Michael Ventre

Generally speaking, if one has an eye toward career advancement, it’s not a good idea to grab your boss by the neck and wrestle him to the ground. I did it a few times and it was always a disaster. Apparently my superiors didn’t appreciate the frivolity.

Now, unfortunately for Shawn Chacon, he has that resume buster to live with. On Wednesday, the Houston Astros’ pitcher was released after he collared his general manager, Ed Wade, and tossed him to the canvas.

This type of activity would be a welcome addition to the skill set of say, a professional wrestler or a mixed martial arts king. In that realm, brutality born out of anger gets one a gold star. Ditto for linebackers and surfers fending off paparazzi in Malibu.

And a major league player can even get away with it, as long as its done in the context of a bench-clearing brawl, or in answering a particularly nettlesome question from a sportswriter.

But in this case, Chacon miscalculated badly. He may have believed that decking his boss would be interpreted as no biggie in the boys-will-be-boys atmosphere of The Show. Yet he failed to realize the lousy-pitchers-will-be-lousy-pitchers aspect of the scenario.

This entire affair sprung out of Chacon’s inability to get batters out. He had been demoted to the bullpen over the weekend, mostly because he is 2-3 with a 5.04 ERA in 15 starts for Houston. He set a record with nine no-decisions to start the season.

I’m not a human resources expert, but I know that when an employee consistently submits poor performances, he usually gets written up. The top brass likes to develop a paper trail before it cans a loser.

This is a time when Chacon should have spotted the red flags and tried to be nicer to his boss. Maybe the right-hander could have invited Wade out for a martini and regaled him with tales of his exotic golf excursions, or gushed over photographs of Wade’s family, or offered to wash Wade’s car.

INTERACTIVE Not professional A look at some of the most memorable feuds between coaches and players

But snagging him by the neck and whipping him to the turf – while certainly qualifying as out-of-the-box thinking – seems to be counterproductive.

Chacon may have adversely affected any future job opportunities by clobbering his boss. It’s all so curious that Chacon would have acted like he did. For instance, the incident was precipitated by a confrontation in which Wade asked Chacon to come into his office for a chat.

Ordinarily, in the boss-employee dynamic, the result of that request is clear: The employee goes. He may squirm in his chair as he’s being told what a waste of the company’s money he has become while co-workers chit-chat outside the glass-walled torture chamber, but it’s a necessary evil in the quest to remain on the payroll.

Yet again, Chacon chose a different path. Said the pitcher to the Houston Chronicle: “He started yelling and cussing. I’m sitting there and I said very calmly, ‘Ed, you need to stop yelling at me.’ Then I stood up and said, ‘Ed, you better stop yelling at me.’ I stood up. He continued and was basically yelling.”

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