MANNY RAMIREZ TIMELINE Dec. 13, 2000: Manny Ramirez signs an eight-year, $160 million free agent contract with the Red Sox. April 6, 2001: Hits the first pitch he sees as a Red Sox player at Fenway Park for a three-run homer. Goes on to win Player of the Month honors, hitting .408 with 31 RBIs. June 5, 2001: Fourth straight multi-hit game raises average to .388, but hits just .248 for remainder of the season. Sept. 28, 2001: Plays in his final game of the season, missing the last nine contests with what’s termed a sore left wrist. Dec. 10, 2001: The Boston Globe reports Ramirez told the Sox he was “uncomfortable” during his first Boston season, prompting the team to expand the clubhouse and create a separate media interview room. May 11, 2002: Breaks finger on a head-first slide into home in Seattle, and ends up missing 36 games. During his Pawtucket rehab work, reportedly expresses desire to simply remain with PawSox. July 11, 2002: Homers in a win at Toronto, his first in 23 games, the longest drought of his Red Sox career. Aug. 26, 2002: Hits his 300th career home run at Fenway as part of a five-hit game, his second in six weeks. Sept. 9, 2002: In Tampa, fails to leave batter’s box on a ground-out. Sept. 29, 2002: Draws a bases-loaded walk in his final plate appearance of the season, winning his only-to-date batting title by hitting .349. Aug. 9, 2003: Tells ESPN he would like to play for the Yankees. Aug. 30-31, 2003: Out of a series with the Yankees due to throat inflammation, sighted at the Ritz Carlton hotel bar with New York’s Enrique Wilson. Sept. 1, 2003: Refuses to pinch-hit during an interleague game in Philadelphia. Then-manager Grady Little benches him the next day. Sept. 27, 2003: Going 1-for-2 in his final appearance of the regular season, Ramirez loses the AL batting title to teammate Bill Mueller by .0012. Oct. 6, 2003: Hits a three-run homer in the sixth inning of Boston’s winner-take-all Game 5 in the Division Series against Oakland. The Sox go on to win, 4-3. Oct. 11, 2003: Overreacting to a high fastball from Roger Clemens, Ramirez sparks the ALCS brawl that ended with Pedro Martinez throwing an elderly Don Zimmer to the ground. Oct. 29, 2003: The Red Sox place Ramirez on irrevocable waivers, making him available to the entire league, but no team claims him in the 48-hour window. Dec. 18, 2003: Attempts to trade Ramirez to Texas for Alex Rodriguez are shot down by the Players Association. May 11, 2004: The day after becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen, leads the Sox out of the dugout carrying a miniature American flag with him to left field. July 21, 2004: In the seventh inning of a game the Sox lose to Baltimore, Ramirez races over from left field to inexplicably cut-off Johnny Damon’s throw-in of a David Newhan shot off the wall, barely 50 feet in front of Damon. Newhan ends up with an inside-the-park home run. Oct. 27, 2004: Caps an World Series in which he hit .412 – and a postseason in which he had a hit in all 14 games – by winning MVP honors as the Sox win their first title in 86 years. May 15, 2005: Hits his 400th career home run at Safeco Field in Seattle. July 18, 2005: While pitching coach Dave Wallace makes a mound visit, Ramirez disappears into the Green Monster for a reported ‘bathroom break.’ July 27, 2005: Despite an injury to Trot Nixon that leaves Terry Francona shorthanded, demands to keep his scheduled off day at the end of a road trip. Boston beats Tampa without him. July 31, 2005: After a week of speculation about meeting his requests for a trade, Ramirez – who sat out the previous two games -- hits a pinch-hit single to beat Minnesota an hour after the trading deadline. Aug. 2, 2005: Before the first pitch of the night’s game, Ramirez holds up a sign reading ‘The New Episode … Manny Being Manny’ in left field. Oct. 1, 2005: Ramirez points skyward after he hits a mammoth shot over the Green Monster … in the first inning. The Yankees win the game, clinching the AL East. Oct. 7, 2005: Ramirez hits two homers at Fenway Park, but Boston loses 5-3 and is swept in the Division Series by the eventual world champion White Sox. Winter 2005: Expresses desire to be traded, and threatens to sit out spring training if he isn’t. March 1, 2006: With the Sox blessing, Ramirez reports late to spring training. June 10, 2006: Hits his 450th career home run in a loss against Texas. July 1, 2006: In a game in which he had two homers and five RBIs, records his 2,000th career hit. July 11, 2006: Despite being the AL’s top vote-getter, skips the All-Star Game in Pittsburgh, citing knee soreness. Aug. 20, 2006: Knocks in his 100th run of the season in the fourth of five straight losses to the Yankees – games in which Ramirez goes 8-11 with an .850 on-base. The year proves the last of Ramirez’s nine straight (and 11 of 12) 30 HR-100 RBI seasons. Aug. 23, 2006: Ramirez leaves a win at Anaheim in the fourth inning with what’s termed “a sore right knee.” He appears in just eight of the year’s final 36 games, and the Sox – beset by injuries -- miss the playoffs. Feb. 26, 2007: Arrives to spring training three days earlier than he’d been given permission to by the team. March 20, 2007: The world discovers Ramirez’s eBay listing for a once-used BBQ grill. After bids reach nearly $100 million, eBay yanks the auction. (Ramirez later says he was helping a neighbor.) Aug. 28, 2007: Strains his left oblique in a game at Yankee Stadium. He’ll miss the next 24 games. Oct. 5, 2007: Facing Francisco Rodriguez, blasts a ninth-inning, walk-off three-run homer to beat the Angels in Game 2 of the Division Series. Oct. 28, 2007: Fails to reach base in Boston’s Game 4 clincher against Colorado, ending a streak of 15 straight playoff games reaching base. The World Series is also only the second postseason series in nine with Boston where Ramirez failed to hit .300. April 17, 2008: Slams two homers in a win at Yankee Stadium, the last of 28 multi-homer games with the Red Sox. May 14, 2008: High-fives a fan at Camden Yards in the midst of making a double play. May 31, 2008: Facing Baltimore’s Chad Bradford, swats career home run No. 500. June 5, 2008: Backhands Kevin Youkilis in the Red Sox dugout over what was later dismissed as stemming from the team’s unhappiness with Youkilis’s displays after strikeouts. June 29, 2008: Ramirez reportedly shoves 64-year-old traveling secretary Jack McCormick to the ground in a dispute over game tickets. Ramirez apologized and was fined, with the money going to charity. July 15, 2008: Before the All-Star Game, tells the Boston Herald he wants a sit-down meeting with Red Sox brass. “I want no more (expletive) where they tell you one thing and behind your back they do another thing.” Owner John Henry calls it “personally offensive.” July 23, 2008: Ramirez sits out of Boston’s series finale in Seattle with a sore knee. July 25, 2008: After Terry Francona put Ramirez in the night’s lineup against the Yankees, Ramirez tells bench coach Brad Mills that he can’t play. The Sox order MRIs on both of Manny’s knees, which come back clean. July 28, 2008: Hits a meaningless homer off L.A. closer Francisco Rodriguez, the 274th and final home run of his Red Sox tenure. July 29, 2008: With John Lackey throwing a no-hitter for the Angels, takes more than five seconds to reach first on a grounder just inside the third base line. After he’s thrown out, Ramirez is loudly booed by the Fenway crowd. July 30, 2008: Ramirez tells ESPN Deportes “the Red Sox don’t deserve a player like me. … I’m not talking about money. Mental peace has no price and I don’t have peace here.” July 31, 2008: The Red Sox trade Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers, paying the remaining $7 million of his 2008 salary, and send reliever Craig Hansen and outfielder Brandon Moss to Pittsburgh for Pirates outfielder Jason Bay.