Here are four things to know about newly-promoted Ryan Shealy: 1. He’s Greg Pirkl big (listed at 6-foot-4, 240 pounds); 2. He went to the University of Florida, which was of note considering he had to locker next to Florida State alum Kevin Cash in St. Petersburg; 3. He is coming back from micro-fracture surgery on his knee; and …

4. He was part of a moment that almost altered the history of the Red Sox dramatically.

Here is an excerpt from a Peter Gammons’ ESPN.com column from just after the 2005 trade deadline:

The one mess was the six player deal between Boston and Colorado that the Rockies thought was done Friday night. Theo Epstein has long liked Larry Bigbie, and the Rockies did the Bigbie deal with Baltimore to move him to Boston with first baseman Ryan Shealy  for Adam Stern, Abe Alvarez , Kelly Shoppach and a minor leaguer.

By then, there was very little chance of a deal happening for Ramirez, and, fortunately by then, Epstein had repaired much of the damage, with the help of Kevin Millar and David Ortiz. The only way there would be a deal is if Boston could reach its endgame of Mike Cameron, which involved a fourth team, the Reds, and Adam Dunn; in that, Manny would have gone to the Mets; Hanley Ramirez and Mets players would have gone to Tampa Bay; Lastings Milledge and Anibel Sanchez would have gone to Cincinnati; and Boston would have received Cameron, Dunn, Aubrey Huff  and Trever Miller. Tampa Bay had killed it by Saturday morning by reminding people why they are the worst franchise in modern baseball history and upping requests, and Reds GM Dan O’Brien had serious restraints because of the impending ownership change; he could not even respond to Yankee inquiries about and Junior Griffey.

Mike Cameron, also … interesting.

Shealy said Wednesday he was aware of the rumors, but didn’t know the specifics.

Good times.