The question of whether or not Kevin Youkilis will be booed when he returns to Fenway Park in a Yankee uniform was probably answered today.
"I'll always be a Red Sock," Youkilis told the New York media during his first day in Yankee camp. "To negate all the years I played for the Boston Red Sox, and all the tradition, you look at all the stuff I have piled up at my house and to say I'd just throw it out the window, it's not true."
Youkilis, traded to the White Sox last June after losing his job to rookie Will Middlebrooks (and after months of conflict with then-manager Bobby Valentine), signed with the Yanks as a free agent during the offseason. The Boston-to-New York booing standard was set by Johnny Damon, who went south after saying he would "never" sign with the Yankees, and fear was that the fans would turn on Youkilis the same way. But today's comments, delivered in a Yankee uniform, may have defused that.
"Those were great years in Boston," said Youk. "One bad half-year doesn't take away from all the great years I had there."