Mike Celizic

Athletes frequently complain about being held to higher standards than regular people. I think from now on, they should stop whining and be glad they’re not held to the same standards as politicians.

In the political world, Eliot Spitzer is what would be known as a heavy hitter. He’s the governor of New York — actually the future ex-governor. But he made a mistake. A married man, he hired a hooker, and a very pricey one at that. That wasn’t the mistake, because, as any pro athlete will tell you, it isn’t cheating if you don’t get caught.

He got caught, and that’s why he’s probably already revising his resume to read ex-Governor of the State of New York.

You can bet Spitzer wishes he were a mere major-league third baseman than a governor, and not just because the pay is better. As it happens, Alex Rodriguez, the third baseman for the New York Yankees — Spitzer’s home team — was nailed last year by the ever-vigilant New York Post for canoodling while married. A-Rod was embarrassed and had to suffer the slings and arrows of outraged columnists, but he didn’t have to resign; no one even suggested it. He didn’t even have to hold a news conference with his wronged wife at his side to apologize for breaching the public faith.

This is something athletes should keep in mind the next time they think they’re being unfairly singled out for their indiscretions and peccadilloes. They may be held to a higher standard than Larry Lunchbucket, but when they mess up, they don’t have to find another line of work.

This is good for the games, because if every guy who ever cheated on his spouse or availed himself of the services of a working girl to while away the idle time on the road were drummed out of the business, we’d be watching ballgames played by pre-pubescent 12-year-olds. (Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but you get the point.)

Then there are the guys like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Gary Matthews, Jr. and Miguel Tejada. If they were politicians, there wouldn’t need to be a positive drug test. The weight of public opinion would be enough to drive them out of office, or, if they insisted on staying, insure that they’d be blackballed by their fellows — benched, as it were.

Yes, athletes frequently find themselves under the microscope, but that’s the price they pay for the privileges they enjoy. But they’re hardly held to the same standards as politicians. It’s not even close.

In sports, guys get arrested for gun possession, for smoking weed, for DUI, for domestic abuse and for getting into fights at nightclubs and strip joints all the time and go right back to work. They even get rousing ovations from fans who value their talents and overlook their morals.

You won’t find a politician doing any of the above getting a standing ovation on their first day back in the legislature. They can survive a DUI, but any of the other offenses will get them run out of town faster than a Yankee manager with a 5-25 record.

When you think about it, for as much as they feel they’re under the microscope, athletes get away with just about everything short of murder. They spend time in prison and go back to work when they get released. They have affairs, sleep with groupies, get drunk, and the writers don’t say a word about it unless the parties end up on the police blotter, in which case all bets are off.

If politicians are having affairs, somebody is going to find out and make an issue of it — if not the media, then an opponent. One slip-up, and they’re facing the end of their career.

If, on the other hand, a colleague blabs on another player for, say, doing an imitation of Bill Clinton under the stands during a game, the guy who ratted will get all the heat, and everybody will feel sorry for the guy who got exposed, so to speak.

Bill Clinton didn’t do anything a lot of athletes haven’t done. It’s out there in the jock-tells-all literature. But he almost got impeached for his moment of weakness — and stupidity. That’s a heavy price to pay.

Indeed, no politician has ever written his autobiography and included in it an account of all the women or men he or she has conquered. Remember when Wilt Chamberlain made his claim about the 20,000 women? (Or was it 10,000? And who’s counting?) A few people climbed on their moral high horses about it, but mostly it has been the subject of jokes — and awe. And by the way, a lot of people knew about Wilt’s habits, just as they knew about Babe Ruth’s and Mickey Mantle’s, but nobody ever told.

You can bet Eliot Spitzer wishes he had it so good.

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