Here is a chance for the Dodgers to show that they stand for doing what’s right.

Instead, they are going to stand for doing what makes money.

What a disappointment. I thought this franchise was supposed to be better than this.

Apparently not. The Dodgers can hardly wait to have Druggie Ramirez out in left field. Which is the wrong message to send on so, so many levels.

Have the Dodgers no shame? Well, no. Maybe they would have, back when the O’Malleys owned the team. But Frank McCourt? Anything to keep the turnstiles spinning and the merchandise moving.

Even if it means clutching to his bosom the most notorious drug cheat in franchise history.

Even if it means the Dodgers and Dodgers fans are no better than the yahoos in San Francisco who cheered Barry Bonds. Actually, it makes Dodgers fans worse because 1) they were the fans who chanted  “STARE-oids, STARE-oids” at Barry Bonds and 2) Manny failed a drug test, which Barry didn’t actually do. So that verbal abuse clearly was because Bonds was a Giant. Not because he cheated. Because if the drug cheat is wearing a Dodgers uniform, well, let’s hear a hearty round of applause!

What the Dodgers ought to do, but won’t:

Send Manny Ramirez away. Tell him, “We don’t need you to turn up at the ballpark Friday. Or Saturday. Or forever, actually, unless we trade you, and we will attempt to do so. See if someone will pay for at least a portion of your salary.”

Pay him to go away. Crawl back into whatever hole he hid in while not apologizing to fans. Just write it off as lost money. Whatever is left on the two-year, $45 million contract.

Turns out, all that stuff Manny did with the bat, while with the Dodgers? Tainted, forever.

All that bonhomie? An act by a guy who will stop at nothing to prolong his career and make another $45 million.

The Dodgers don’t need a drug cheat in the middle of their clubhouse, let alone as their marquee attraction.

They have done just fine without him, going 27-20 and building a seven-game lead in the National League West. The idea that they can’t survive without a heavy-hitting cheater among them, well, they’ve just disproved that over the last 47 games.

And even if the team had taken a dive, the Dodgers should still have exiled Manny.

Well into the age of testing, he was out screwing around with performance-enhancing junk, and got caught. A guy that stupid, that arrogant, that unconcerned about breaking the rules … shouldn’t be on the team. Not the Dodgers, anyway.

But he’s such a fun guy! He’s goofy and lovable! Well, folks probably said that about Bernie Madoff, a year ago. Both of them still are cheats and liars.

The Dodgers are acting as if nothing happened. Manny already is forgiven. He has a chauffeur for his rehab games in the minors. A personal trainer. Dodgers providing.

The Dodgers are resurrecting “Mannywood,” the only in-stadium tribute to a drug cheat I’m aware of. Buy two tickets out in the boonies and get a No. 99 Druggie T-shirt. Grand.

But Manny has served his punishment. Now it’s time to welcome him back. 

Sure. With some other team.

Everybody makes one mistake. He deserves a second chance. 

And you think Manny just started cheating over the winter? (If so, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you.) Do you believe Manny decided — for the first time — that a little juice would put a little pop in his bat, now that he’s 37? No way. It’s just the first time he got caught. Ask Barry how that works.

About Dodgers fans: The ones clamoring for Manny’s return.

They frighten me. Those crowds are turning increasingly ugly. Fights, drunkenness, obscenities. It is a madhouse, often, in those stands — and I’ve sat in the pavilions and the Top Deck. The Chavez Ravine crew about to cheer Manny seems to lack a moral compass. Manny “didn’t rape nobody,” as he elegantly put it, so why not let him back out there? Sure. Of course. He did his 50 games in county jail.

And about Dodgers ownership: I don’t mind a little venality in an owner. They’re not running charities. They can try to position themselves as responsible citizens, pillars of the community. But they’re out there to make a buck. We know that.

But this is a new low.

For the first time, the Dodgers are not only accepting a known drug cheat in their starting lineup … not only have they not sanctioned him beyond anything baseball has done … they are returning him to the central place in their marketing campaign!

This is vile. This is wrong. And nobody seems to notice or care, which is alarming.

The Dodgers had a chance to stand on principle. To say, “Other teams may accept players like Manny Ramirez, but we will not.”

Instead, they are choosing expediency. The choice that makes them money — and shames their heritage.

I don’t care if Frank McCourt has thousands of Manny wigs and Manny jerseys in the warehouse. I don’t care if thousands of Mannywood tickets have been sold.

The Dodgers should pull the plug on Manny. If some other team wants a cheater, let it get busy. The Dodgers should be above that. They used to be. But now their standards are failing a basic test. Just like Manny did.