Friday, June 27, 2008 -- Houston Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon was eating dinner in the team dining room when general manager Ed Wade came up to him and told Chacon to come with him to his office.

Rather than obeying, Chacon says he asked Wade, "For what? I don't want to go to the office with you and Cooper."

Now this is what has me puzzled. The general manager of a team approaches a player and tells him (or asks him, depending on whose story you're listening to) to come to the office. And you refuse? You're an employee, and the man who is in essence your boss asks you to come with him to the office and you refuse?

According to Chacon, Wade then started in on him, so much so that the 31-year old Chacon grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground.

According to Chacon:

"Maybe it shouldn't have happened," Chacon said. "But when you do those things and you're yelling at somebody and you're cussing you better know what type of person you're dealing with. If there's any regret, I just wish they had just let me alone. I wish they had left me alone," he told the Chronicle.

What is this "Maybe it shouldn't have happened," garbage? Maybe it shouldn't have happened?

Seems to me that Chacon doesn't think he's done anything wrong at all. That there was nothing childish ... not to mention illegal.... about his physically assaulting a man, just because that man used cuss words towards him!

This is not a case of someone throwing a glass of beer over the man. No one used a racial slur. (If Wade had done so, you can bet that's the first thing Chacon would have said.) Instead, apparently Wade just used some swear words... (though he denies this) something I would think grown men - making over $300,000 a year -- could take without being moved to violence.

Of course, the sad fact of the matter is that if it had been a good pitcher, instead of Shawn Chacon, other teams would be lining up to give the man a second, third, fourth or fifth chance. Witness the well-traveled Sidney Ponson who was snapped up by the Yankees as soon as the Rangers let him go.

But since Chacon is only 2-3 with a 5.04 ERA in 15 starts for Houston this year, it's very possible that he will, indeed, never play in the major leagues again.