When a lot of us so called “baby-boomers” were growing up, we had our sports heroes that we all tried to emulate and would have given almost anything on earth to be like.

We cheered their success, cried when they failed, wore their numbers on our jerseys in whatever sport we played and decorated our bedroom walls with their pictures.

What has happened to sports figures these days and who can the kids look up to?

The latest to go down the tubes in Manny Ramirez.

Big Manny will be sitting out the next 50 games, another cheater who got caught using banned substances.

Word around the campfire is Ramirez tested positive for having a female fertility hormone in his system.

Say what?

What did he think he was going to do, be a movie star in a remake of “Junior” with Danny Devito like Arnold Schwarzenegger did 15 years ago?

Kids aren’t stupid.

Maybe the banned substance was what caused Manny’s face to get chubby this year and make his hair look funnier than it normally does.

The latest buzz is that Brett Farve hasn’t really retired.

After playing one season under a free agent contract for the Jets and then announcing his retirement from the NFL, one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the game is contemplating another comeback. Sort of like Michael Jordan, you retire and then unretire.

Sounds like a good idea to me, but there is a problem.

Apparently, although nobody talked or wrote about it much, he left Green Bay with a low regard for Packer management.

Now he supposedly hates the green and gold and wants revenge.

Get this, he’s talking about signing with the Minnesota Vikings so he can have two opportunities during the regular season to play against Green Bay and beat them.

The Vikings? Green Bay fans hate the Vikings and vice versa. Even worse than Pittsburgh Steeler and Philadelphia Eagle fans hate one another.

What are kids in Green Bay going to think when the guy they wanted driven onto the field in a gold coach drawn by six white horses a couple of years ago makes his return as a member of the Purple People Eaters? Maybe burn him in effigy this time around.

I’ll bet in professional football heaven Curly Lambeau and Vince Lombardi are discussing the situation over morning coffee like a lot of other people are doing.

Heroes, what in the heck has gone wrong?

Maybe kids these days should get away from trying to emulate professional athletes and try to be like someone else who does a lot of good for the world.

People like school teachers.