While participants are usually happy enough to play against friends and classmates, this spring offers extra excitement for the Intramural Softball C-League: the chance to play ball against the University’s president.
President Michael Roth, along with his daughter Sophie Weil-Roth, has joined a University Relations team listed on the schedule as “TBD.” They hope to soon be joined by his wife, Professor Kari Weil.
Roth is excited to play in a friendly game with students and colleagues.
“Sophie hadn’t played softball before and it took some encouragement to get her to start,” Roth wrote in an e-mail. “But she went one-for-two and scored a run. I went 0-3. She was upset to miss Sunday’s game (her grandmother was in town), so I think she’s enjoying it.”
Students were also disappointed that Roth and Sophie were absent from last Sunday’s game.
“I was looking forward to playing against him, he looks like a tough candidate,” said Ravid Chowdhury ’09, a member of Team Buttaface. “He’s tall, right? Maybe he was scared. I mean, we are the returning runners-up of the C-league soccer championship, and from my understanding, soccer skills translate pretty well to softball. But I know that he’s a busy man.”
While Team Buttaface missed its chance to meet Roth on the field, other teams are looking forward to facing off against the President.
“I have challenged him personally,” said Benji Messinger-Barnes ’09, a member of Team Psi U. “I told him to his face, ’I’ll see you on the diamond.’ It’ll be fun but we’ll have to watch our heckling. Trash talking is as integral as, say, run-scoring or general fielding is to C-League softball.”
Scott Varnado ’10 of Team Eclectic is also planning on toning down his team’s usual antics.
“We saw him playing in the game before us and that’s when we realized his young daughter and another young kid are also on the team,” Varnado said. “At first we were hesitant but now we are excited. We’re gonna be on our best behavior. It won’t be the usual Eclectic match. No swearing, no cigarettes.”
For Varnado, playing against the president is also a chance to settle some old scores, such as the University’s refusal to support the student-run arts festival Zonker Harris Day, and Roth’s reference to the festival as “stupid.”
“We’re calling the game the Zonker Harris Show-Down,” he said.
While some of the steam generated by this issue has blown over, students do look at these softball games as a chance to interact with Roth on a level they might not ordinarily be able to.
“Maybe after the game we’ll have the chance to talk to him and ask him some questions,” Varnado said.
The President, however, seems to want to keep these games light-hearted and fun. He acknowledges his own missteps with student relations in the past, and hopes that the on-field interaction will change some students’ perceptions of his persona.
“They will see that my tendency to strike out and make errors goes beyond my comments on student life at Wesleyan,” he wrote.
For anyone interested in seeing Michael Roth in action, the next scheduled game is Sunday, April 13 at 2:00 p.m. on the women’s lacrosse practice field.
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