July 31, 2008: The Dodgers acquire Manny Ramirez from the Boston Red Sox in a three-team trade. Dodgers send Andy LaRoche and Bryan Morris to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Boston sends Craig Hansen and Brandon Moss to Pittsburgh for Jason Bay.

This was a very big trade for us. We had a contending team but were beset by injuries. We needed some offense and Manny gave it to us, hitting .396 with 17 home runs and 53 RBIs, and finishing fourth in the NL MVP voting despite playing only 53 regular season games for us.

But it actually took a long time for this deal to happen. Theo Epstein, the Red Sox GM at the time, first asked me about Manny at the Winter Meetings in December of 2006. It was just Theo and I. I didn’t want it to be a big production and neither did he because he didn’t know what he was going to do. We had some desirable young players coming into their own at the time – Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, Russell Martin, James Loney – and Theo asked me if I would have interest in Manny. Theo and I talked for a couple of days at the Winter Meetings and nothing came from it. But it gave him an idea of who I valued on our club prospect-wise and it also told me that Manny wasn’t off the board completely.

Now fast-forward to the summer of 2008. We were doing OK but the injuries were taking their toll. Andy LaRoche missed the first half of the season, Rafael Furcal hurt his back and was out more than three months. Nomar Garciaparra missed all of May and June. We needed to add to the club, particularly on the left side of the infield.

We’d made a big overture to Cleveland in an attempt to add CC Sabathia, Casey Blake and Jamey Carroll, That fell through, but at the last minute we were able to go back and get Blake.

About 10 days before the deadline, Theo called and said he wanted LaRoche. I thought that was an interesting request since they already had Kevin Youkilis and Mike Lowell, leading me to think it was probably a three-team trade.

But Theo was only offering me a pitcher I wasn’t thrilled with – a 4-A type who was successful in the minor leagues but couldn’t seem to get the hang of it in the majors – so I declined.

The day before the deadline, Theo called again, and this time he pushed harder, but I still wasn’t motivated to make a deal. Then I saw a report on TV that Boston was considering trading Manny Ramirez to Florida, and that the Pirates would trade Jason Bay to Boston for prospects. Florida would also send prospects to the Pirates in the deal. Now I knew Pittsburgh was the third team and that Manny was on the table.

After our game that night I approached our manager, Joe Torre, and asked him what he would think about potentially managing Manny Ramirez. He said: “Are you kidding me? He’s as good a hitter as there is. He could really help this club.”

After about two hours of sleep I woke up and had a message waiting for me from Theo. He was asking about Manny. I called him back and let him know I was interested in the right situation – meaning we couldn’t take on any salary. I kept ownership in the loop and got the same reminder – no added salary.

We got in touch with Pirates GM Neal Huntington, who wanted LaRoche and another player, and our staff worked the rest of the morning to hammer out the deal.

We also made sure to keep MLB officials in the loop the whole way, as with a deal of this magnitude -- especially considering the amount of money that was involved -- you didn’t want anything hanging it up. MLB had to understand every aspect of the deal and it had to be approved before the 1 p.m. PT deadline.

The next day Manny was playing left field for us at Dodger Stadium against Arizona. We lost to Randy Johnson 2-1, but Manny went 2-for-4 and that was the most excited I’d seen Dodger Stadium in a long time.