An American rite. Or right.

Fans of the Philadelphia Eagles, not noted for their social graces, once booed Santa Claus.

No, that's not accurate, actually. They pelted him with snowballs.

But it's October and it was baseball and so Our Only Available President did not catch a nice fluffy curveball square in the snozzola the other night, the way Ralphie did from Scut Farkas in "A Christmas Story." So, yeah, it could have been worse.

The Grifter-in-Chief only caught a nice chorus of boos, when he showed up for Game 5 of the World Series in D.C. Oh, and a few chants of "Lock him up!", an acknowledgement that the President of the United States is as crooked as a dog's hind leg and pretty much always has been. Oh, and a banner that read "Impeach Trump.''

You'd think this was the end of the Republic, the way the pundits and Beltway cognoscenti carried on. Even some Democrats said we shouldn't be booing the President, on account of he's the President and we should respect the office, even if its current occupant has turned it into a hangout for various Luca Brasis and Clemenzas. And poor old Joe Scarborough, no fan of OOAP, tsk-tsked that this is not who we are as a nation.

To which Blob would reply: He's kidding, right?

Sorry, Joe, but this is exactly who we are as a nation. You think sports fans who throw snowballs at Santa Claus wouldn't boo a president who's being investigated for all manner of high and low crimes and misdemeanors? It's the toughest crowd there is, a sports crowd. Ain't no tea and crumpets in this locality.

So, really, what could OOAP have expected? You want applause, go to the opera. And stop conducting the people's business like a mafia don. And stop the juvenile trashing of anyone who calls you on your bullstuff.

Act like a damn president and not an 8-year-old. Then maybe you'll earn some respect.

Until then, Joe Scarborough and everyone else needs to quit pretending booing the president and chanting "Lock him up!" is disrespecting the office. It's not. It's disrespecting an occupant of that office who's earned that disrespect in spades.

You reap what you sow, in other words. Especially from the sort of crowd that's called their witless coach or hapless QB1 a hell of a lot worse.

Think OOAP got treated rough the other night?

Shoot. He was lucky.

He could have been Mitch Trubisky or Matt Nagy in Chicago on Sunday. Now that's rough.