University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

‘Renegades’ take to the field for fun

Rob Marczynski tries to beat the throw to first base during a recent game in South Park. Photo: NANCY J. PARISI

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By CHARLOTTE HSU

Published: July 8, 2009

For 22 consecutive years, members of the Research Institute on Addictions’ slow-pitch softball team have gathered on spring and summer nights to play ball. Their fortunes have varied from season to season. From 1995 to 1997, they emerged as league champions. Other times, losses outnumbered wins.

But the RIA Renegades, as the team is known, is not just about softball. Years together on the field have transformed athletes into friends, colleagues into confidantes.

Neil McGillicuddy, Renegades captain and an institute research scientist, says the team picks up just one or two rookies each year because participants tend to stay for a long time. Seven or eight of 15 current Renegades have been playing for over a decade, McGillicuddy says. The bulk are institute staff, although others, including employee spouses, have taken part.

“There’s a bond here among the people who have played softball,” says McGillicuddy, who joined the Renegades in its first season. “I got married in 1994, and the team came to the wedding. They threw me a baby shower when we were having our first child.

“Not that this is the reason that we developed the team, but this does intersect with the university’s desire to make employees feel happier with their jobs, to create work-life balance,” says McGillicuddy, a program coordinator for UB’s Employee Assistance Program.

Players participate in preseason practices and show up for weekly games. Audrey Kubiak, a project director at the research institute who has been on the team for 15 years, remembers that for many seasons, the Renegades even had a statistician—a UB professor married to an institute employee.

“You would get every single non-relevant statistic about your hitting, your offensive and defensive play, that you would never do anything with,” Kubiak says. “But it was kind of fun. You could track your progress.”

For veteran players, the team has been the source of many memories.

Rob Marczynski, an institute graphic artist, recalls one highlight: a game in the early 1990s that became so heated that an umpire called the police. The Renegades were battling the No. 1 team in the league, and the group from the research institute was ahead, with a Renegades outfielder managing to throw runners out on two occasions. The opponents turned out to be sore losers.

“First they were going at each other, and then they were upset at us. It was getting ugly,” Marczynski remembers.

The game, while a disappointment for the league leaders, was a high point for the Renegades, who had been losing all season, Marczynski says.

He also looks back fondly on post-game outings to pubs where players would discuss the events of the day over pitchers of beer and orders of wings.

“The going out is unfortunately more a thing of the past,” Marczynski says. “A lot of us have other commitments after the games, with our kids and spouses. And when we do go out,” he adds, “it seems as if at least half of the team is looking to eat rabbit food.”

Food preferences are not the only things that have changed over the years.

In the team’s early days, recruiting was done via fliers and word of mouth. Now, McGillicuddy e-mails players about open spots, asking if they know anyone interested in softball.

Teammates who started in their 20s have aged, gotten married, had children. McGillicuddy, who used to play shortstop and second base, serves as one of two starting pitchers. As he says, “As I got older, my range deserted me.”

Marczynski, who, like McGillicuddy, joined the Renegades in 1988, says the team’s opponents “seem to get younger and younger every year.” But the research institute players can still keep up with their youthful foes, he says.

He makes a simple observation about what, after more than two decades, has not changed: “It is still fun.”