There’s something refreshing about spring training. There’s a level of poetry to be found in the beautiful weather, the potential of prospects and the return of old heroes.

Hopefully, those old heroes won’t include Los Angeles Dodgers left-fielder Manny Ramirez.

Recently, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt offered Ramirez a two-year, $45 million contract.

Forty-five million for two years of playing a game would be an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to most people. In this economy, a lot of people would kill for $45 million.

But for Ramirez, that offer is not good enough by $10 million. The counter-offer from Ramirez to the Dodgers’ proposal: two years, $55 million.

Ramirez and his agent, Scott Boras, rejected McCourt’s $45 million offer partly because it included deferred payments, meaning he wouldn’t be paid immediately.

Apparently, Ramirez is the only person not allowed to sacrifice in a recession.

The economy will inevitably hurt all professional sports, but baseball has been in crisis mode for some time now.

Over the last few years, steroid scandals have devastated America’s pastime. Last month, New York Yankees third baseman and possible future home-run king Alex Rodriguez admitted to taking steroids from 2001 to 2003.

Baseball has enough problems with cheating; the last thing it needs is problems with greed.

It’s not completely unreasonable for baseball players to make millions of dollars because they bring in millions of dollars, especially if they make the playoffs.

It is unreasonable for Ramirez to turn down those millions because he wants it faster.

Last weekend, thousands of people attended Dodger Stadium’s job fair, interviewing for around 500 part-time jobs.

I’ll bet none of them care about how soon they get $45 million or having opt-out clauses.

The Arizona Diamondbacks laid off 31 staff members last November. If Dodger Stadium has to conduct layoffs to accommodate Ramirez, what is he going to say to them?

Each extra dollar he and Boras squeeze out of the Dodgers is a dollar that could be spent putting people to work.

Ramirez is notorious for being self-centered; his behavior has been previously dubbed “Manny being Manny.” In better economic times, his contract antics might have been endearing, even funny.

But not when so many people are suffering. It is callous and disrespectful to refuse a multi-million dollar contract to play baseball, when millions around the world worry about whether they can earn any money at all.

The solution to “Manny being Manny”: collusion. Collusion is a gentleman’s agreement between teams to refuse to sign a free agent, usually to bring down his asking price.

But MLB teams shouldn’t do it to bring down his desired contract value. They should refuse to sign him altogether.

Or instead of firing staff and ignoring Ramirez, ownership should ask athletes to take a 2 or 3 percent pay cut for a year or two.

It’s a small gesture, to be sure. But multi-million-dollar athletes helping others keep their jobs would mean more to their fans than any “NBA Cares” commercial.

Chris thinks Ramirez isn’t worth as much as Derek Jeter. Disagree at cogino@asu.edu.