I am reminded of some silly dialogue from the Mel Brooks movie “Blazing Saddles.”

The Cleavon Little character (Black Bart, was it not?) announces to the townsfolk, “Can’t you see it’s the last act of a desperate man?”

And one of the townspeople replies, “We don’t care if it’s the first act of ‘Henry the Fifth!'”

Anyway, Ned Colletti and the Dodgers and Manny Ramirez, now about to wear Dodger Blue … reminds me of the “last act of a desperate man.” (See the trade story here.)

Ned’s future employment by the Dodgers hinges on this dysfunctional team he has constructed somehow making the playoffs, come October. And now he’s trading for Boston’s bad boy in the probably vain hope that Manny will do enough hitting to make up for his lack of hustle and generic weirdness/flakiness.

And after I specifically warned Ned not to do this, just a day ago. The man just doesn’t listen.

So, walking, talking malignancy Manny Ramirez comes to Chavez Ravine. Sigh.

First, the good news:

–The Dodgers gave up very little to get Manny. Andy LaRoche, the youngish third baseman whose couple of fairly extended tryouts at third base were thoroughly unimpressive, and a Single-A pitcher named Bryan Morris, a 2006 first-round draft pick who is having a decent season at low-Class A Great Lakes of the Midwest League — but who already has a Tommy John elbow operation on his resume. If LaRoche is a future star, I’m the Queen of England. And a Single-A pitcher? Maybe he turns out; probably he doesn’t.

–Also, the Dodgers won’t pay a dime of the $20 million Manny has coming to him this season; the Red Sox have agreed to cover the final $7 million or so for the rest of the season. (Which no doubt will fuel more speculation that the Dodgers are having cash-flow problems, considering that they got Casey Blake from the Indians only after Cleveland agreed to pay his salary for the rest of 2008. But we digress.)

The bad news:

–The Dodgers just added one of the biggest flakes in baseball. Who is getting weirder seemingly by the moment. “Manny being Manny” is how they have described it in Boston for the past seven-plus years. Which basically means, “He’s crazy but he hits enough to make it worth the trouble.”

–The Dodgers have more outfielders than they need, and Manny just became by far the least competent with the leather. If he couldn’t play a decent left in Fenway, what is he going to do in the vast spaces of the Dodger Stadium outfield?

–And whatever Manny has hit with the Red Sox … well, take about 20 percent of that out of your expectations, because Dodger Stadium is a far tougher hitting enviroment than is Fenway. Manny has done some serious hitting; but the same sort of hitting he would have done playing in Los Angeles.

Presumably, the Dodgers outfield now will be … Manny in left, Matt Kemp in center, Andre Ethier in right. With the punchless Juan Pierre getting an occasional start and, we assume, Andruw Jones buried completely, now, on the bench.

What we will find out is … whether Manny was making a point of dogging it the last week or so (anyone who watched the Angels series had to be horrified at Manny’s body language … not to mention his Spanish language — he trashed the organization yesterday). If so, maybe he can turn it back up to some decent level of production.

I’m thinking this will turn out badly. The Dodgers likely are looking at a two-month rental, who will sulk the first moment the increasingly critical Chavez Ravine fans boo him. A guy who will contribute more trouble with his troublesome attitude, execrable defense and horrible baserunning than his hitting will be worth.