 2014. https://www.masslive.com/redsox/2014/05/kevin_youkilis_back_from_japan.html, accessed September 10, 2023.

55 Associated Press, “Kevin Youkilis Walking Away,” ESPN.com, October 30, 2014. https://www.espn.com/boston/mlb/story/_/id/11791585/former-boston-red-sox-infielder-kevin-youkilis-retires, accessed September 10, 2023.

56 Jesse Rogers, “Ramirez, Youkilis to Consult Cubs,” ESPN.com, February 24, 2015. https://www.espn.co.uk/mlb/story/_/id/12374325/chicago-cubs-hire-manny-ramirez-kevin-youkilis-consultant-positions, accessed September 10, 2023.

57 GoBearcats.com, “Youkilis Celebration, Senior Day Slated for Final American Series,” GoBearcats.com, May 13, 2015. https://gobearcats.com/news/2015/5/13/Youkilis_Celebration_Senior_Day_Slated_for_Final_American_Series.aspx, accessed September 10, 2023. See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl6AKSZuvWA.

58 Dyer.

59 Dave Clark, “Kevin Youkilis, Former Sycamore HS and UC Bearcats Star, Elected to Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame,” Cincinnati.com, December 1, 2017. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/high-school/ohio-high-school/2017/12/01/kevin-youkilis-former-sycamore-hs-and-uc-bearcats-star-elected-boston-red-sox-hall-fame/912425001/, accessed September 10, 2023.

60 Mark Bechtel, “Former Red Sox Great Kevin Youkilis Crafting a New Path with California Brewery,” SI.com, June 25, 2019. https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/06/25/kevin-youkilis-boston-red-sox-loma-brewing-company, accessed September 10, 2023.

61 Sarah Fritsche, “Youkilis Brothers Open Loma Brewing Company in Los Gatos,” SFGate.com, August 18, 2016. https://www.sfgate.com/restaurants/article/Youkilis-brothers-open-Loma-Brewing-Company-in-9171305.php, accessed September 10, 2023.

62 Lomabrew.com.

63 Bechtel, “Former Red Sox Great Kevin Youkilis Crafting a New Path With California Brewery.”

64 Mike Rosenstein, “Where Are They Now? Ex-Yankee Kevin Youkilis Struggling as the Greek God of Hops,” NJ.com, June 3, 2020. https://www.nj.com/yankees/2020/06/where-are-they-now-ex-yankee-kevin-youkilis-struggling-as-the-greek-god-of-hops.html, accessed September 10, 2023.

65 See, for instance, https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Kevin-Youkilis-The-Greek-God-of-Walks-by-bridge2oblivion/35131463.6ATOD.

66 John Metcalfe, “Kevin Youkilis’ Journey from Baseball to Brewing,” MercuryNews.com, April 20, 2022. https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/04/20/kevin-youkilis-journey-from-baseball-to-brewing/, accessed September 10, 2023.

67 Chad Finn, “NESN to Add Ellis Burks, Mo Vaughn and Kevin Youkilis to Red Sox Broadcasts,” BostonGlobe.com, March 19, 2021. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/03/19/sports/nesn-add-ellis-burks-mo-vaughn-kevin-youkilis-red-sox-broadcast/, accessed September 10, 2023.

68 Dave Clark, “Kevin Youkilis Joins NESN Broadcast Booth for 50 Boston Red Sox Games,” Cincinnati.com, March 15, 2022, updated April 20, 2022. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/mlb/2022/03/15/kevin-youkilis-joins-nesn-broadcast-booth-50-boston-red-sox-games-2022-season-sycamore-hs-bearcats/7054392001/, accessed September 10, 2023.

69 Chad Finn, “Kevin Youkilis Will Be NESN’s Primary Color Analyst for Red Sox Games in 2023, Lou Merloni Set to Join,” Boston.com, January 21, 2023. https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-red-sox/2023/01/21/nesn-red-sox-booth-announcers-2023-kevin-youikilis-lou-merloni-will-middlebrooks-kevin-millar-time-wakefield-dave-obrien/, accessed September 10, 2023.

70 John Metcalfe, “Kevin Youkilis’ Journey from Baseball to Brewing.”

71 Richard Sandomir, “Fascination With a New Yankee’s Jewish Roots,” NYTimes.com, December 12, 2012. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/sports/baseball/fascination-with-a-new-yankees-jewish-roots.html, accessed September 9, 2023.

72 Sandomir.

73 Dan Gartland, “University of Cincinnati Baseball Players Want Racist Ex-Reds Owner’s Name Taken Off Stadium,” June 8, 2020. SI.com, https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2020/06/08/cincinnati-bearcats-baseball-stadium-name-marge-schott-reds, accessed September 9, 2023.

74 Gartland.

75 Keith Jenkins, “Kevin Youkilis Joins UC Baseball Player in Calling for Name Change to Marge Schott Stadium,” Cincinnati.com, June 7, 2020. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/2020/06/07/uc-pitcher-kevin-youkilis-want-marge-schotts-name-removed-stadium/3170386001/, accessed September 9, 2023.