A Softball Education

You can learn a lot about your co-workers by playing on a company softball team. Thanks to ESPN.com's Jim Caple, here's a breakdown of what you can learn on the field. An example:

Swing Away: Avoid workers who delay the game by refusing to swing unless the pitch is right in their wheelhouse. Billy Beane is not your CEO -- on-base percentage might be all important in the Oakland Athletics organization, but not in yours. The sort of people who work the count in softball are exasperating slaves to detail and will go directly to the union rep whenever you ask them to do anything that isn't specifically covered in the contract language. There's a phrase among Caribbean ballplayers: You don't walk off the island. Tell these troublemakers that you don't walk into the Fortune 500, either.

(Corollary: Players who tell the women batters to take a walk are even worse. They're sexual harassment suits waiting to be filed.)