Congratulations to Kevin Youkilis, who just snagged his first ever Gold Glove- and it was well deserved. Youk didn't record a single error this season, in 1,080 total chances (that's 135 errorless games), and also nabbed 990 putouts. Youk is the first Sox player to snag one of these prestigious defensive awards since Jason Varitek in '05.

Youk is one of five first-time AL Gold Glove honorees this year- including Johan Santana, Placido Polanco, Adrian Beltre and Grady Sizemore. The AL list includes two Tigers, two Mariners, two Twins, and one player from each of the Red Sox, Indians and Angels. No Yankees made the list (Derek Jeter lost his slot to the Angels' Orlando Cabrera). The NL list includes two players from each of the Phillies, Braves and Mets, and one player from each of the Padres, Dodgers, Cubs and Diamondbacks.

Here's some interesting history on the awards, courtesy of the Phillies (congratulations also go out to Philly's Aaron Rowand, who snagged his first Gold Glove today):

The idea of awarding Gold Gloves to the game's top fielders hatched in 1956 when Elmer Blasco, the Rawlings Sporting Goods public relations/sales manager, discovered during a Spring Training survey that 83 percent of MLB regular players used Rawlings gloves or mitts.

He noted that Hillerich & Bradsby, the Major League's leading baseball bat supplier, awarded "Silver Bats" to the game's top hitters, so Blasco reasoned that Rawlings ought to sponsor some sort of fielding award.

After his idea was accepted by Rawlings' management, Blasco contacted the Brown Shoe Company of St. Louis and obtained a hide of gold lame-tanned leather used to make ladies formal slippers. A glove was crafted from the hide, laced and stamped as a regular fielder's glove, and attached to a metal fixture on a walnut base with an engraved plate. Thus was born the Gold Glove Award.

The Oct. 2, 1957, edition of The Sporting News featured a full-page announcement: "Recognizing the importance of superior individual fielding performance to the advancement of baseball as America's national game, Rawlings has established the annual Gold Glove Awards beginning with the '57 season."

A committee selected by The Sporting News voted from 1957-64; MLB managers and coaches took over the voting responsibility in 1965.