I originally posted this on my blog about Jews and sports since Youkilis is one of the handful of Jewish players, but there’s enough book/movie/collectibles that I can kill two birds with one stone, so…
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Thanks to Robert Whiting, I have been able to find a way to keep tabs on Kevin Youkilis, currently with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
Found some nice bits and pieces about Youkilis, who was able to grow back his facial hair.
As a member of the Red Sox, Youkilis played in Japan in 2008.
You read a lot about the difficulties many Asian (and other non-English speaking) players have when coming over to play in North America (because, you k
now, Canada, too). The language barrier can be daunting. I watched the Youtube video below and thought about how isolating it must be for Youkilis. How many Japanese speak English? What do they think of him or any gaijin? Are they resentful that some foreigner is coming to take a job away, or are they happy for a real Major Leaguer to be part of their team? (Although it was a fairly cliche movie, I would still recommend seeing Mr. Baseball, starring Tom Selleck and featuring Dennis Haysbert, whom you might recall as Pedro Cerrano in the Major League movie franchise, and, hey, did you know there was a Field of Dreams 2?)
Thanks to Whiting, I found these interviews that Youkilis did with what I’m assuming are members of the local media there.
Youkilis already a main component of the team’s promotions
One of Youkilis’ teammates will be Andruw Jones, 36, who hit 434 home runs in a 17-year career in the Majors, mostly with the Atlanta Braves with stints with the Dodgers, Rangers, White Sox and Yankees. Jones, a five-time All-Star and ten-time Golden Glove Winner, “retired” after the 2012 season.
The regular season starts March 28. Sayanora for now.
is available on Amazon.com,
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