Columbia Plays Softball

BATTERED UP: When not busy selling Glee soundtrack albums, the Columbia Records staff heats up their competitive juices by throwing softballs at one another’s heads…just to practice for label Chairman Steve Barnett’s weekly motivational meetings, modeled after those delivered by his brother-in-law, former Super Bowl coach Dick Vermeil. Here are a couple of shots from the Third Annual Softball Game in N.Y.'s Central Park, as Jay Brown’s winning Roc Nation team admit they used a ringer named Neil Diamond who used to play for Erasmus High in Brooklyn… guitar, that is, as Barnett reveals no one’s getting paid for the day. (6/21p)