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Source: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Calif.self storageAug. 22--The Dodgers and Boston Red Sox will meet today as first-place teams, exactly how the general managers and owners of both teams drew it up when they engineered the most expensive trade in baseball history on Aug. 25, 2012.Nearly a year later, both franchises can trace their change in fortunes to the day when nine players and more than a quarter-million dollars in contracts changed hands."People looked at it as 'Wow!'" Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said. "It had a lot of surprise from coast to coast, really."The precarious process of trading players in August -- seeing the superstars pass unclaimed through waivers, pitcher Josh Beckett making an exception on his no-trade clause -- would make a Rube Goldberg machine jealous. That it worked so well for both the Red Sox and Dodgers is making 28 other major-league teams jealous.It was a trade few teams could afford to make. But for the Dodgers, who could gain more than $7 billion out of a regional network deal signed with Time Warner in January, money might have been the least risky aspect of the trade.The biggest risk was the players they acquired at the cost of young talent.There was veteran utilityman Nick Punto, a fun-loving Orange County kid at heart despite his age (34) and .200 batting average at the time of the trade; Beckett, a former phenom flamethrower whose support among Sox fans was wearing out faster than his right arm; Carl Crawford, a fleet-footed left fielder who couldn't stay healthy in the prime of his career; and Adrian Gonzalez, the soft-spoken slugger who came closest to a sure thing for the Dodgers.What each had in common one year ago was overshadowed by what they didn't have: the collective capacity to alter the fate of a struggling franchise."We were all pretty happy to be coming this way to a pennant race," Gonzalez said. "You know where Boston was at. We came to a really good situation."On the morning of the trade, the Red Sox were 60-66. The Dodgers were 68-58. Punto, Beckett and Gonzalez -- Crawford was relaxing at his home in Houston, having undergone elbow surgery two days before -- took a celebratory picture on their chartered flight out of Boston. Punto published it on Twitter for the world to see.They were free, united in purpose, and smiling broadly."That," Punto said, "was genuine."?Colletti wouldn't allow himself to envision the moment back in April 2012, when he took the idea of acquiring Gonzalez to Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington. Gonzalez was the Dodgers' primary target all along, going back to the first baseman's tenure in San Diego from 2006-10.But Cherington wasn't interested in dealing Gonzalez, who led the Sox in RBIs (117) and batting average (.338) in 2011. A couple weeks into the new season, "El Titan" was doing everything except hitting home runs out of Fenway Park. Colletti and Cherington touched base again in July, but Gonzalez's stock was only rising further then; he hit .372 for the month.By mid-August the Red Sox were falling out of contention and Cherington was willing to deal. While the framework of the trade was coming together -- the Dodgers would have to acquire an unpopular Beckett and an injured Crawford -- it was getting expensive.So with Dodgers president Stan Kasten in Denver for the quarterly owners' meeting, he met with Red Sox principal owner John Henry and team president Larry Lucchino to discuss the financial aspect of the deal, a "middle step" in the process. The Red Sox would agree to pay $3.9 million of Gonzalez's salary each year through 2015.Colletti knew what he would be getting in Gonzalez, having crossed paths often when Gonzalez was a Padre. He consulted with Dodgers manager Don Mattingly about the other players, particularly Crawford, whom Mattingly saw often when he was a coach with the Yankees and Crawford was playing in Tampa Bay."It happens all the time during the trade deadline," Mattingly said. "You're talking about numerous guys, different teams -- 'what do you think about this guy, what do you think about that guy, we're looking at this.' They don't tell you everything they're doing, they just ask you about different guys so you have an idea that something could be going on. Then either it happens or it doesn't."?When word of the trade first leaked, Gonzalez wasn't listening."At this point in my career I don't listen to anything," he said. "The rumors were ... just because we all went through waivers and were claimed by the Dodgers."Not Punto. He was listening intently beginning Aug. 24, when the possible trade was suddenly the talk of Boston."I got to the ballpark around 2 like I normally do, and the trade rumors happened really quick," he said. "From 2 o'clock to 10 o'clock at night, that all went pretty quick. Everybody was just kind of sitting on eggshells wondering if it was going to happen. And we had a game to play."Gonzalez was pulled from the Red Sox迷你倉lineup moments before first pitch. Punto didn't play, either. Boston beat Kansas City 4-3.Crawford was taking it all in from his couch in Houston. He was watching SportsCenter with his mother, brother, and a few other family members when he first saw his name lumped in the trade."I was just hoping that it wasn't a joke," Crawford said. "I was like, man, I need this to be true."?There was one hangup on the Dodgers' end. First baseman James Loney and minor leaguers Ivan DeJesus and Allen Webster all cleared waivers, while minor-league outfielder Jerry Sands and pitcher Rubby De La Rosa were claimed by other teams.But the deal didn't fall through. De La Rosa and Sands became "players to be named later" and the trade was submitted to the league. When it became official Aug. 25, Colletti finally allowed himself to breathe."I try to prepare myself, and our staff tries to prepare itself, for every inevitability knowing that we don't know what's around the next corner, whether it's on the field or off the field," he said. "We try to do the best we can with whatever scenario we're faced with."He called Crawford to deliver the news. It wasn't a joke."You know, with the ($142 million) contract, I didn't think I could ever get out" of Boston, Crawford said. "I thought I was going to be stuck there for seven years."?Gonzalez does not wear his emotions on his sleeve, but even he couldn't deny the joy of his new surroundings.He hit a home run in his first at-bat as a Dodger the night of Aug. 25, the high point of an 8-2 win over Miami at the end of a long day. Gonzalez had a mechanical flaw in his swing at the time and didn't hit another home run for 26 games, but the smashing debut was an appropriate metaphor. Off the field, he hooked up with Padres Contra El Cancer (Spanish for "fathers against cancer"), a nonprofit organization based in Toluca Lake, and has donated his time and money to other local charities since.To him, Los Angeles feels more like home than Boston."It's the stuff you can do outside of showing up to the ballpark," said Gonzalez, whose childhood was split between San Diego and Tijuana. "Being able to eat good Mexican, being around Mexicans, Mexican-Americans -- that's my culture."His numbers (16 home runs, 77 RBIs, .298 batting average) are more good than great, but Gonzalez has been healthy and consistent since Opening Day, something few Dodgers can claim. Gonzalez has batted third or fourth in every game, and has a chance to become the Dodgers' best first baseman since Steve Garvey.Crawford and Punto have been pleasant surprises. Crawford's elbow hasn't been an issue at the plate or in left field. He is still close enough to his prime at age 32 to be an effective leadoff hitter, with a .350 on-base percentage and 11 steals in 15 attempts.Punto's infectious hustle has led to 11 infield hits, including four on bunts. His defensive versatility (Punto plays three of the four infield positions) and ability to switch-hit make him an attractive option off the bench. Only five Dodgers have appeared in more games.Beckett is the lone disappointment this year, having pitched only eight games before being sidelined with a nerve issue that required thoracic outlet surgery in July.?On the other end of the trade, Loney left Boston as a free agent to sign with Tampa Bay. Sands and DeJesus left in a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates. De La Rosa and Webster have appeared in 11 games with the Red Sox this year, but at 24 and 23 years old, respectively, it's too soon to say what kind of an impact each will have in Boston.More important to the Red Sox was the money they saved. They re-signed David Ortiz and Jacoby Ellsbury, and lured Shane Victorino, Ryan Dempster and Mike Napoli as free agents.Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, who will be part of ESPN's broadcast team at Dodger Stadium on Sunday, said without the trade the Red Sox wouldn't be as financially flexible and able to develop their prospects."Boston found somebody willing to take all that -- that was the perfect storm," Schilling said.The Boston Globe wrote last year that the trade, for the Red Sox, was about "realizing that building a baseball team is more important than building a brand."For the Dodgers, it was about both."It worked out for where we were as a franchise and what we were trying to do in the short term," Kasten said, "to provide us the foundation of credibility we needed with our fanbase, and to give us time to build in the long term.""I think it showed everybody that this ownership group was real," Colletti added. "Its desire to win and to put as good a club on the field as possible as quick as possible showed not only with that trade, but that was the exclamation point to the earlier deals."Copyright: ___ (c)2013 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, Calif.) Visit the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, Calif.) at .dailybulletin.com Distributed by MCT Information Services文件倉