Background and Early Career
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 "Youkilis" to avoid army and jail.
Youkilis is the son of a Romanian Jewish jewelry wholesaler, 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 northeastern suburbs of Cincinnati, where he played third base, shortstop, first base, and the outfield for the school team which won the AAU National Championship in 1994, and he was the only player to homer off his future Red Sox teammate Aaron Cook in high school.
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