01:00 AM EST on Wednesday, November 23, 2005

The Red Sox and Marlins reportedly exchanged medical information yesterday on the players involved in the agreed-upon trade that would send starting pitcher Josh Beckett from Florida to Boston, and an announcement that the deal is official could come as early as today.

"I don't need any physical," Beckett told the Miami Herald Monday night after word of the trade leaked out, adding he was completely healthy.

Beckett said he was "a little excited about" the prospect of joining the Red Sox.

Beckett and third baseman Mike Lowell are headed from the Marlins to the Red Sox for three minor-league prospects -- shortstop Hanley Ramirez, starting pitcher Anibal Sanchez and a player to be named later, rumored to be pitcher Jesus Delgado.

Ortiz: Manny's a goner

David Ortiz told reporters in the Dominican Republic that Manny Ramirez is serious about his trade request.

"Manny is not returning to Boston," Ortiz said. "Manny is living through a difficult situation [in Boston] that only he and his family know and he no longer wants to play there.

"I spoke with him last week before he left for Brazil and he told me that he wants to go to a team in the West."

Ramirez has three years and $57 million remaining on the contract he signed prior to the 2001 season. The Sox hold options, at $20 million per season, for both 2009 and 2010.

Ortiz said Boston is doing what it can to accomodate Ramirez.

"I found out that that they are doing everything possible to trade him," Ortiz said.

Ortiz, however, also said last fall that Pedro Martinez would "never" sign with the Mets.

Gordon in the mix

News outlets in New York are reporting that the Sox have contacted free agent reliever Tom Gordon, who pitched for them from 1996-99. Gordon, who has spent the last two seasons as a set-up man for Mariano Rivera with the Yankees, wants to be a closer . . . The Sons of Sam Horn website -- the Red Sox' de-facto Internet home -- is beginning its annual Jimmy Fund drive. Last year, the site raised nearly $50,000 for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. For more information, and instructions on how to participate, go to www.sonsofsamhorn.com or www.sonsofsamhorn.net

Conviction upheld

A Manhattan appeals court upheld the misdemeanor assault conviction of a Yonkers man who punched pitcher David Wells to the floor of an Upper East Side diner, knocking out two of the lefty's teeth.

The state Supreme Court's Appellate Term rejected a motion by 30-year-old Rocco Graziosa to throw out the third-degree assault conviction on the ground that the evidence used by the prosecution was not legally sufficient to convict him.

Wells, now with the Red Sox, was with the Yankees at the time of the altercation.

At Graziosa's trial, Wells testified that on Sept. 7, 2002, the defendant caught him with a "sucker punch" that knocked out two teeth and caused him to cut his head on a table's edge as he tumbled to the diner's floor.

Graziosa claimed that he hit Wells in self-defense after a friendly chat among Graziosa and his two friends and the pitcher deteriorated into name calling.