Schweizer Claims Petropoulos Off Waivers
Second best-dressed man in club, known for furs and forehand, locked in Saturday
Committee member calls his fur coat a possible uniform violation
By Anita Bath·Staff Reporter
Mr. Petropoulos runs a forehand at Rowayton D Friday. He has not said whether Saturday's coat will be the mink or the fox.
“Men of swaddling paddle cloth, we have secured ourselves a forehand and a fur coat in one transaction”
ROWAYTON, Conn., Sept. 18 —Fred Schweizer, who captains Rowayton D, claimed Scott Petropoulos off the club's preseason waiver wire Friday morning, locking in the man widely regarded as Rowayton's second best-dressed player, known equally for a wardrobe of furs and an aggressive forehand, for Saturday's lineup.
The transaction was posted on the sheet taped outside the hut at 8:52 a.m., one of eleven waiver claims the club has processed since Labor Day, up from four in the previous preseason combined. No matches have been played this season; the sheet exists entirely to settle who may practice with whom.
Petropoulos moves down from Rowayton A, in Division 1, to Rowayton D, in Division 6, a demotion in classification that Schweizer described, without apparent irony, as the best move of his tenure. He has crept forward a little this preseason, according to the club's own form notes, and Schweizer said the trend was the whole reason for the claim.
"Men of swaddling paddle cloth, we have secured ourselves a forehand and a fur coat in one transaction," Schweizer wrote in an email to his team Friday afternoon, closing, as he does, in verse: "Good luck this year; to Woodway men we bring no cheer; stain their tasseled loafers; we've got Scotty and his foxes."
Not everyone at the club was untroubled by the claim. A member of the paddle committee, granted anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss outerwear, said Petropoulos's appearance had been flagged informally in scouting notes as a possible liability, on the theory that a man that good-looking distracts his own doubles partner as reliably as the opponent.
The same committee member said the fur question would likely be referred to the subcommittee that wrote the dress code for last month's Widmer Invitational, on the grounds that a floor-length coat worn over club whites at a changeover may or may not constitute a uniform violation. No ruling had been issued as of Friday evening.
Petropoulos, reached briefly, confirmed he was locked in for Saturday and declined to say which coat he intended to wear, or whether it would be the mink or the fox. "I don't really think about it that much," he said, adjusting a scarf that was not, strictly speaking, part of the question.
Schweizer, who has lost track of two lineup cards and one entire partner's phone number already this preseason, said he intended to slot Petropoulos high and let the rest of the roster sort itself out. "The algorithm doesn't lie," he said, of a number he did not name and did not appear to fully understand.
The waiver sheet outside the hut, as of Friday night, listed no acquisition cost for the claim. Under the word "Petropoulos," someone had written, in block letters, "LOCKED IN," and left it there.
