Cincinnati pitcher, former major leaguer Kevin Youkilis call for Marge Schott Stadium name change

University of Cincinnati pitcher and senior captain Nathan Moore has called for the school to change the name of its baseball stadium from Marge Schott Stadium because it “is honoring an individual who was openly racist.”

In a post to Twitter on Saturday, Moore, a black player who recently completed his undergraduate degree at Cincinnati, said, “I simply cannot understand why our great University would not address the removal of this hurtful and offensive commemoration of racism.”

Former UC standout Kevin Youkilis, who was inducted into the UC Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007 and Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2018, supported Moore’s stance in a tweet on Sunday.

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“UC has given me so much in life and I’m forever grateful for the experiences and friendships that I’ve made while attending,” Youkilis said in the post. “Friendships that are of different races, religion and ethnicities that came about because of the inclusion of all individuals at UC. So I stand with Nathan Moore on this issue.”

Moore referenced a petition started by former UC baseball player Jordan Ramey to have the name of the stadium changed.

Schott, a Cincinnati native, became the owner of the Reds in 1984 and was banned from managing the team from 1996 through 1998 after making statements in support of former Nazi party leader Adolf Hitler. During her tenure as owner, Schott made slurs toward African-Americans, Jews and persons of Japanese descent.

Schott agreed to sell her controlling interest in the Reds in 1999. Schott died in 2004. She was 75.

Youkilis, who is of Jewish descent, said in his post that it was his father who informed him of Schott’s history when the school expressed interest renaming the stadium “Kevin Youkilis Field at Marge Schott Stadium.”

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

Youkilis played for UC from 1998 to 2001 before making his debut with the Red Sox in 2004.