Manny Media Timeline

Everyone will be writing about Manny over the next few days, introducing you to Jason Bay and sounding off on how much this sounds like the Nomar trade.  I promise to share my thoughts on Manny soon, once the dust has settled, but first, allow me to tell you about my afternoon.

I tuned into Sports Radio WEEI at about 1 o'clock this afternoon, and learned as the day progressed they had nothing to report, but not for lack of trying.  As it turns out, there was nothing to really learn until talks with the Dodgers heated up at about 3:30.

3:15 p.m.:  Steven Phillips on ESPN talked about all Manny deals being dead, and the Rays had acquired Jason Bay; Nick Cafado and Gorden Edes of the Boston Globe tried to fill time on NESN with the on again-off again trade rumors.  Much talk about Pudge Rodrigez going to the Yankees (news that was 24 hours old) filled the time.  At this point, some producer at the NESN headquarters is thinking, "How did I ever allow this show to get on the schedule?!?!"

3:59:55:  When the Dick Clark-like clock on NESN hit 0:00, Tom Caron did his best to keep us interested: "Sometimes we don't learn about trades until well after the deadline has passed, until the players have been notified and paperwork completed."  (Yawn).  Manny is staying and will continue to be Manny for the rest of the season.

4:05:  Major media outlets reporting deals for Manny fell through, the Red Sox would not give up as much as was requested and Jason Bay was staying in Pittsburgh as the Rays were unable to complete any type of deal for him either.

4:09:  Heidi Watley reports on NESN Terry Francona has left Fenway Park (Elvis has left the building!!!)  The assumption is made the manager would not be leaving the park if a trade had been made, assuming he would be around to comment if an announcement was forthcoming (was he out trying to find Manny to tell him?)

4:10:  While sitting at the desk in the NESN studios, Tom Caron looked at Nick Cafado, who was reading his laptop.  "Any news there Nick?"  TC asked.  "Nothing I can say on the air yet, but I need to go try to confirm something," was his response, and he grabbed his cell phone, stood up and left the desk.  Hmmmm....interest was piqued just a bit.  Did someone just send Cafado the latest offer for male enhancement medicine, or did he have something?

4:12:  Cafado reports on NESN for the first time there is a trade in place for Manny.  Nothing about for who or with whom.  Still working to confirm, but the news is coming from either multiple sources, or from one which he trusts enough to go public with the report.

4:15: Edes confirms he has heard the same thing while at Fenway Park from an un-named source.  Cell phones are in overdrive.

4:16:  I open multiple windows on my computer to see who knows what.  I open boston.com, espn.com, cnnsi.com, mlb.com, foxsports.com and try to open bostonherald.com but the site will not connect due to an error at the Herald site.

4:19:  Boston.com Extra Bases first reports a trade is in place for Manny, promising more info to follow.

4:24:  Mlb.com reports Jason Bay is going to the Dodgers.  (Turns out they only got part of the deal.)

4:28:  CNNSI and FoxSports report the trade for Manny is in place, a three way deal with Pittsburgh and the Dodgers.

4:30:  FoxSports first reports Craig Hanson and Brandon Moss are also going to Pittsburgh along with the Red Sox picking up the $7 million left on Manny's contract.

By 4:35, all media outlets are reporting the trade, with many citing NESN and The Boston Globe as their source confirming it actually happened.  (Tom Caron mentions this while trying to find more information online about the trade.) 

4:39:  ESPN first posts on their website information about the trade (although the network broke into regular programing at 4:30 to report the story, and stayed on the air until 5:10, preempting regular programming for 30 minutes and "Pardon the Interruption" for 10 minutes.

By 5 p,m. all media outlets had the details about the money, the extra players involved and confirmed this was indeed happening. 

While I did not hear it in person, I am told that WEEI also reported updates all afternoon, broadcasting information as soon as it was reported by any media outlet, citing the source as it was announced.

5, 6, 10 and 11 pm local newscasts:  Each and every local news program in Boston leads each newscast with news and details of the Manny trade.  Don't ever try tell me this isn't a baseball town!

But lets give credit where credit is due:  NESN came up HUGE bringing this story to Red Sox Nation the second the information became available.  It had to be many weeks ago the decision was made to schedule this show for air; that same producer was now running around NESN yelling. "I TOLD YOU SO!!"  Not even Hollywood could have scripted this kind of drama.

Literally, we watched as Lou Merloni and Tom Caron narrated the broadcast, as Nick Cafado and Gorden Edes excused themselves every few minutes to answer incoming cell phone calls.  In some ways, it reminded me of old-school newscasting, when information often came quick and over the phone.  Sometimes reporters went on live-air during big stories with information they could not confirm.  In today's media frenzy world, it's rare we don't have "LIVE TEAM COVERAGE" the second a story breaks.  Today, it was good old fashioned beat reporter work, and sources who had been culled for many, many years helped bring you the story first.  Nothing will ever replace this kind of good reporting.

Like the trade or hate it, this was drama that seemingly could only be created by and for Red Sox Nation.  And not for nothing, it was a heck of a lot better than watching "Judge Judy" reruns.