Boston Red Sox fans have been shouting, "Youk, Youk, Youk," and that isn't for Bob Uecker, the former major league catcher, Milwaukee Brewer announcer and baseball bon vivant.

This "Youk" is Kevin Youkilis, also known as "The Greek God of Walks."

Not only is this baseball rookie of Greek extraction confounding the scouting reports that said he was a middle of the road player at best, the former University of Cincinnati third baseman is also Jewish.

In the few weeks he has been with the Bosox he started the season in the minor leagues with Pawtucket (RI) he has replaced the injured Kevin Millar and is batting a respectable .281 in 18 games.

His on base percentage is .397, which means he gets on base almost four times per every 10 at bats. And he hasn't been too shabby in the power department, slugging two homeruns and driving in 11 runs. To the statistics-mad general manager of the Sox, Theo Epstein, these are great numbers and should keep Youkilis around even after Millar returns later this month.

Meanwhile Red Sox right fielder Gabe Kapler, another member of the Tribe, is batting a meager .236 with just one homerun and seven RBI.

And finally, Southern Connecticut State University said goodbye to Abie Grossfeld, the only gymnastics coach in school history. The school has decided to end the gymnastics program for lack of interest at the high school level and as a boy s sport in general.

With all the grace Grossfeld was due, the school waited till he announced his retirement before it announced that the program was ending.

A gymnastics star at the University of Illinois in the late 1940 s, he was a three-time Olympian representing the United States, and three times coached the American Gymnastics team in the Olympics.

In 1972, he attended the Olympics in Munich, Germany as a spectator and witnessed part of the aftermath of the Black September massacre. The hardest part for him was that several members of the Israeli team were personal friends.

In addition to coaching, and teaching at SCSU, Abe has been an Olympic judge, coached former All-American Peter Korman, and has been a coach of the American Maccabi team in Israel.

Unlike Hungarian Gymnastic Coach Bela Karoly, Abe is a quiet man who prefers his athletes get the attention rather than himself. Perhaps the modesty comes from his poor beginnings on the Lower East Side of New York.

"I was bar mitzvahed," he told me about seven years ago. "It was on a Monday. My father and I went to schul in the morning and I performed my part. Then my father went to work and I went to school. My mother couldn't come."