In Employee Relations, You Can’t Win ‘Em All

Angel Manager Mike Scioscia vs. outfielder Jose Guillen got the fans buzzing, illuminated the talk-show lines and got the folks at foxsports.com thinking about the long, sordid history of boss-employee relations -- namely, the top 10 player-coach feuds.

Few can argue with the No. 1 choice: Latrell Sprewell vs. P.J. Carlesimo. “This time, player chokes coach, and the fallout is Chernobyl in scale,” wrote Dayn Perry.

Failing to crack the top 10 list were two long-lost yet noteworthy Southland feuds, one in basketball and one in hockey. What about Magic Johnson vs. Paul Westhead in 1981, or Wayne Gretzky vs. King coach Robbie Ftorek in 1988-89?

For those who don’t remember the results, it was Magic 1, Paul 0, and Wayne 1, Robbie 0.

Fight Club II: A spat isn’t such a bad thing, according to Dallas Cowboy Coach Bill Parcells, who said a few players have taken a swing at him in the past.

“That’s OK,” he told CBS’ “60 Minutes.” “I think confrontation is healthy because it clears the air very quickly.”

Trivia time: Name the stadium where the Washington Senators played before moving to Minnesota in 1961.

Name game: Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle has a suggestion for the Expos’ “new” name: “It’s got to be the Senators. That’s a name that has great tradition in baseball.”

Friendly skies: Put this one in the maybe-there-was-a-reason-this-was-free file.

Professional golfers who qualified for a free plane flight from Pittsburgh to Ireland received several unexpected bonuses: Smoke in the cabin, an extra stop for fuel and one very strange noise in the left engine.

“My son thought it was pretty cool,” David Toms told Associated Press of his 7-year-old’s reaction. “He said, ‘Hey, Dad, we’ve already been to four countries -- United States, Canada, Iceland, Ireland.’ I didn’t think it was all that great.”

Gary’s world: Two of Gary Sheffield’s top 10 Yankee strategies to win the World Series, courtesy of “The Late Show with David Letterman” on CBS:

* Blind opponents with light reflected off [Derek] Jeter’s World Series rings.

* Hit a home run and Oprah buys you a new car.

Costly game: The Chicago human resources consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. estimated that employees playing in fantasy football leagues cost their employers $36.7 million a year.

“Often, the computer people have on their desk is better than the one they have at home, and compared to a decade ago, the access to diversion is so much greater,” CEO John Challenger told the Cedar Rapids Gazette. “It is more expensive than people think.”

Trivia answer: Griffith Stadium.

And finally: NASCAR driver Kyle Petty, on pre-race bonding: “If you are pretty good, other drivers start coming up to you, saying hello, seeing how you are doing. ... You know how well you are running by how many other drivers drop by to see you. The better you are, the more friends you have on Saturday. They all want to run with you on Sunday.”