User:Boost90/sandbox

Alex grew up in Garden City, New York, a largely upper-middle class suburb of New York City. He came from a Greek-American family, and his father was a furrier. His childhood nickname was "Zook" — a derivative of his real last name.[citation needed]

He was a very good baseball player — going on to play for Adelphi University, but was even more well known in his community for providing play-by-play commentary of neighborhood stickball and softball games.