By Patrick Yost

Boston Red Sox’ Manny Rameriz wanted a handful of, free, of course, tickets for friends. When he couldn’t get them the day of the game, he pushed down a 64–year–old traveling secretary for the team.
    “Just do your job,” he allegedly said to the man.
    The Astro’s Shawn Chacon grabbed GM Ed Wade and threw him to the ground after Wade reportedly asked Chacon to follow him to his office during a team meal.
    There is a common thread here and it isn’t that both Wade and the travelling secretary were thrown to the ground, although that’s there too.
    It’s the bold entitlement of Rameriz and Chacon. It’s the problem, unfortunately, with professional sports.
    But who are they to blame. We are all guilty of adulation of our sport stars. Don’t believe me? Log on to countless recruiting blogs for college football. There is craziness in all of us.
    Seemingly from cradle to graduation, at least, these children are given a pass. Rules that apply to the general population don’t to Rameriz, to Chacon.
    “Just do your job.” Get him the tickets.
    There are important and plenty of exceptions to this rule. Former Morgan County graduate and Georgia Tech basketball star B.J. Elder comes to mind.
    But so does Pacman Jones. So does Terrell Owens. So does Jeremy Schockey.
    I know. This is nothing new. Pampered athletes have been throwing tantrums, tossing fits, wallowing in bad judgement and narcisstic denial since, probably, the days of gladiator combat. And since those days we have tolerated the behavior, behavior we would never tolerate in our own children, or quite frankly, our friends.
    Chacon has been released. Good for the Astro’s.
    Rameriz, he off the hot bat on baseball’s arguably most popular team, will play on. Who knows, they may even fire the travelling secretary for not securing the 16 tickets for Manny.
    We’ll keep buying the merchandise, keep buying the tickets, keep supporting the team. But we lose something every time.         It’s not just the secretary or the general manager these guys are punching, it’s you and me too.
    For every story, there continues to come the weakening of our resolve.