Giovanni Ramirez

There's a stigma about Barry Bonds - he's an asshole. He's a liar and a cheater. The list goes on, but when it came to the family of Bryan Stow, the victim at the Dodgers / Giants game earlier this season, he showed that he still had orange and black pride with an "uncharacteristic" respect for humanity when he gave Stow's children college scholarships (and a signed glove and bat).
This is a hell of a lot more than we can say for Giovanni Ramirez, an ex-con picked up in a surprise raid on his place of residence (along with evidence and others at the scene), who is being held on investigation for this 3 strike offense that would see him charged with assault with a deadly weapon. And if it is true that he is the prime scumbag who beat the tar out of Stow and left him completely unable to care for himself or his children as he slowly moves out of a medically-induced coma.
And sadly for the McCourt family, the Stow family is now suing the hell out of the Dodgers for their part in the beating (seeing as they won't be able to take successful legal action in monetary form against the ghetto trash that was picked up in the incident). Says the lawyer for Stow:
It's fairly simple. The Dodgers have shown a total disregard for public safety. They've gotten rid of security people, they've had all these incidents at their games, more than other teams, there's also a known gang presence. What did they think was going to happen?
And if this brings attention to people who take obsession with their teams too far and makes us all realize that we can hate the Yankees, but that we should still respect the flesh and blood human-ness of their fans. Talking trash about the team is one thing, but throwing beer and throwing punches? Talking smack on Jeter and A-Rod is one thing, but provoking fans with insults to who they are? Sure, we've all been there in a fierce rage where our team wins or loses in a heated rivalry and we've all taken the abuse and dished it out, but at the end of the day, it's just a game and that's why the game is so great.
But how this incident didn't happen a hundred times before as the networks fiercely covered every single Red Sox / Yankees game for the better part of a decade and fanned the flames on the best rivalry in baseball (and John Roseboro vs. Juan Marichal not withstanding, there are very few events in Dodgers / Giants lore that merit mentioning - other than Jackie Robinson refusing his trade to the Bay). Here, Red Sox and Yankees fans do the deeds that could cause trouble - they go into the stadium in full uniform. They drink and they get loud, but somehow, other than getting doused in beer and talking a lot of smack, there are no major incidents.
In L.A., this year, it's all different, and that's sad, which makes it nice to see someone like Bonds trying to make up for the problems that it caused.

John Roseboro

Baseball learned from its violence and stupidity. Sure, we still have guys who want to start fights - class acts like Jose Offerman who have since been banned for life for attacking opponents with a bat, but yeah... we've learned.
We don't play our game to kick the tar out of our opponents. Sure, we have to be more like Bob Gibson and own those 17 inches of plate, but besides being afraid to pitch inside to brush back a batter that is crowding the plate (whether or not he has Barry Bonds' armor on or not), but that doesn't mean that we need to go beyond retaliatory pitching if our players get hit by a frustrated jerk of a pitcher.
The NHL on the other hand hasn't even learned from the NFL about what it takes to stop cheap hits. In the wake of their quest to be tough manly men that are pretty much only broadcast on hunting / fishing networks, they have decided to not eliminate head shots, which are all too often cheap shots to take out an opponent. They have said that out of 55,000 hits, only a small percentage result in concussions, so it doesn't matter what league leader and mega star is out with one now (Sidney Crosby). It doesn't matter than the Canadians want to go after the guy who took out Max Pacioretty (Zdeno Chara). But alas... be it legal because it's part of the game (like the WWE) or because it keeps things fast paced and physical, we never learn.
We don't let our players go all Pete Rose on Ray Fosse in the All Star games, but we want fast paced action - even with millions invested in play and development of stars. We want our cake and we want to be able to eat it too. We want to call it the integrity of the game, and we want to make sure that the nanny state doesn't take over, but sometimes, we just don't think.
Cheap attacks aren't cool. Even in the WWE, we're supposed to hate the heels that purport them on the babyfaces.
And if we look back to baseball's darkest moments and remember Juan Marichal at the plate getting so angry that he picked up his bat and used John Roseboro's head for a target after he threw too closely to Marichal's head on a couple of return pitches, we see dark and ugly. But such is a baseball feud between 2 teams (Los Angeles and San Francisco OR Boston and New York). Sure, there are other teams that hate one another, but for the most part, it's agression and the game. Coming up behind a player a slamming him into the boards and glass to the point where he is laying on the ice unable to contemplate what century he is in is a completely different story and for that, we don't need to pretend and call things manlier than they are.
Sometimes, we just need to step up and do what's right.

Mark Buehrle

And so the news states that Mark Buehrle and his wife Jamie wished injury to Michael Vick last season in his comeback in Philadelphia. To this, we ask: who didn't?
OK, so there was Obama calling to congratulate Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie because he gave Vick a second chance (as opposed to calling the mother of a slain U.S. soldier named Sean Collins whose death notice letter was botched up). Now, we're not calling for the death penalty for Vick (we'll leave that to Tucker Carlson), but let's just say that if it wasn't for the karma effects, we'd be wishing constant ill to Michael Vick.
The issue of animal rights is a touchy one, and we're not vegetarian as some would claim one would need to be to defend animal rights and not be hypocritical, but in looking at brutal thug like behavior, even people who hunt, ranch, or shop in the meat department at Wal Mart can pretty much all get together and say that what they see is wrong and vicious blood lust is just uncalled for.
Now, I'm not quite sure why the Buehrle's statement is news. Perhaps, the media seeks to paint their whiteness as racist and wanting to go against the second chance atmosphere of America that is opening up to wanting to pay big time cash for Vick's autograph again (not me; I passed on that stuff when I went to my last baseball card show in December). Perhaps, they want this architect of a perfect game a few short years ago to be seen as vindictive above and beyond the call of duty. No matter what, let's just say that what they do for injured dogs shows their kindness and generosity while Vick remains, Vick... released from prison, shown that he can't do whatever he wants, and humbled a little bit as his whole financial world was crumbled as a result of his thinking he owned the world.
And perhaps this is another key difference in baseball and football. Sure, there's a sense of entitlement to hoochies and strippers in all fields of endeavor that cater to male star power. So it goes. However, the unchecked aggression that exists in football tends to permeate out of the game and into real life. This isn't about a sport where Pete Rose slides into home to win a game; this is a sport that created OJ Simpson.
And this isn't meant to knock football, but rather it is written to say that as humans, we have a certain responsibility. We'd say the same thing if Chipper Jones was impregnating a Hooters girl despite being "happily" married, which he did. Uncool. Don't be an asshole. Don't needlessly hurt anything. That's just part of being a human. And when you're done, do your part to make up for being a scumbag. Expect people to dis you for what you did. Don't ever expect people to forget - even if you've gotten better. Roberto Alomar and Juan Marichal would agree that this happens.
I know it's not fair, but it is what it is. You were given millions to be a hero and a role model - no matter what Willie Wilson thinks the job should entail. Act like one.
As George Orwell would say, "A sahib has to act like a sahib."